Hidden Figures - Dorothy Johnson Vaughn

World War II pushed many women into the workforce. Traditionally finding jobs as teachers and nurses, this war created opportunities few women considered possible. Shining a light on women of African descent during this period, these women encountered even greater challenges. Integration of the military did not occur until Truman issued his executive order in 1948. Brown vs. the Board of Education, decided by the Supreme Court in 1954, declared segregated schools unconstitutional. Kennedy led the charge to establish the Civil Rights bill of 1963, which made clear that discrimination based upon race, color, religion, sex or national origin was illegal.

Before any of these seminal decisions, women of African descent worked against the grain to take pivotal positions in the workforce. Highlighting the accomplishments of a few incredibly intelligent women, Margot Lee Shetterly penned the book behind the movie Hidden Figures. First of the women upon which she focuses is Dorothy Johnson Vaughn.


Dorothy Johnson Vaughn attended Wilberforce University (Wilberforce, Ohio) on a full scholarship. She graduated in 1929 with a degree in mathematics. Howard University (Washington D.C.) offered the opportunity to complete a masters in mathematics, but she elected a masters in education in order to help her family financially.

• Dorothy worked in the local school as a teacher and took a position in the laundry room at Camp Pickett during the summer months.
• Because she held a degree in mathematics, in May 1943, Dorothy completed the application for a position at Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, a facility dedicated to aeronautic research and testing under the direction of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA).  Her application was quickly accepted. Needs of the war pushed aeronautics from the USA’s 43rd industry in 1938 to first in 1943. 
• The work performed by NACA pivotally enhanced and perfected the flight capabilities and use of airplanes in the war. 
• Dorothy moved to Langley Va without her 4 children to take the job at Langley.  In her first year, she earned $2K, more than twice her annual teaching salary.  The children remained with her family in Farmville, Virginia for one year until she was able to find a residence close to Langley.
• African-American women hired by Langley worked in the West Computing section; white women worked in the East Computing section.  Because of the mathematical work they performed, others referred to the women in these sections as “Computers.”
• During Dorothy’s tenure at Langley, “Computers” attended a crash course in engineering physics at Hampton Institute learning the fundamentals of aerodynamics.
• At the peak of WWII, Dorothy worked as the supervisor of the West Computers on the 3-11 shift.  In 1946, she was made a permanent civil service employee.
• Segregation practices at Langley – separate bathrooms, separate lunch tables – evident when Dorothy began working at Langley, slowly eroded and dissolved over time. 
• When West Computing finally closed in 1958, complete desegregation arrived at NACA. Dorothy went to a new division overseeing all electronic computing - the Analysis and Computation Division (ACD) - where she reinvented herself as a computer programmer.  

In October 1958, the US government combined all competing space operations into NACA, and changed its name from NACA to NASA.

---