Hidden Figures author Margot Lee Shetterly spoke and answered questions from curious spring-breakers during a lunchtime event March 23 in the Great Hall at the Clinton Presidential Center.
Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race is the story of four women at NASA who were instrumental in sending John Glenn into orbit. It was published in September, and by December, a movie was made based on the book and later nominated for an Academy Award for best picture. Shetterly, a petite black woman with impeccable looks and wearing a tailored, sleek, black dress, was in Little Rock for the student-centered event, and that night, she spoke to a larger audience as part of the Kumpuris Distinguished Lecture Series at the Statehouse Convention Center.
She was introduced at the Clinton center by Barbara Sugg, vice president of IT and chief security officer at Southwest Power Pool, one of the event's sponsors. Sugg called the room full of students "the problem solvers of the future," just as the female NASA pioneers had solved the problems that waylaid America's forward movement in the space race.
Shetterly spoke mostly about the women in the book (one of them, physicist and mathematician Katherine Johnson, is still living and attended the Oscars) and the research that led to the finished product. From the women in the book, she said she learned four basic principles: "Set your expectations high ... choose curiosity over fear ... it is important to find something that you believe is worth fighting for ... and you have to remind yourself 'You are not better than anyone else, and no one else is better than you.'"
Many of the students, however, asked about her foray into writing. Shetterly, a former investment banker, said she and her husband lived in Mexico for 11 years, during which time they started a magazine for English-speaking expatriates.
"But it wasn't until I held Hidden Figures in my hands for the first time that I considered myself a professional writer," she said. Her publisher, William Morrow/HarperCollins, is already pressuring her for a second book.
-- Story and photos by
Cyd King
High Profile on 04/02/2017