Science

NASA, Civil Rights Movement On Same Trajectory In 1960s

May 1st, 2015

The writers of the book ''We Could Not Fail'' Richard Paul and Steven Moss discussed the first African-Americans recruited into the U.S. space programs and their contributions on ''A Closer Look.''

The U.S space program and the civil rights movement may seem like vastly different subject matters for discussion in separate conversations, but during the 1960’s NASA and the fight for civil rights were on the same trajectory.

NASA helped break down the color barrier as it went about figuring out how to overcome the barriers to space travel by hiring African-American scientists to join the ranks of space workers throughout the agency’s southern facilities in Texas, Alabama, Florida and Mississippi.

It was an effort at ending segregation within the U.S. space program that coincided with the civil rights movement’s same efforts in the larger American society as a whole.

The book “We Could Not Fail,” by Richard Paul and Steven Moss, profiles 10 African-American pioneers in the U.S. space program and their contributions to human space flight. It details, not only how these men helped blaze a trail through the segregated South, but literally into space and beyond.

Paul, an independent public radio documentary producer, and Moss, an associate professor of English at Texas State Technical College, discussed how the first African-American space workers helped integrate NASA and desegregate the South at the same time, who they were and what they contributed to the space race on “A Closer Look.”

WABE’s Denis O’Hayer and Mary Claire Kelly contributed to this story.