Columbus youths to get private viewing of “Hidden Figures’’ at local theater

A group of more than 150 girls will gather at Hollywood Connection on Saturday for a private viewing of the box office hit “Hidden Figures.”

The movie tells the story of three black women — Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson — who served as the math geniuses behind NASA’s first successful space missions.

Throughout the country, adults have been using the movie as an opportunity to inspire and motivate youths to strive for excellence. And Columbus is no exception.

On Jan. 31, about 270 eight-graders at Richards Middle School also will see the movie at Hollywood Connection, Muscogee County School District administrators said.

Kornisha Brown, of the Columbus chapter of Jack and Jill of America, said Saturday’s private viewing is a collaborative effort among several mentoring organizations. In addition to Jack and Jill, the other groups sponsoring the event are the Columbus Chapter of the Links.; Columbus Metro Alumnae Chapter and the Columbus Alumnae Chapters of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority; Rho Rho Omega and Gamma Tau Omega Chapters of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.; and Girls Inc. of Columbus.

Prior to the movie, about 60 of the girls will participate in a private workshop conducted by Karan Kendrick, one of the actresses in the movie who has started a “Girls Empowerment Tour” to inspire girls across the country.

Kendrick, who plays the younger version of Johnson’s mother in the movie, is a native of Fort Valley, Ga., now living in California. Brown said Kendrick is a former classmate from Spelman College, and she asked her to come to Columbus and speak to the girls.

“Since the movie has opened, she has been touring the country, speaking to young girls about reaching for all of their goals and dreaming big,” she said. “And she has been trying to inspire them in any way that she can with her life experiences.”

Brown said she’s also a member of the Links and the group goes to Girls Inc. monthly to expose middle school girls to STEM careers. She hopes the movie will inspire some of the girls to become engineers, mathematicians, physicians and scientists.

“One thing that you see in the movie, is that it was a very male-dominated environment at NASA, and that can be very discouraging for girls,” she said. “But the movie shows that whatever they want to do, they can do it, especially when you see African-American women who succeeded with segregation and all the other obstacles in their way. If they can overcome that back then, then surely our girls can do it and even go beyond what’s normally expected.”

Brown said her daughter, an eighth-grader at Brookstone School, presented a speech about Johnson — the film’s main character — at school before the movie hit the theaters.

“Everyone was just really fascinated about the fact that nobody had really heard about these three women and their contributions to NASA and STEM,” Brown said. “And Katherine Johnson, being 98-years-old, and her receiving the Medal of Freedom Award from President Barack Obama, it’s just wonderful to see that they’re now receiving the acknowledgments, accolades and appreciation that they so deserve as trailblazers.”

LaToya Sanders, assistant principal at Richards Middle School, said some teachers saw “Hidden Figures” over the holiday weekend and expressed their interest in taking their students to see it. The school eventually decided to take all the eighth-grade students.

Sanders said some teachers already are developing lesson plans that will incorporate some of the content in the movie.

“Teachers in every one of the subject areas is excited, because it offers something different for each area,” she said. “The social studies teacher could teach about civil rights, the English teachers could have them writing a perspective paper, the mathematician could talk about algorithms, and the science teacher could talk about the engineering part. It’s an all-inclusive content movie that has a social connotation, as well.”

This story was originally published January 20, 2017 at 4:03 PM with the headline "Columbus youths to get private viewing of “Hidden Figures’’ at local theater."