Hidden figures / Lee Shetterly, Margot

Explores the true story of the group of African American female mathematicians recruited by the U.S. government during World War II to fill labor shortages and work at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory. Their jobs involved being "human computers," using pencils, slide rulers, and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would allow rockets and astronauts to be launched out of the atmosphere.

"Before John Glenn orbited Earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as 'human computers' used pencils, slide rules and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space. Among these problem-solvers were a group of exceptionally talented African American women, some of the brightest minds of their generation."--Dust jacket.