Thanks to the film Hidden Figures and the book of the same by Margot Lee Shetterly, many of us know about the extraordinary efforts of Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan during NASA’s space race in the 1960s. Now, Shetterly is looking to uncover even more of history’s hidden figures thanks to a two-book deal with the publisher Viking.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the books will explore “the idea of the American Dream and its legacy by excavating stories of other ‘hidden figures,’ extraordinary ordinary African-Americans whose contributions to American history have, for one reason or another, been untold, unseen, or overlooked.”
The first book takes place in midcentury Baltimore and centers on two African-American families with a similar vision: The Murphy family, owners of the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper, were the reigning monarchs of Baltimore’s black society and the epitome of respectability. Willie Adams, whose original fortune came from the numbers racket, and his wife Victorine Adams, a schoolteacher turned politician, went on to become philanthropists, investors, and among the most ardent patrons of entrepreneurship and economic development in the city’s African-American community.
Currently, we have no additional information on the second book. Are you excited for this?
(via EW, image: screencap)
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