THE AFRONAUTS, 2025

“If I do this, I’m going to be on the cover of Ebony magazine.”
“What the hell is Ebony Magazine?!” [i]

Growing up in the seventies, America was the place I wanted to go. Through the pages of Ebony and Jet magazines[ii], Black people appeared to live in big houses, drive big cars, and move through life in technicolour. Everything seemed shiny and better (something I would later come to realise was the effect of printing colour photos on highly compressed and polished printing stock). Black people did things. And when they did things, they were featured on the covers of Ebony and Jet[iii], published by the Johnson family. Ebony magazine was started in 1945 by Eunice and John H. Johnson as a way of countering the stereotypical media stories and images of Black people[iv]. This shaped my idea of America as a place with a large, vibrant Black middle class[v]but more importantly it instilled in me the idea that I could do anything. At one point I remember even wanting to be a fighter pilot. I wasn’t good at math however and…so that never happened.

The last frontier. This space thing.

I’ve always been a bit of a space nerd. As a child, I was obsessed with The Right Stuff[vi]…the story of the Mercury and later Apollo astronauts. I Still am obsessed to be honest. Recently I watched a documentary on Disney+, the Space Race[vii], about America’s first Black pioneer astronauts, informally referred to as the ‘Afronauts’. This portrait series is the result of a resurgence of interest into their stories—those who made it to space, those who trained for it, and even one who portrayed an astronaut on television.

They say that history repeats
itself they say that history
Repeats itself they say that history
Repeats itself they stated history
Repeats itself repeats itself
But history is his story it’s not my story
What’s your story?
– Sun Ra excerpt from 1980’s A Joyful Noise[viii]

These portraits (rendered in graphite and acrylic on gessoed -with a #22 watercolour brush on wood panel to create a mezzotint effect on the drawings) represent significant milestones in Black Astronaut history.

I wasn’t tall enough.
I wasn’t black enough.
I wasn’t the model of the negro race.[ix]
-Capt. Ed Dwight

Ed Dwight was the first African American candidate in NASA’s astronaut programme. His appointment was shaped by the political momentum of the Kennedy era. His career changed course after JFK’s assassination, and he left the programme when it was evident that he would not advance.

It takes a long time for a society to change.
There is all this inertia you must overcome,
but we do it overtime.[x]
– Maj. Guy Bluford

Guy Bluford became the first African American man in space[xi] while Dr. Mae Jemison became the first African American woman in space[xii]. A self-described introvert  and not wanting any of the spotlight of being the first African American man in space, Guy was more concerned with flying into space, doing his job, and returning safely. But more than that Guy wanted to make sure that all the other black astronauts got the opportunity to fly. Mae Jemison left NASA one year after her flight on the shuttle, founded a research group, taught at Dartmouth University and was put in charge of the 100 year Starship Programme. A programme intended to ensure the viability of space travel to another star over the next century[xiii].

There are no words.
I’m sorry there just aren’t any words.
The blacks are blacker the blues are bluer.
And the whole experience of watching sunrises
In a matter of a few seconds and sets just as fast
is mind-boggling.[xiv]
– Dr. Ron McNair

Ron McNair, the second African American in space, was a physicist and a fifth-degree black belt[xv]. He even played a saxophone during his time in orbit- another first. Ron was the man. He even was responsible for having desegregated his hometown library through peaceful resistance at the age of nine.[xvi]. Sadly, the world lost Ron in the famous Challenger disaster (dubbed the schoolteacher flight) 28^th January 1986 when the space shuttle orbiter broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard including Ron (aboard as a mission specialist).[xvii]

Everything that had to do with Cuban success…they restricted it.
– Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez

Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez[xviii] of Cuba was the first person of African heritage to travel into space. He completed his mission with support from the Soviet Union’s space programme and as such his achievements were not widely featured in American media. Méndez was as much space programme political propaganda as Ed Dwight was. Once the USSR discovered that the US had Black men as part of their programme, they wanted to one-up them by being the first to put a Black man in space, and Tamayo became Cosmonaut 97.

No I don’t think this is a tremendous step forward.
I think its just another one of the things that,
we look forward to in this country with respect
to the progress in civil rights.[xix]
– Major Robert Henry Lawrence Jr.

Major Robert Henry Lawrence Jr. trained in secret would have been the first African American man in space[xx]. He was part of the US Deparment of Defense’s Manned Orbital Laboratory programme, an effort to create US military presence in space. In 1967, during a training flight, his aircraft crashed following a late flare during a steep descent manoeuvre that his trainee pilot in his charge failed to execute. He successfully directed the trainee to eject. His own back seat ejection however was delayed, and he did not survive the impact of F104 two-seater starfighter hitting the ground.

Nobody’s seen a Black in Outer Space.
That was not even a concept in nobody’s mind,
especially sitting on a ship like it’s a Cadillac.[xxi]
– George Clinton, Musician Parliament Funkadelic

Nyota Uhura, played by actor Nichelle Nichols, is also part of this story. Although we all now her as a science fiction character on Star Trek, her impact extended into real-world space exploration and influence. Nichols turned science fantasy into science fact and inspired many astronauts, including Maj. Frederick Gregory (first African American Deputy Administrator of NASA), Dr. Jemison, and Dr. McNair[xxii]. She even became an advocate for an increase in women and diversity in STEAM[xxiii]. She once planned to leave the show (Star Trek) to pursue theatre, but the story goes that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. encouraged her to stay. Citing that Star Trek was one of the only shows his children were allowed to stay up and watch as he saw her presence as a symbol of opportunity and possibility for Black youth[xxiv]. Because if they can see it, they can be it.

I know. Who cares about this space stuff anyway?

You got to make your own words.
Whether you are part of the greater society or not.
You got to write yourself in[xxv].
-Octavia Butler

Especially if you are Black. It reminds me of Gil Scott Heron’s Whitey on the Moon[xxvi]. Well, here’s the thing. The aptly named Afronauts were the right stuff. They showed us possibility, they were the epitome of Afrofuturism[xxvii]. They did stuff. And when they did…they appeared on the covers of Ebony and Jet magazines.

Note: Space pioneer Ed Dwight did eventually go into space aboard  Blue Origin’s New Shepard NS-25 spacecraft on Sunday May 19^th, 2024 at the age of 90, making him the oldest person to ever go to space[xxviii].

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