Hidden Figures

This word has come to mean one thing in contemporary usage: electronic computers. For much of the book, however, Shetterly uses it in its original meaning, referring to people, as in “one who computes.” Thus, the Langley departments known as East Computing and West Computing refer to the two sections (White and Black, respectively, following segregation laws in Virginia) where women performed the mathematical calculations for various projects and engineering groups. Only later, beginning in the early 1960s, were electronic computers introduced at Langley. 

This refers to the idea among African Americans of victory over enemies both abroad and at home. During World War II, the African American community saw the fight for democracy by the United States and its allies as somewhat ironic if democracy at home—full democracy, for all—was not realized. The lives of Black citizens were a testament to the fact that this was not yet the case. They were determined to fight for their country in the war effort while also fighting to make it more democratic. The term echoes the idea of “double-consciousness” that W. E. B. Du Bois refers to his 1903 book The Souls of Black Folk. Du Bois writes that African Americans had a kind of dual identity as Americans, but a qualified kind of American as Black Americans—somehow “less than” in the eyes of Whites.