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Street named after Black women portrayed in ‘Hidden Figures’

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The street out of NASA’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. has been renamed Hidden Figures Way in honor of the three African American women whose work helped pave the way for future generations at the space agency.

According to the BBC, the street’s new name is a nod to the title of a book and Oscar-nominate movie about the lives of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn and Mary Jackson. They made significant contributions to space flight in the 1960s. Margot Lee Shetterly wrote on book on them and it was turned into a film in 2016.

Shetterly recently told an audience gathered in D.C., “Their persistence and courage delivered us to where we are today.” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) cosponsored the bill and said he hoped the name would inspire future generations.

“When little girls and little boys come to see NASA, they’re going to look up and see that sign. This sign is a powerful testament that anyone who is telling a little girl or a little boy that they can’t do something is not telling the truth,” Cruz said.

NASA began recruiting some college educated African American women as “human computers” but they experienced both racial and gender discrimination at work. The renaming of the street comes ahead of the 50th anniversary of the first moonwalk by NASA astronauts in July 20.

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