Fact or fiction
Hidden Figures
start
question 1/9
Correct answer!
The Hidden Figures book spans a broad timeline from the 1930s to the 1980s, highlighting generations of African American women at NACA/NASA. The movie collapses this into a dramatic 1961–1962 narrative focused on three women during the Mercury missions.
And the winner is...
YOU!
More Info
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
NEXT
question 2/9
Correct answer!
Al Harrison is based on three different directors at NASA Langley during Katherine Johnson's time at the research facility. The movie's director was unable to secure the rights to the guy he wanted, so he decided to make Al Harrison a composite character. Paul Stafford was created to represent certain racist and sexist attitudes that existed during the 1950s. Vivian Mitchell is also a fictional character created to represent some of the unconscious bias and prejudice of the era. She is at best a composite of some of the supervisors who worked at NASA Langley.
And the winner is...
YOU!
BEST direction
More Info
NEXT
question 3/9
Correct answer!
And the winner is...
Yes, even though the depiction of Glenn is altered (he was about a decade older than shown at the time of launch), he did specifically ask Goble Johnson to verify the IBM calculations.
YOU!
More Info
BEST original screenplay
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question 4/9
Correct answer!
And the winner is...
Mary Jackson petitioned the city of Hampton to attend graduate classes alongside her white peers. She won, got her degree, and was promoted to engineer in 1958. Dorothy Vaughan became NACA's first black supervisor in 1948, five years before Katherine Johnson started working there.
YOU!
BEST actor/actress
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question 5/9
Correct answer!
And the winner is...
Yes, and no. At the time the black women came to work at Langley, it was a time of segregation. For example: On their table in the cafeteria was a sign that said 'colored computers,' were segregated work rooms for them, there were segregated bathrooms, and there were segregated cafeterias. In 1958, when NACA became NASA, segregated facilities, including the West Computing office, were abolished.
YOU!
BEST Film Editing
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question 6/9
Correct answer!
And the winner is...
In her 2011 interview with WHRO TV, Katherine recalled being told, "Well, the girls don't usually go," after requesting to attend the briefing meetings. She further questioned this standard and found it wasn't a legitimate barrier (law or policy); instead, it was de facto segregation.
YOU!
Watch This
BEST Cinematography
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question 7/9
Correct answer!
This is mostly inaccurate, but does have a hint of truth. In Margot Lee Shetterly's book, this is something that is experienced more by Mary Jackson than Katherine Johnson. Shetterly writes that when Katherine started working there, she didn't even realize that the bathrooms at Langley were segregated.
And the winner is...
YOU!
BEST Costume Design
More Info
NEXT
question 8/9
Correct answer!
While Hidden Figures, the book, makes this clear, the movie has to be more streamlined, for both impact and time. It's true that Dorothy Vaughan acted as Jackson and Johnson's supervisor, but the scenes showcasing their personal relationship are fictional. The screenwriters used the three ladys BFF-ness to demonstrate female empowerment/support in a male dominated work environment, but
And the winner is...
YOU!
More Info
BEST Hair and Makeup
NEXT
question 9/9
Correct answer!
Yes, Joshua Coleman did move his family approximately 120 miles from White Sulfur Springs to Institute, WV, to ensure Katherine received the best education. Public education for Black Americans in White Sulfur Springs, WV ended at 8th grade. Katherine had shown great mathematical promise during her education, and her father moved the family so she could attend WV State College, which offered a high school that accepted Black Students.
And the winner is...
YOU!
BEST movie
More Info
NEXT
CONGRATULATIONS!
The movie you have put together winner of 9 film awards
Click to Claim Your Prize!
Segregation at NACA/NASA
NACA began hiring white women as computers in 1935. The agency did not open these positions to African American women until 1943, during World War II, to address labor shortages. At the time, opportunities for women to advance in their careers were limited. African American women faced additional barriers because of racial discrimination. For the first years of their careers, the workplace was segregated, and women were kept in the background as human computers. In an interview with WHRO-TV, Johnson denied feeling segregated. "I didn't feel the segregation at NASA, because everybody there was doing research. You had a mission, and you worked on it, and it was important to you to do your job [...] and play bridge at lunch. I didn't feel any segregation. I knew it was there, but I didn't feel it."
GPB Education Jim Crow Laws and Racial Segregation in America | The Civil Rights Movement
Segregation at NACA/NASA
In her posthumous book about receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2021, Johnson stated: "I’d estimate that about 75 percent of what was shown in the film is accurate. Some scenes were embellished or made up to increase the drama."One of the areas she was specific to address was the bathroom incident:" I never had to rush back and forth across the Langley campus to use a segregated bathroom. While there were indeed separate bathrooms for white and black employees for much of my time at Langley, I always used the one closest to my workspace. At first, I didn’t even realize there were separate bathrooms because only the “colored” bathrooms were marked. There was no sign outside the restrooms designated for my white counterparts, and some buildings didn’t have a “colored” bathroom."" This singular DRAMATIZED action is also subject to criticism of screenwriter Theodore Melfi and the need for a WHITE SAVIOR in the character of Al Harrison.
Reality
As much as we'd love to imagine it, chances are that they never carpooled. Jackson and Vaughan didn't convince Johnson to date Colonel Jim Johnson, nor did they help her get ready for the wedding. Not only did Katherine Goble Johnson carpool with Eunice Smith, a nine-year West Area computer veteran, when Goble Johnson joined NACA. (Smith was her neighbor and friend from her sorority and church choir.) But also, Katherine married James Goble in 1959. She had met Capt. Goble a year after her first husband's passing at choir practice. The three Goble children were teenagers when Katherine married Jim Johnson. What makes this fact even less plausible is the the 10/12 year age gap between Dorothy Vauhan and Johnson/Jackson, and that she had been working at West Area Computers for 5 years before Katherine even arrived - making the close relationship even less likely.
Segregated schools in West Virginia, mandated by the state constitution until 1954, forced Black students into separate, often underfunded, "colored" schools. Following the Brown v. Board of Education decision, integration was swift in some areas but faced resistance in others, with all schools desegregated by the late 1960s. Some areas, such as Greenbrier County (where White Sulphur Springs is located), temporarily returned to segregation after white student walkouts, and violent protests occurred in places like Mercer County.
Hidden Figures: Fact or Fiction
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Transcript
Fact or fiction
Hidden Figures
start
question 1/9
Correct answer!
The Hidden Figures book spans a broad timeline from the 1930s to the 1980s, highlighting generations of African American women at NACA/NASA. The movie collapses this into a dramatic 1961–1962 narrative focused on three women during the Mercury missions.
And the winner is...
YOU!
More Info
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
NEXT
question 2/9
Correct answer!
Al Harrison is based on three different directors at NASA Langley during Katherine Johnson's time at the research facility. The movie's director was unable to secure the rights to the guy he wanted, so he decided to make Al Harrison a composite character. Paul Stafford was created to represent certain racist and sexist attitudes that existed during the 1950s. Vivian Mitchell is also a fictional character created to represent some of the unconscious bias and prejudice of the era. She is at best a composite of some of the supervisors who worked at NASA Langley.
And the winner is...
YOU!
BEST direction
More Info
NEXT
question 3/9
Correct answer!
And the winner is...
Yes, even though the depiction of Glenn is altered (he was about a decade older than shown at the time of launch), he did specifically ask Goble Johnson to verify the IBM calculations.
YOU!
More Info
BEST original screenplay
NEXT
question 4/9
Correct answer!
And the winner is...
Mary Jackson petitioned the city of Hampton to attend graduate classes alongside her white peers. She won, got her degree, and was promoted to engineer in 1958. Dorothy Vaughan became NACA's first black supervisor in 1948, five years before Katherine Johnson started working there.
YOU!
BEST actor/actress
More Info
NEXT
question 5/9
Correct answer!
And the winner is...
Yes, and no. At the time the black women came to work at Langley, it was a time of segregation. For example: On their table in the cafeteria was a sign that said 'colored computers,' were segregated work rooms for them, there were segregated bathrooms, and there were segregated cafeterias. In 1958, when NACA became NASA, segregated facilities, including the West Computing office, were abolished.
YOU!
BEST Film Editing
More Info
NEXT
question 6/9
Correct answer!
And the winner is...
In her 2011 interview with WHRO TV, Katherine recalled being told, "Well, the girls don't usually go," after requesting to attend the briefing meetings. She further questioned this standard and found it wasn't a legitimate barrier (law or policy); instead, it was de facto segregation.
YOU!
Watch This
BEST Cinematography
NEXT
question 7/9
Correct answer!
This is mostly inaccurate, but does have a hint of truth. In Margot Lee Shetterly's book, this is something that is experienced more by Mary Jackson than Katherine Johnson. Shetterly writes that when Katherine started working there, she didn't even realize that the bathrooms at Langley were segregated.
And the winner is...
YOU!
BEST Costume Design
More Info
NEXT
question 8/9
Correct answer!
While Hidden Figures, the book, makes this clear, the movie has to be more streamlined, for both impact and time. It's true that Dorothy Vaughan acted as Jackson and Johnson's supervisor, but the scenes showcasing their personal relationship are fictional. The screenwriters used the three ladys BFF-ness to demonstrate female empowerment/support in a male dominated work environment, but
And the winner is...
YOU!
More Info
BEST Hair and Makeup
NEXT
question 9/9
Correct answer!
Yes, Joshua Coleman did move his family approximately 120 miles from White Sulfur Springs to Institute, WV, to ensure Katherine received the best education. Public education for Black Americans in White Sulfur Springs, WV ended at 8th grade. Katherine had shown great mathematical promise during her education, and her father moved the family so she could attend WV State College, which offered a high school that accepted Black Students.
And the winner is...
YOU!
BEST movie
More Info
NEXT
CONGRATULATIONS!
The movie you have put together winner of 9 film awards
Click to Claim Your Prize!
Segregation at NACA/NASA
NACA began hiring white women as computers in 1935. The agency did not open these positions to African American women until 1943, during World War II, to address labor shortages. At the time, opportunities for women to advance in their careers were limited. African American women faced additional barriers because of racial discrimination. For the first years of their careers, the workplace was segregated, and women were kept in the background as human computers. In an interview with WHRO-TV, Johnson denied feeling segregated. "I didn't feel the segregation at NASA, because everybody there was doing research. You had a mission, and you worked on it, and it was important to you to do your job [...] and play bridge at lunch. I didn't feel any segregation. I knew it was there, but I didn't feel it."
GPB Education Jim Crow Laws and Racial Segregation in America | The Civil Rights Movement
Segregation at NACA/NASA
In her posthumous book about receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2021, Johnson stated: "I’d estimate that about 75 percent of what was shown in the film is accurate. Some scenes were embellished or made up to increase the drama."One of the areas she was specific to address was the bathroom incident:" I never had to rush back and forth across the Langley campus to use a segregated bathroom. While there were indeed separate bathrooms for white and black employees for much of my time at Langley, I always used the one closest to my workspace. At first, I didn’t even realize there were separate bathrooms because only the “colored” bathrooms were marked. There was no sign outside the restrooms designated for my white counterparts, and some buildings didn’t have a “colored” bathroom."" This singular DRAMATIZED action is also subject to criticism of screenwriter Theodore Melfi and the need for a WHITE SAVIOR in the character of Al Harrison.
Reality
As much as we'd love to imagine it, chances are that they never carpooled. Jackson and Vaughan didn't convince Johnson to date Colonel Jim Johnson, nor did they help her get ready for the wedding. Not only did Katherine Goble Johnson carpool with Eunice Smith, a nine-year West Area computer veteran, when Goble Johnson joined NACA. (Smith was her neighbor and friend from her sorority and church choir.) But also, Katherine married James Goble in 1959. She had met Capt. Goble a year after her first husband's passing at choir practice. The three Goble children were teenagers when Katherine married Jim Johnson. What makes this fact even less plausible is the the 10/12 year age gap between Dorothy Vauhan and Johnson/Jackson, and that she had been working at West Area Computers for 5 years before Katherine even arrived - making the close relationship even less likely.
Segregated schools in West Virginia, mandated by the state constitution until 1954, forced Black students into separate, often underfunded, "colored" schools. Following the Brown v. Board of Education decision, integration was swift in some areas but faced resistance in others, with all schools desegregated by the late 1960s. Some areas, such as Greenbrier County (where White Sulphur Springs is located), temporarily returned to segregation after white student walkouts, and violent protests occurred in places like Mercer County.