On Thursday, September 28, 2017, I went to witness Margot Lee Shetterly, the author of “Hidden Figures,” address a huge audience at Guilford College in Greensboro, NC. For me, six things stick out from that meeting: 1) Ms. Shetterly growing up in a family where advanced math was just dinner-table conversation, since her father worked at a high level science job as well. She said taking high level math classes, such as Advanced Trigonometry, in high school, was just par for the course in being the child of a high level math person. Her background in math made it so she could then both understand, and explain, to the average person, in her book, why what the women in “Hidden Figures” did was so remarkable and important. 2) When Mrs. Katherine Johnson was attending the HBCU of West Virginia State, back in the 1930’s, she had a brilliant professor, who recognized her brilliance. This professor created additional math courses just to take Mrs. Johnson to the heights that her ability deserved. The professor could not pursue work that truly tapped his own abilities, because he was living in Jim Crow America. I truly wish someone would write a book focused on that professor. 3) There were many more Black women who were documented doing great things in the book “Hidden Figures” than are featured in the movie. It’s just that the movie had to narrow down who could be featured as part of making the movie fit within a reasonable time frame. It just blows my mind to know that there is a bigger collection of great women, who were there at NASA with Mrs. Johnson, who did not make the “cut” of making it into the movie. 4) The fact that Octavia Spencer, one of the actresses in the movie, originally thought that the “Hidden Figures” story was fiction, that it was a “made up story” and had not actually happened. She was shocked to find out that the story was, in fact, true. 5). The fact that actress Janelle Monáe was livid when she found out about the story. She was angry that the story was something that was not generally known. 6) There were two microphones set up at the front of aisles on opposite sides of the auditorium for question and answer for Ms. Shetterly’s address. I did not have a question, but I did have something I wanted to say to her. She had said during her address, that while researching the “Hidden Figures” story like a detective, and as it unfolded, she was eager to finish it, so that she herself could read the finished story. I reminded her that no less a writer than Toni Morrison has said, “If there is a book you want to read, that has not yet been written, you must write it.” I then told her I simply wanted to say, “Thank you” as one fellow writer expressing appreciation for another. The look on her face as I said those words, tells me that she “got it.” I told her I knew how important it is for a writer to hear those words, particularly from someone who genuinely meant them.
