By Harry Colbert, Jr., Managing Editor<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The story of the 11 Black female mathematicians who made American\u2019s space exploration and moon landing possible is a personal one for a Macalester College professor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In fact, had it not been for Dr. Duchess Harris\u2019 curiosity about her grandmother, Miriam Mann \u2013 a curiosity that began in college \u2013 the soon-to-be-released film, \u201cHidden Figures\u201d might never have been made. \u201cHidden Figures\u201d tells the story of how 11 African-American mathematicians were recruited by NASA to work for the agency in its quest to put a man on the moon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t really appreciate the significance of her (Mann\u2019s) work until I was in college at the University of Pennsylvania and I was a double major in history and African-American studies. It wasn\u2019t until then that I started to really understand what she did,\u201d said Harris, who is a professor and department chair of American Studies at Macalester in St. Paul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harris became fascinated with the work her grandmother did, finding articles that dated back to 1943 \u2013 the year Mann started working for NASA. Underscoring Mann\u2019s accomplishment is the fact that the land NASA sat on was a former slave plantation and it remained a plantation until 1950 \u2013 seven years after<\/em> Mann and the 10 other African-American women working there started for NASA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAll the men were being drafted to war (during World War II) and NASA turned to white women with backgrounds in mathematics and there weren\u2019t enough of them, so it decided to look for African-American women and came to Hampton University (Va.) where my grandmother was. My grandfather was a professor there. (Mann) had degree in chemistry from Talladega (College in Alabama),\u201d said Harris. \u201cThat\u2019s how she became one of the first 11.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Continuing her research, Harris, along with Margot Lee Sheerly received a grant based on a joint proposal to further explore the work of the pioneering NASA mathematicians. Sheerly went on to author the book, \u201cHidden Figures\u201d that has been adapted for the big screen and will hit theaters nationwide on Christmas Day. Harris has also authored a book on the subject. \u201cHidden Human Computers: The Black Women of NASA\u201d is available on Amazon.com<\/a> and BarnesAndNoble.com<\/a> as of Dec. 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMargot is a journalist so she approached it as wanting to tell the story to the public. I\u2019m an academic, so I wanted to write a teaching tool, so my book is for sixth through 12th<\/sup> graders,\u201d said Harris. \u201cI wanted to do something that showed that African-Americans have a place and role in STEM.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Harris\u2019 work is featured in an upcoming BBC documentary and she has been invited by the Virginia Legislature to present her book on before the body on Feb. 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although Harris is known in academic and literary circles (she has written three prior books) as Duchess Harris, her birth name is Miriam \u2013 named after her pioneering grandmother, who she never got to meet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe (Mann) died in 1967 and I was born in 1969 \u2013 the year Apollo 11 landed on the moon,\u201d said Harris, who said that landing would not have been possible if it weren\u2019t for the work of her grandmother and the other 10 Black mathematicians at NASA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Harris said one of her great joys is knowing her mother will get to see the film based on Mann\u2019s life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy mother used to tell people that her mother worked for NASA and nobody believed her,\u201d said Harris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There will be a launch event for Harris\u2019 book at the Science Museum of Minnesota, 120 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul, on Jan. 14 from 10 a.m. \u2013 11:30 a.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Harry Colbert, Jr., Managing Editor The story of the 11 Black female mathematicians who made American\u2019s space exploration and moon landing possible is a personal one for a Macalester College professor. In fact, had it not been for Dr. Duchess Harris\u2019 curiosity about her grandmother, Miriam Mann \u2013 a curiosity that began in college […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4511,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2803,2804,434],"class_list":["post-4510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-duchess-harris","tag-macalester-college","tag-nasa","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Insight-News-Website-Images-13-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4510"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4512,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4510\/revisions\/4512"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}