Annie, I sure do remember those floppy disks, and now look at us using usb flash drives to store thousands and thousands of pictures and information on them no bigger than a matchbox in size.
Beginning today's discussion the first thing that jumped out at me in the first chapter was how they were in dire need for positions:
pg. 5 (In 1943) With even a modicum of analytical or mechanical skill, hoping for matriculating college students to fill the hundreds o f open positions for computers, scientific aides, model makers, laboratory assistants, and yes, even mathematicians."
Pg. 5 - 6 A. Phillip Randolph, the head of the largest black labor union in the country, demanded that Roosevelt open lucrative war jobs to Negro applicants, threatening in the summer of 1941 to bring on hundred thousand Negros to the nation's capital in protest if the president rebuffed his demand.
With two strokes of a pen__ Executive Order 8802, ordering the desegregation of the defense industry, and Executive Order 9346, creating the Fair Employment Practices Committee to monitor the national project of economic inclusion__Roosevelt primed the pump for a new source of labor to come to tight production process. Nearly two years after Randolph's 1941 showdown, as the laboratory's personnel requests reached the civil service, applications of qualified Negro female candidates began filtering in to the Langley Service building presenting themselves for consideration by the laboratory's personnel staff.
pg. 8 So, too, was A. Phillip Randolph, The leader's indefatigable activism, unrelenting pressure, and superior organizing skills laid the foundation for what, in the 1960s, would come to be known as the civil rights movement.
Had it not been for A. Phillip Randolph there is the possibility Dorothy, Katherine or Mary would never had the opportunity to apply for theses positions.
