He would have been the first African American in Space, selected in 1961 by the John F. Kennedy administration to be an astronaut trainee.
Instead, his career was derailed by an unsafe work and training environment, which were most unpleasantly exacerbated by threats from government officials. This lead him to request reassignment out of the astronaut corps, and eventually to his separation from the United Stated Air Force in 1966.
Thankfully, he had more in him, and became an accomplished sculptor, including the seminal “Black Frontier in the American West” series of bronzes.
He would have been our first Space Rider.
His website is here.
Today’s Blaxploitation movie is Let’s Do It Again (1975) starring Sidney Poitier, Calvin Lockhart, Jimmie Walker, John Amos, Denise Nicholas, Lee Chamberlain, Ossie Davis, Mel Stewart, and Rodolphus Lee Hayden as '40th Street Black'.
© 2002 – 2016, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited
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