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"We Could Not Fail" Authors on the History of the First African Americans in the Space Program

Courtesy of the University of Texas Press

Nearly 60 years ago during the Civil Rights era, Americans were taking to the street, marching and protesting a history Jim Crow. It's at the same time, America had its eyes towards the sky. KWBU’s Carlos Morales talks with two authors who’s new book We Could Not Fail describes the intersection between the fight for civil rights and the race to space.

The weeks leading up to then-President John F. Kennedy’s May 25th speech, according to Richard Paul, are instrumental in understanding the climate of the 1960s and just how the Space Age and the fight for Civil Rights crossed paths. Paul is the co-author of “We Could Not Fail” – the story of the first African Americans in space. It was 20 days earlier, on May 5th, 1961 that Allan Shepherd became the first American in Space and just nine quick days later, the Freedom Rides start.

“That’s in the 14th, ten days later the bus is fire bombed in Allison, Alabama," Paul says. "The next day, May 25th, President Kennedy commits America to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade, and a week later mobs riot around the Freedom Riders bus in Montgomery, Alabama. The Governor of Alabama declares martial law.”

“So now president Kennedy is thrown in with both feet into civil rights and the space program," Paul added.

But shortly before Shepherd even made it to space, or before the beginning of the Freedom Rides, Kennedy issued executive order 10925. The order established the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, which ended segregationist practices in federal hiring and federal contracts. That meant government contractors were now required to ensure that "employees are treated during employment without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.” And while the executive order wasn’t specifically aimed at the space program, NASA undoubtedly benefited. Steven Moss, a professor at Texas State Technical School, co-wrote We Could Not Fail with Paul.

“With NASA just starting and with the new dedication of putting a man on the moon two months later, two-and-a-half months later, NASA was going to explode all over the South," Moss said. "And millions and millions of dollars in construction, in engineering contracts, space contracts, and all of these contractors had to be equal opportunity.” 

It’s around this time that NASA began establishing facilities in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Misissippi and Texas, creating an estimated 200, 000 jobs. But as Moss and Paul write, perspective African-American employees weren’t necessarily jumping at the opportunity to move south. There were two factors, Paul says, that stymied NASA’s early recruitment efforts of African Americans: 1) The pool of experienced African Americans was relatively small and 2) NASA sent white recruiters to schools.

“And a white man coming to a black college and saying ‘Oh, don’t worry about it. If you come to Alabama, if you come to Florida and work for the space program, it’s going to be fine.’ I talked to a number of people for the book who said, ‘I didn’t believe a word those white men said.'"

But in 1963 an African-American man by the name of Charlie Smoot helped change that – visiting black schools to help find potential candidates. According to We Could Not Fail, Throughout the 1960's – even through agency downsizing – NASA’s African American employment was roughly 3 percent.

The irony of the advancements made ins pace, but the slow and gradual progress of race relations, wasn't lost on the Black Press. In their pages, you could find editorial cartoons that readily lampooned the priority given to the space program. 

"The African American press was keenly aware that there were millions and millions and millions of dollars and all of this space-age technology and all of these advances and we're going to explore the stars - and we still don't have equal employment, we still don't have equal wages, and we still have segregated restrooms and theaters and hotels and buses and everything else," Moss said. 

"So here we are the great technologically advanced super power of the world going to the moon and we can't even treat ourselves, our own citizens as equals."

While the independent legacies of the civil rights era and the space age are often recalled, their connected history is one rarely acknowledged. Paul believes that’s because there’s a hesitation to discuss the age of American exceptionalism and Jim Crow.

“I think the other reason why no one wants to, hasn’t connected these dots  is cause it’s really, really embarrassing to talk about," Paul said. 

You can hear Paul and Moss discuss the events of their book and the first African Americans in the space program at TSTC on August 11th at 7 p.m. at the John B. Connally Technology Center Auditorium.