40 “best and biggest aeronautical research complex”: Hansen, Engineer in Charge, 188.
40 after graduating from Idaho State University: Margery E. Hannah Personnel File, US Civil Service Commission, NPRC.
40 the “English critic”: Edward Sharp to Staff, “Change in Computers’ Telephone Number,” July 31, 1935, NARA Phil.
42 “You men and women working here”: “Frank Knox Praises NACA,” Air Scoop, November 6–12, 1943.
42 The employees spread out from one side of the room: All descriptions are from the Langley archive photo L-35045, NASA Cultural Resources, November 4, 1943, http://crgis.ndc.nasa.gov/historic/File:L-35045.jpg.
43 walked over to the cafeteria: “Knox to Visit LMAL Nov. 4,” Air Scoop, October 30–November 4, 1943. The lab rescheduled the employees’ usual lunch times that day in order to accommodate Knox’s speech.
43 COLORED COMPUTERS: Miriam Mann Harris, personal interview, May 6, 2014; Miriam Mann Harris, “Miriam Daniel Mann Biography,” NASA Cultural Resources, September 12, 2011, http://crgis.ndc.nasa.gov/crgis/images/d/d3/MannBio.pdf.
44 Anne Wythe Hall: “Girls Prepare to Move into Wythe Hall,” Air Scoop, November 20–26, 1943.
44 “There’s my sign for today”: Harris interview.
44 banish it to the recesses of her purse: Ibid.
44 Irene Morgan: Derek C. Catsam and Brendan Wolfe, “Morgan v. Virginia (1946),” Encyclopedia Virginia, October 20, 2014.
45 The NAACP Legal Defense Fund: Richard Goldstein, “Irene Morgan Kirkaldy, 90, Rights Pioneer, Dies,” New York Times, August 13, 2007.
45 “They are going to fire you”: Harris interview.
45 former plantation named Shellbanks Farm: Sharon Loury, “Notes from The Beverley Family of Virginia,” NASA Cultural Resources, 1956, http://crgis.ndc.nasa.gov/crgis/images/9/90/BeverleyFamily.pdf.
45 the sale of the 770-acre property: “Hampton Institute Sells Farm to War Department,” Baltimore Afro-American, January 4, 1941.
45 one of the largest air bases in the world: Ibid.
45 a thousand black naval recruits: S. A. Haynes, “Navy Officials Praise Work at Hampton Naval Training Station, First of Its Kind,” Norfolk Journal and Guide, September 11, 1943.
46 Naval Air Station Patuxent River: James A. Johnson, personal interview, June 11, 2011.
46 “the greatest break in history”: “Workers in War Industry Discussed in Conference,” Norfolk Journal and Guide, July 4, 1942.
46 he urged white colleges: “White Colleges Urged to Employ Colored Profs,” Baltimore Afro-American, May 24, 1941.
46 dance with a Hampton coed: “Dr. MacLean’s Resignation Accepted by Hampton Board,” Baltimore Afro-American, February 6, 1943.
46 corresponding with Orville Wright: H. J. E. Reid’s correspondence is almost as interesting a record of local happenings as it is a chronicle of operations at the laboratory. NARA Phil.
46 Kiwanis Club set: “Dr. MacLean’s Resignation Accepted by Hampton Board.”
46 neither left fingerprints: After six years of research, a formal document that paved the way for the establishment of the West Computing office remains elusive. Given the need to establish a segregated office and separate bathrooms for the black women, and given the customs of the time and place, this certainly seems to be the kind of decision that would have required knowledge and sign-off—from the top. But after scouring MacLean’s papers at Hampton Institute, reviewing the FEPC documents from his time as the head of the committee, poring over NASA and Langley archives at the Langley Research Center and NASA headquarters, examining Reid’s correspondence and Fair Employment files at NARA Philadelphia, going through the wartime records of the Education Department (which oversaw the ESMWT), and the civil service and War Manpower Commission records (at NARA College Park and NARA Philadelphia, respectively) I am led to conclude that this was a handshake deal.
47 the world was coming to an end: Women Computers.
47 made Marge a pariah: Katherine Johnson, interview with Aaron Gillette, September 17, 1992, NASA HQ.
47 harassing a black man: Dave Lawrence, “Langley Engineer Is Remembered for Part in History,” Daily Press, August 21, 1999.
47 Arthur Kantrowitz, bailed Jones out: Ibid.
48 purchase of war bonds: Each weekly issue of Air Scoop, from 1942 through 1945, tallied war bond purchases by group; West Computing was routinely at the top of the list.
CHAPTER 6: WAR BIRDS
51 Flyers Help Smash Nazis!: Norfolk Journal and Guide, May 27, 1944.
51 The “Tan Yanks”: John Jordan, “Negro Pilots Sink Nazi Warship,” Norfolk Journal and Guide, July 8, 1944.
51 flying North American P-51 Mustangs: Ibid.
52 “as the war enters its decisive stage”: “Missions Take Fliers into Five Countries,” Norfolk Journal and Guide, July 15, 1944.
52 “a ‘pilot’s airplane’ ”: “New US ‘Mustang’ Heralded as Best Fighter Plane of 1943,” Washington Post, November 27, 1942.
52 “I will get you up in the air”: “Tuskegee Airman Reunites with ‘Best Plane in the World,’ ” NASA, June 10, 2004, http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/improvingflight/tuskegee.html.
52 “Laboratories at war!”: “Cites Importance of Research in War Effort,” Air Scoop, March 25–31, 1944.
52 “You tell it to someone”: Air Scoop, March 25–31, 1944.
53 nearly lost her raccoon coat: Hansen, Engineer in Charge, 254.
53 “New York Jews”: Pearl I. Young, interview with Michael D. Keller, January 10, 1966, LAC.
53 “weirdos”: Parke Rouse, “Early Days at Langley Were Colorful,” Daily Press, March 25, 1990.
53 dismantling a toaster: Milton A. Silveira, interview with Sandra Johnson, JSC, October 5, 2005.
53 with books on their steering wheels: Women Computers.
53 as a runway: Golemba, “Human Computers,” 37.
54 best engineering graduate school program in the world: Alex Roland, Model Research: The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics 1915–1958 (Washington, DC: NASA, 1985), 275.
54 for new computers: “Computers Attend Physics Classes,” LMAL Bulletin, June 28, 1943.
54 weekly two-hour laboratory session: Ibid.
54 four hours of homework: Ibid.
54 men such as Arthur Kantrowitz: Ibid.
55 P-51 Mustang was the first production plane: Hansen, Engineer in Charge, 116.
55 Ann Baumgartner Carl: Katherine Calos, “Ann G. B. Carl, First US woman to Fly Jet, Dies,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, March 22, 2008.
55 “damn fool’s job”: “Transport: Damn Fool’s Job,” Time, April 1, 1935.
56 No organization came close to Langley: Hansen, Engineer in Charge, 46.
57 the lab’s Flight Research Division: Fitchett Personnel File.
58 results and recommendations of the NACA: “We Backed the Attack,” LMAL Bulletin, June 24–30, 1944.
58 “a cut above”: Sugenia M. Johnson, interview with Rebecca Wright, JSC, April 2, 2014.
58 “Woe unto thee”: “Second Epistle of the NACAites,” Air Scoop, January 26, 1945.
59 “final bombing of Japan”: “We Backed the Attack.”
CHAPTER 7: THE DURATION
61 She signed a lease: K. Elizabeth Paige, “Newsome Park Echoes,” Norfolk Journal and Guide, July 8, 1944.
61 Protective paper . . . covered the floors: Newsome Park Reunion: The Legacy of a Village, event program, September 6, 2006, 6, in author’s possession.
62 stay with her during a school break: Hammond interview, June 30, 2014.
62 Aberdeen Gardens, a Depression-era subdivision: “Aberdeen Gardens,” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, National Park Service, March 7, 1944, http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Cities/Hampton/114-0146_Aberdeen_Gardens_HD_1994_Final_Nomination.pdf.
62 440 acres: Ibid.
62 “high type suburban community for Negro families”: W. R. Walker Jr., “Mimosa Crescent, Post-War Housing Project, Started,” Norfolk Journal and Guide, July 15, 1944.
63 peddling their wares to the neighbors: Catherine R. Weaver, “Memories of the Village,” Newsome Park Reunion, event program, September 3, 2005, 6, in author’s possession.