Ed Dwight was to be the first Black astronaut At 90, he s finally getting his due columbian.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from columbian.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
It wasn’t until 1983 that the first African American, Guion Bluford, reached space. But two decades earlier, Ed Dwight found himself at a fulcrum of 20th Century American history, where the space race and the struggle for social justice converged. An accomplished Air Force pilot, Dwight was groomed by John F. Kennedy s White House to be the first Black astronaut. But in training, he faced discrimination that detoured his path. In recent years, Dwight s story has received renewed attention. Now 90, he s widely celebrated as a pioneer to all of the Black astronauts that followed him.