Includes bibliographical references (pages 273-328) and index.

A door opens -- Mobilization -- Past is prologue -- The double V -- Manifest destiny -- War birds -- The duration -- Those who moved forward -- Breaking the barriers -- Home by the sea -- The area rule -- Serendipity -- Turbulence -- Angle of attack -- Young, gifted, and black -- What a difference a day makes -- Outer space -- With all deliberate speed -- Model behavior -- Degrees of freedom -- Out of the past, the future -- America is for everybody -- To boldly go.

Starting in World War II and moving through to the Cold War, the civil rights movement, and the space race, [this book] follows the interwoven accounts of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden, four African American women who participated in some of NASA's greatest successes. It chronicles their careers over nearly three decades they faced challenges, forged alliances, and used their intellect to change their own lives, and their country's future.