120 nine-year West Computing veteran: “Peninsula Spotlight,” Norfolk Journal and Guide, February 5, 1949.
121 a routine that would persist for the next three decades: Johnson interview, August 27, 2013.
121 modest job rating of SP-3: Katherine Johnson, interview with Aaron Gillette, September 17, 1992.
121 “Don’t come in here in two weeks”: Ibid.
121 “very, very fortunate”: Ibid.
121 three times her salary: Johnson interview, September 17, 2011.
122 initiating a quiet conversation: Johnson interview, September 27, 2013.
122 “The Flight Research Division is requesting two new computers”: Ibid.
122 her new deskmates, John Mayer, Carl Huss, and Harold Hamer: John Mayer, Carl Huss, and Harold Hamer, “Investigation of the Use of Controls During Service Operations of Fighter Airplanes,” NACA Conference on Aircraft Loads, Flutter and Structures, March 2–4, 1953, Langley Aeronautical Laboratory.
122 “picked up and went right over”: Johnson interview, September 27, 2013.
122 the division chief, Henry Pearson: Johnson interview, September 17, 1992; Langley Aeronautical Laboratory Telephone Directory, 1952.
123 got up, and walked way: Johnson interview, September 17, 1992.
124 or she could assume: Ibid.
124 became fast friends: Ibid.
CHAPTER 13: TURBULENCE
125 from the entry level of SP-3 to SP-5: Johnson interview, September 17, 1992.
126 Dorothy was drafted as a consultant: “Computers Help Compile Handbook,” Air Scoop, August 17, 1951.
127 “black-haired, leather-faced, crew-haircutted human cyclone”: “Spotlite by K-P,” LMAL Bulletin, November 30, 1942.
127 The Maneuver Loads Branch conducted research: A great background in the work being done by these groups at the time can be found in W. Hewitt Phillips, A Journey in Aeronautical Research: A Career at NASA Langley Research Center (Washington, DC National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1998).
128 One of the first assignments: Katherine Johnson: Becoming a NASA Mathematician.
128 into the trailing wake of a larger plane: Ibid.
128 they were fascinated: Ibid.
128 as long as half an hour: Christopher C. Kraft Jr., “Flight Measurements of the Velocity Distribution and Persistence of the Trailing Vortices of an Airplane,” Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, March 1955, NTRS.
129 “one of the most interesting things she had ever read”: Katherine Johnson: Becoming a NASA Mathematician.
129 Langley’s “Skychicks”: Women Computers.
129 didn’t even realize the bathrooms were segregated: Johnson interview, September 17, 1992.
130 refused to so much as enter the Colored bathrooms: Johnson interview, September 17, 1992.
130 bring a bag lunch and eat at her desk: Johnson interview , March 6, 2011.
130 temptation of the ice cream: Ibid.
130 “by the book”: Johnson interview, September 27, 2013.
130 perused Aviation Week: Ibid.
131 some of the black employees: This is a subject that came up more than once during interviews with people who have known her.
131 a black or a white roommate: Katherine Goble Moore, personal interview, July 31, 2014.
131 before coming up with a yes: Johnson interview, September 15, 2015.
131 “I want to move our girls out of the projects”: Moore interview.
131 the federal Housing and Home Finance Agency: “Government Suspends Demolition,” Norfolk Journal and Guide, August 26, 1950.
132 Gayle Street, a cul-de-sac: Colita Nichols Fairfax, Hampton, Virginia (Charleston, VA: Arcadia Publishing, 2005), 69. This provides good background on Hampton’s many black neighborhoods.
133 Mimosa Crescent had expanded: “Mimosa Crescent Project Expanded,” Norfolk Journal and Guide, March 23, 1946.
133 would even get her own bedroom: Moore interview.
133 located at the base of his skull: Johnson interview, March 13, 2011.
133 James Francis Goble died: “Funeral Services Held for James F. Goble,” Norfolk Journal and Guide, December 29, 1956.
134 “It is very important”: Moore interview.
134 “You will have my clothes ironed”: Ibid.
135 Family lore had it: Hylick interview.
135 would recall their grandfather saying: Ibid.
136 had a long conversation about it: Johnson interview, December 27, 2010.
CHAPTER 14: ANGLE OF ATTACK
137 the American Century: Henry R. Luce, “The American Century,” Life, February 17, 1941, 61–65. Luce, the publisher and founder of Time and Life magazines, penned this influential editorial in February 1941, urging a conflicted America to take a decisive position in World War II and claim its rightful place of power on the world stage. “The world of the 20th Century, if it is to come to life in any nobility of health and vigor, must be to a significant degree an American Century.”
137 bought an “electronic calculator”: “Announce New Research Device,” Air Scoop, March 28, 1947.
137 as many as thirty-five variables: Ibid.
138 would cause an error in all the others: Ibid.
138 easily take a month to complete: Ibid.
138 in a few hours: Ibid.
138 two seconds per operation: Ibid.
138 The whole building shook: Eldon Kordes, interview with Rebecca Wright, JSC, February 19, 2015.
138 then an IBM 650: Theresa Overall, “Mom and IBM,” personal blog, February 15, 2014.
138 destined for the lab’s finance department: Kordes interview.
138 “Let’s run it again!”: Ibid.
139 Dorothy wasted no time enrolling: Ann Vaughan Hammond, untitled biographical sketch of Dorothy Vaughan, undated, in author’s possession.
140 (the students called them “chicken coops”): Teri Kanefield, The Girl from the Tar Paper Shacks School: Barbara Rose Johns and the Advent of the Civil Rights Movement (New York: Harry L. Abrams, 2014).
141 “Not Willing to Wait”: “Not Willing To Wait: NAACP Leaders Want Integration ‘Now!’,” Norfolk Journal and Guide, May 29, 1954.
141 “If we can organize the Southern States for massive resistance”: Benjamin Muse, Virginia’s Massive Resistance (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1956), 22.
141 some of the black employees attended: Johnson, “Fair Employment.”
141 bookkeeping to machine shop theory: “Adult Education Courses Offered,” Air Scoop, February 17, 1956.
142 after he made her the offer: Stradling, “Retired Engineer Remembers Segregated Langley.”
143 clamber onto the catwalk: Golemba, “Human Computers,” 102.
143 published in September 1958: K. R. Czarnecki and Mary W. Jackson, “Effects on Nose Angle 515 and Mach Number on Transition on Cones at Supersonic Speeds,” Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, September 1958.
143 suggested that she enroll: Stradling, “Retired Engineer Remembers Segregated Langley.”
144 sue the University of Virginia: “Kitty O’Brien Joyner,” LAC.
144 only two female engineering graduates in its history: “Woman Engineer Gets Post with RCA Victor Company,” Norfolk Journal and Guide, November 15, 1952.
144 to enter Hampton High School: Stradling, “Retired Engineer Remembers Segregated Langley.”
144 “special permission”: Ibid.
145 in the spring of 1956: Jackson Personnel File.
145 dilapidated, musty old building: Stradling, “Retired Engineer Remembers Segregated Langley.”
146 In general, the black men at Langley: Thomas Byrdsong, personal interview, October 4, 2014.
146 blue-collar mechanics, model makers, and technicians: Ibid.
147 they escaped to a black-owned restaurant: Williams interview.
CHAPTER 15: YOUNG, GIFTED, AND BLACK
149 her daily job: Christine Darden, personal interview, May 3, 2012.
150 she perused the newspapers: Ibid.
151 “Red-Made Satellite Flashes Across U.S”: Daily Press, October 5, 1957.
151 “Sphere Tracked in 4 Crossings Over US”: New York Times, October 5, 1957.
151 “Project Greek Island”: “The Secret Bunker Congress Never Used,” National Public Radio, March 26, 2011, http://www.npr.org/2011/03/26/134379296/the-secret-bunker-congress-never-used.