✈️ Wartime Needs ⚔️
This laboratory urgently needed over 100 mathematicians and physicists during WWII.
👉 What is Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory? 🏢✈️
Langley’s first female computing pool started in this year.
Hint 💡: It was during the Great Depression — mid-1930s.
👉 What is 1935? 📅
This man pushed the president to allow Black Americans to get war jobs.
👉 Who is A. Philip Randolph? ✊🏾
Even though Black women were hired, they still had to use separate this.
👉 What are bathrooms? 🚻
Dorothy Vaughan worked as a teacher before going to Langley. She taught this subject.
👉 What is math? ➕📖
Before electronic machines existed, these people did thousands of flight calculations by hand.
👉 Who were human “computers”? 👩🏽💻📐
Many male engineers originally reacted this way to women doing advanced math.
👉 What is skepticism/doubt? 🤨
He threatened to organize this large protest in Washington, D.C.
👉 What is a March on Washington? 🚶🏾♂️🚶🏾♀️
**The March on Washington was a big peaceful protest in 1963 where thousands of people went to Washington, D.C., to demand equal rights and fair treatment for Black Americans.**
The sign added to the building said these two words.
Hint 💡: It was a segregation sign telling who the space was for.
👉 What are “Colored Girls”? 🪧
She taught at this high school for Black students.
👉 What is Moton High School? 🏫
The war created a labor shortage because many of these people were overseas fighting.
👉 Who were men/soldiers? 🪖🌍
Even though people doubted them, the women proved they were very good at this.
👉 What is calculating/doing math? 💯📊
Because of his pressure, the president signed this type of order to stop discrimination in defense jobs.
👉 What is an Executive Order? ✍🏽📜
***An executive order is a rule the president makes that tells the government what to do, without needing Congress to vote on it.***
Before becoming professionals, most Black workers at Langley had jobs like this.
👉 What are janitors/cafeteria workers/groundskeepers? 🧹🍽️
Her school was overcrowded, meaning there were too many of these.
👉 What are students? 👩🏾🎓👨🏾🎓
The U.S. was racing to build these faster than other countries.
👉 What are airplanes/ rockets? ✈️💨
Because many men were at war, the government started hiring more of this group.
👉 Who are women? 👩🏽🏭👩🏽🎓
These types of jobs were finally opened more fairly to Black workers.
👉 What are war/defense jobs? 🏭⚙️
**During World War II, factories and defense work like building planes and weapons started hiring Black workers more fairly.**
Black and white workers were kept separate at Langley because of this unfair system.
👉 What is segregation? 🚻🚫
The phrase that describes Black schools at that time is this.
👉 What is “separate but unequal”? 🚫⚖️
**Dorothy knew “separate but equal” was wrong because Black schools and facilities were not actually equal—they were worse, unfair, and unfairly treated.**
Melvin Butler sent a telegram requesting hundreds of workers in positions like mathematicians, stenographers, and trainees because of this national crisis.
👉 What is World War II? 🌎⚔️
World War II gave women new job opportunities in places like this airplane laboratory.
Hint 💡: It was the famous government flight research center in Virginia where the Hidden Figures worked.
👉 What is Langley? ✈️🏢
Randolph believed that civil rights were connected to having equal access to this.
Hint 💡: He thought civil rights included being able to earn a fair living.
👉 What are jobs/money/economic opportunity? 💵📈
The new Black women hired at Langley came from colleges like Howard and Hampton, which were known as this type of schools.
Hint 💡: These are colleges created mainly to educate Black students during segregation.
👉 What are historically Black colleges (HBCUs)? 🎓🏫
Dorothy believed this was the key to giving her children a better future.
👉 What is education? 🎓✨