This archive report was first published on 16 July 2019.
On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made history by becoming the first human in space. Just a month later, President John F. Kennedy announced his intention to put Americans on the moon, declaring it necessary to win the battle between freedom and tyranny.
As the space race heated up, NASA's administrator received a letter from Edward R. Murrow, the director of the United States Information Agency, suggesting that the agency put the first non-white man in space. Murrow's idea was to retell the story of America's space effort to the non-white world, which was most of the world at the time.
Ed Dwight, a talented African American pilot, was already training to become an astronaut. He was set to be the first black astronaut in space, but his historic mission was cancelled due to a combination of factors. According to historian Douglas Brinkley, Dwight's cancellation was a missed opportunity for the United States to showcase its democracy and values to the world.
“The map’s being divided into who’s pro-Soviet and who’s pro-U.S.A., and our astronauts are good-will ambassadors,” Brinkley said. “We’re touting them around to show people the greatness of the American experiment. You put a person of color in space and it’ll show how noble our democracy is.”
