A Macalester Professor's Connection To 'Hidden Figures'

ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- There's a Minnesota connection to the captivating untold story of African-American women who worked as human computers at NASA. The movie, Hidden Figures, reveals their critical role in launching an astronaut into space. One member of the team was the grandmother of a local professor.

The real story behind Hidden Figures is part of Macalester College professor Duchess Harris' family history.

"The first source of pride was in 1963. My grandmother got a letter and it's on NASA letterhead and it says thank you for 20 years of service," Harris said.

Duchess's given name is Miriam after her grandmother, a mathematician hired by NASA in 1943.

"During WWII only white men had worked at NASA but they all went off to war," Harris said.

So they looked to the all-black Hampton College for women with enough education. Mann was 36 and a mother of 3.

"She and 10 others passed and that was the beginning," Harris said.

That included the three women profiled in the movie.

"What they were doing is computations that helped the engineers, the engineers would do mathematical work and they would check their work," Harris said.

The movie also portrays the real racial divide. In it, it's Kevin Costner's character who takes down a segregation sign, but Harris has the back story.

"My grandmother used to take the colored signs down because the bathrooms were segregated. She'd steal them, she'd bring them home and then she and my grandfather would fight at the dinner table about it because he was scared she would get fired," Harris said.

She is glad Hidden Figures is putting this part of history in the spotlight. Also dedicated to sharing it, Harris co-wrote a book for sixth to 12th-graders - Hidden Human Computers: The Black Women of NASA.

"This is what basically got us to where we are now, that the head of NASA is African-American, you know there is a lot of family pride," Harris said.

Mann's work helped make it possible for John Glenn to orbit the Earth in 1962. She was there when he thanked the computers for their work.

Mann at NASA until 1966, and died a year later. Harris never had a chance to meet her grandmother, she was born two years later.

An exhibit dedicated to the Hidden Figures will be unveiled Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Science Museum of Minnesota. Harris will be on hand all day sign books and to talk with people.