African Americans in Space

 Afrofuturism is a theme that normally takes on fantastical and science fiction themes, and what makes it an incredibly fascinating topic is how rooted in reality it is. Our society, in its modernity, has been able to do amazing feats like land people on the moon, reach out far into the solar system, and photograph the depths of our galaxy. What is the history of this, and how does it relate to racial themes in American history? Note, the first astronauts went to space in the late ’50s, and as we know, that was not an excellent time in history for African Americans. Segregation and racial violence were prevalent, so we can assume that has something to do with the lack of black astronauts. The U.S. space program, NASA, was in my opinion at its most exciting time in the late 60s with the moon landing. Obviously, we’ve done other amazing feats, but that was all under a white mask. So you’re probably wondering when the first black astronaut was if we started exploring space in the late 50s, well… the first black astronaut was not until 1983! His name was  Guion S. He went into space almost 30 years after the first missions began! Additionally, there have been 600 trained astronauts throughout history. Guess how many of them were black? 15. There have been 15 black astronauts. That means that black people have represented less than a quarter of a percent of all astronauts.