US History Blog

The important knowledge and understanding about America’s history that someone can learn from watching my film, Hidden Figures, is that America used to really be different in terms of racism and sexism. In the movie the three main African American women characters Katherine Johnson (a B.S. in Math and French from West Virginia State College), Dorothy Vaughan (Wilberforce University), and Mary Jackson (Hampton University), face many obstacles in their way just because their skin color and their gender. These three women were highly intelligent and well educated but that didn’t mean anything in the eyes of the high up people at NASA. That’s just the way the United States was back in the 1950-60s. This idea that black women couldn’t do the things that the white men and women in America could do was really false because the African american women woking at NASA were some of the smartest women there. At NASA, the workers were all generally white males, some females but just as assistant...

interviews: interview with Katherine Johnson  this is an interview from the NASA Langley Research Center with Katherine Johnson where they asked her about her tim at NASA and about the new NASA building they're building in her honor and do the calculations to get to Mars. I used this to just get a better understanding of her and her personality etc. interview   this interview from Fox 5 DC was with the three women Octavia, Taraji, and Janelle playing the main characters. It was about how they filmed the movie, how they felt about the characters they played, and how much they knew about this story prior to the getting the script. artifacts: friendship 7 hsv friendship 7 facts pressure suit calculator chalkboard splashdown 1960 ford thunderbird friendship 7 toy eBay Washington Medal of Honor articles: invisible stories  this article from the Huffington Post is about the story becoming known and visible to the public. hidden figures ...

Dinner Menu fried or grilled chicken - I chose to have the chicken prepared two ways because grilled is supposed to represent what the white NASA workers would eat because grilled is "fancier" and fried is more played back and what Katherine, Mary, and Dorothy all had after church. colored fruit salad - I chose colored fruit salad to represent the different African American women that were so fruitful and helpful at NASA. freeze dried space fruit - I chose space ice-cream to represent what the astronauts eat on their trips. Dessert Menu  space ice-cream - I chose space ice-cream to symbolize how cold space is and that the astronauts ate this on their missions. king cake - The king cake has a hidden baby, a "hidden figure", and that's supposed to represent the women at NASA                                Drink Menu   dried orange dri...

Exhibit The first artifact in my exhibit is the friendship 7 capsule that the American astronaut John Glenn did three out of the seven orbits that were supposed to happen on his trip on February 20, 1962. His flight was 4 hours, 55 minutes, and 23 seconds and he traveled 75,679 miles. The capsule is currently in the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. As talked about on NASA 's website, the flight did go pretty smoothly. Most of the major systems ran smoothly and was great success as an engineering feat.   The second artifact in my exhibit is John Glenn's pressure suit he wore during the Friendship 7 flight. John's suit was developed by the B.F. Goodrich Company from the U.S. Navy MK-IV full pressure suit, and was chosen by NASA in 1959 to use in Project Mercury. The suit's exterior is made with aluminized nylon, nylon webbing, brass, steel, and aluminum. The exterior is made with rubber/neoprene and steel wire. This ...

Guest List  Katherine Johnson Katherine Johnson was invited because her work at NASA was vital to the success of the friendship 7 flight. Without Katherine double checking the "go-no-go coordinates" the landing could have ended up much different. It would be really interesting to know how she felt once everyone started warming up to her and started treating her as an equal. For example, she had to run a mile to go go to the bathroom and come back to her job everyday because there were no colored restrooms in the building she worked in. After she told Al Harrison, a fictional character in the movie, he took the signs down and made no segregated anything. Dorothy Vaughan Dorothy Vaughan was the first African American supervisor at NASA and was the supervisor for the IBM team of about 30 women. She had always wanted to be a supervisor but they had never let her because she was African American. She was even called one of the most amazing women at NASA. When she...

One of the websites said that its only fair and right for women to vote because they are obeying the laws and if they are they should have a voice in making them. They also said that since they're paying taxes too they should have a vote in the size of the tax and in what way they will spend it. Another argument for why women should vote is, "Because the moral, educational, and humane legislation desired by women would be got more easily if women had votes. New York women have worked in vain for years to secure a legislative appropriation to found a state industrial School for Girls. Colorado women worked in vain for one till they got the ballot; then the Legislature promptly granted it." ( why women should vote  ) Another argument that source had was because the laws that are unjust to women would be amended faster. I think all these arguments would definitely had been appealing to women in that time period.  On the flip side, the arguments for women not to vote w...

How I interpreted this political cartoon is that America is constantly looking for new places to take over and its shown by Uncle Sam having an abundance of American flags to just place where ever he pleases around the world.