The exploits of the black female mathematicians, the “human computers,” detailed in the book, “Hidden Figures,” and the movie with the same name are truly astounding. For many African Americans of a certain age, however, the astonishing thing is not that they could do such amazing things, but that they would be given the opportunity.
Many African Americans did not doubt their abilities during America’s era of apartheid, mainly the first two-thirds of the 20th century. Rather they faced a system that denied them opportunities.
An unfortunate myth about black education was–and still is–the assumption that all black education was inferior to white education because of the inferiority of black schools . What has been demonstrated time and again is that resources may have limited the school experiences of African Americans, but they have not always limited the academic achievement of black students. One of the key reasons that so many African Americans accomplished so much academically through the years is that they were taught by the many Doris Vaughns, the Mary Jacksons, the Katherine Johnsons, and the Christine Dardens–the black female mathematicians of “Hidden Figures” and their like throughout African American history.
Many of these black women at NASA taught black high school students before going to NASA, as did many other black men and women with similar skills through the many years of American apartheid. We should remember that these highly educated black women and men were most often school teachers. Rather than being engineers and scientists, etc., they taught us in the segregated schools. Where else would they be able to work? NASA is being celebrated for being an exception. Thus, in many instances, African American students got a better education than their white counterparts because of the white-collar job limitations for super-talented black folk, while educated whites were not so limited. Of course, things have changed a bit in the last couple of generations, so we have had black scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and astronauts, including a former director of NASA and former astronaut, Charles Bolden, And of course, a President.
When I think of the women in “Hidden Figures,” I recall the career of a dear friend, Margaret A. Barnes, who followed in their footsteps a couple of decades later. After graduating from North Carolina Central University, an HBCU, in 1959, with a B.S. in Mathematics, Margaret headed the mathematics department at a black high school in Tarboro, North Carolina, for three years, where she also coached the girls’ basketball team. After three years at the high school, she joined the Bureau of the Census as a mathematical statistician in the Statistical Research Division.
As a statistician, she found herself being supervised–directly or indirectly–by some of the giants in the field of statistics and surveys. The Bureau of the Census has a long pioneering history of research and innovation in the collection and processing of statistical information. It is well-known for its development of machine processing of data, and the theory and practice of survey sampling techniques. Much of this, especially the mathematical theory of sampling, was developed in the early 1940’s, mostly by three people–Morris Hansen, the associate director for Research and Development at the Census Bureau, William Hurwitz, chief of the Statistical Research Division under Hansen, and William Madow, a mathematician in the Statistical Research Division. In 1953, this trio produced the so-called bible of the field. This two-volume work, which led the field for a generation, was Sample Survey Methods and Theory, Volume I: Methods and Applications, and Sample Survey Methods and Theory, Volume II: Theory.
Among many other applications, these theories and practices of survey sampling made it possible for organizations today like Gallup, Roper, Pew, and many others to do accurate estimates of aspects of the U.S. population from sample surveys.
A course based on the “bible” was regularly taught at the education center in the Department of Agriculture by one of the authors or another senior statistician. Each new statistician who came into the program was required to take the course, so Margaret dutifully signed up. One night the instructor was ill and could not teach the class, but they were not greatly concerned since Margaret would be there. They had been immediately impressed with her mathematical and statistical abilities, so they asked her to teach the class.
Margaret’s primary tasks centered around health surveys and data analysis. The Census Bureau conducted this work for what is now the National Center for Health Statistics.
She was put on the fast track for promotions and progressed from a grade 7 to a grade 13 in five years.
After that, she moved to the DC government where she worked in the statistical unit in the Mayor’s office. The work often took her and her colleagues across the city to various offices. Interestingly, they had a chauffeured car at their disposal for such trips.
After working for the DC government for several years, Margaret left and started a consulting operation. While many individuals took the entrepreneurial plunge into consulting in the lucrative DC area, few got there with a trailblazing career like Margaret’s.
When I was in graduate school tangling with the book Survey Sampling by Leslie Kish, the “bible” of that period, Margaret asked me if I knew him or knew of him. She expressed surprise when I referred to him and his book positively since she had met him and was unimpressed. He had come to the Census Bureau to talk to her and her colleagues, and she could not understand why someone presenting such elementary material would be asked to speak to them when they had to know a lot more than what he presented or they could not do their job.
Although she did not seem to realize it, Margaret was doing pioneering work at the Census Bureau. She was implementing mathematical and statistical techniques that many social scientists are continuing to learn today. She is representative of the many black hidden figures in our history.