00:00Growing up I loved the space program
00:08But nobody doing that stuff looked like me
00:13Very few people today even have a clue about black people's contribution to human spaceflight
00:19I was the only black aerospace
00:20The only black NASA
00:22The only black ops
00:23The only black NASA
00:25Because they weren't written in history books
00:31In the early days of the civil rights movement
00:35NASA wanted to show that they were engaged in equality for all
00:39I was told by friends and enemies alike
00:42You're 20 years too soon buddy
00:43If you qualify and would like to be an astronaut
00:46Now is the time
00:49This is your NASA
00:50I don't think America or anybody knew
00:52I was a body in a way
00:55It was imaginary, it was a lie
00:57Around the same time
00:58There was a Cuban who was the first person of color to fly
01:01The Soviets made that history
01:05Not the United States
01:08To see a black man in space
01:12It would have changed things
01:21Three of us all recognized that one of us would be the first black astronaut
01:27I would have made it to the moon
01:29One small step for man
01:30If they were not going to let that happen
01:34Representation becomes critically important
01:36To help us keep moving down that path
01:39Back in the day
01:41They were saying that blacks are too ignorant to be flying in space
01:44I'm smitten to tear up there doing all these wonderful things
01:48Black history is American history
01:53We forget it at our peril
01:55We forget it at our peril
01:55We forget it
Commentaires