Hidden Figures: Fact Check

The 2016 movie, Hidden Figures, is inspiring because it tells us an important story that has been erased from the historical record. Black women were essential to the space race. However, when viewed with the insights that Margot Lee Shetterly (2016) provides in the book version, the film seems to center a white narrative. In particular, the inclusion of Al Harrison’s grand anti-segregation gesture minimizes Black resistance as well as misrepresents what it means to be a white ally. As Shetterly shows, Black people do not need white saviors. Rather, progress is made when whites play supportive, not leadership, roles.

At times, the film version centers white heroism. The leader of the Space Task Group, Al Harrison, is portrayed as benevolent and, at times, radical. Most notably, he is credited with desegregating bathrooms in the work facility. After Katherine Coleman (Taraji P. Henson) gives a riveting speech about the struggle and pain of racism and segregation in the workplace, Harrison is motivated to action. To address Coleman’s lack of access to a nearby bathroom, he takes a crowbar to the “Colored Ladies’ Room” bathroom sign. Black female computers on one side and white employees on the other – his destruction of the sign symbolically bridges the workplace’s racial division. Harrison informs the Black women that they can now use whatever bathroom they please, declaring, “Here at NASA, we all pee the same color.” He is the person that points out racism’s absurdity, urging everyone to see that ‘we are all one;’ redeeming white people, he “fixes” racism at Langley. Despite his white male privilege and despite being a fictional character, Al Harrison gets to be the hero leading whites and Blacks into a better tomorrow.

This scene lacks accuracy, resulting in the erasure of Black resistance. In Shetterly’s account, a small-statured Black woman, named Miriam Mann, is the one who takes down segregation signs at Langley (Ch. 5, p. 44). At lunchtime, Black computers are supposed to sit together at a back table labeled “colored.” However, Mann decides to make a bold move and remove the sign. Potentially risking her job and security, she refuses to endure the sign’s daily insult. Although the sign is repeatedly replaced, she continues to place each new copy in her purse – persisting until her ‘opponent’ gives up (Ch. 5). In a similar vein, when Katherine Coleman gets her first NACA position, she refuses to let racism prevent her from taking up space (Ch. 12). When she finds her desk, she also finds that a white male engineer is apparently offended by an integrated workplace; he refuses to keep his seat near her and exits the area. Nevertheless, she remains and has her lunch, eventually befriending the colleague (Ch. 12). Strategically deploying her “charm,” Coleman works hard to gain acceptance in white dominated environment (Ch. 12). As Coleman rises to a higher position, she takes steps that directly defied the rules of segregation (Ch. 13). Contrasting with the movie narrative, she does not comply with “colored” signs – avoiding the segregated lunchroom as well as using the bathroom she wanted (Ch. 13). Coleman carries this attitude later into her career, when she contests her informal exclusion from the Flight Research Division’s editorial meetings. Pointing out that she has the legal right to be included, her persistence and passion ultimately grants her inclusion (Ch. 17). By depicting Al Harrison as the one who makes a bold move against segregation, the movie takes emphasis away from the impressive and everyday acts of resistance Black women at Langley exhibited. They did not wait for white men to take down signs for them. Women like Mann and Coleman broke down barriers on their own – both literally and symbolically.

Moreover, portraying Al Harrison as a leader against racial injustice in the workplace misconstrues what effective white solidarity looks like. According to Shetterly’s narrative, several white people prove to be allies not by grandiose, dramatic gestures but through supporting Black people. Blanche Sponsler, a white mathematician who took over as the West Computing’s head, builds a supportive, professional relationship with her Black co-worker named Dorothy Vaughan (Ch. 9). By giving Vaughan “strong performance ratings,” Sponsler helped ensure that Vaughan gets the opportunity to move forward in her career (Ch. 9, p. 89). In fact, when Sponsler grows ill, Vaughan is immediately given the opportunity to replace her – becoming the first Black person to hold the position (Ch. 9). In a similar case, Mary Jackson, a Black engineer, creates meaningful coalitions with white women, such as a fellow engineer named Emma Jean Landrum (Ch. 19, p. 197). Invited by Jackson, Landrum “readily” participates in an event organized to empower Black girls (Ch. 19, p. 197). Making a “joint lecture” with Jackson, she helps show the young women that they can pursue and excel in careers related to mathematics, science, and engineering (Ch. 19, p. 197-198). As these examples indicate, successful white solidarity does not center white people and white activism. By building (more) horizontal relationships with Black peers and assisting Black-led organizing, certain white women successfully helped breakdown barriers Black women faced at Langley.

In a sense, the film depicts workplace racial inequality as something that can be addressed by a single benevolent white male leader. Shetterly, on the other hand, complicates this imaginary. Over the years, the Langley workplace changed, in large part, because of the demands and resistance of Black people. Whites “help” when they learn to take on supportive roles and share their social capital. The “hidden figures” did not need white people to save them – they needed whites to stop oppressing them.

Endnotes

(1) It is important to keep in mind that Coleman was very light-skinned, which helped her safely access white spaces.

(2) I think radical acts are very important and effective. For example, R.T. Jones’ was willing to risk arrest in order to prevent police from harming a Black man; and Margery Hannah was willing to be seen as a social outcast in order to have Black women present for work-related events in her home (Ch. 5, p. 47). The problem is that, in the movie, Al Harrison’s grand gesture erases Black resistance and other meaningful forms of interracial solidarity that existed at the time (notably solidarity between Black women and white women). A white man is centered and constructed as the leader – which does not seem very radical to me!