NASA’s African American History: From Hidden Figures to Artemis

Explore Our Galleries

An NAACP flyer campaigning for the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 1922, but was filibustered to defeat in the Senate. Dyer, the NAACP, and freedom fighters around the country, like Flossie Baily, struggled for years to get the Dyer and other anti-lynching bills passed, to no avail. Today there is still no U.S. law specifically against lynching. In 2005, eighty of the 100 U.S. Senators voted for a resolution to apologize to victims' families and the country for their failure to outlaw lynching. Courtesy of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Some Exhibits to Come – One Hundred Years of Jim Crow

Bibliography – One Hundred Years Of Jim Crow

Claude, age 23, just months before his 1930 murder. Courtesy of Faith Deeter.

Freedom’s Heroes During Jim Crow: Flossie Bailey and the Deeters

Souvenir Portrait of the Lynching of Abram Smith and Thomas Shipp, August 7, 1930, by studio photographer Lawrence Beitler. Courtesy of the Indiana Hisorical Society.

An Iconic Lynching in the North

Claxton Dekle – Prosperous Farmer, Husband & Father of Two

Ancient manuscripts about mathematics and astronomy from Timbuktu, Mali

Some Exhibits to Come – African Peoples Before Captivity

Shackles for Adults & Children from the Henrietta Marie

Some Exhibits to Come – The Middle Passage

What I Saw Aboard a Slave Ship in 1829

Life After Hate: A Former White Power Leader Redeems Himself

Breaking News!

Today's news and culture by Black and other reporters in the Black and mainstream media.

Click Here

Ways to Support ABHM?

Click Here

February 18, 2022

By Thom Patterson, Flying Mag

From nearly all-white beginnings, the space agency is poised to put the first woman and person of color on the moon.

NASA research mathematician Katherine Johnson, left, in 1962, and Artemis astronaut Stephanie Wilson in 2007. [Courtesy: NASA]

As soon as 2025, NASA is planning to send human explorers to the moon for the first time in more than half a century. Among those astronauts setting foot on the lunar surface will be a woman and a person of color.

That historic announcement, revealed in its FY 2022 budget, effectively made diversity and inclusion an official goal of the Artemis Program, whose first uncrewed launch is expected to lift off later this year.

The fact that gender and racial diversity have become an official requirement of Artemis serves as a stark reminder of NASA’s long journey from its beginnings as a virtually all-white, all-male space agency.

Former astronaut, ex-NASA administrator, and retired U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Charles F. Bolden Jr. remembers the days when he thought it was nearly impossible for a Black man to go to space.

“I didn’t think I had a chance,” Bolden told FLYING.

Head over to Flying Mag to finish the article to learn about NASA’s dedication to diversity, including how Dr. Jessica Watkins will be the first black woman on ISS!

Learn about the amazing work in in rocket science that African Americans are doing and how a black woman made your favorite 3D movie possible.

More breaking news here.

Comments Are Welcome

Note: We moderate submissions in order to create a space for meaningful dialogue, a space where museum visitors – adults and youth –– can exchange informed, thoughtful, and relevant comments that add value to our exhibits.

Racial slurs, personal attacks, obscenity, profanity, and SHOUTING do not meet the above standard. Such comments are posted in the exhibit Hateful Speech. Commercial promotions, impersonations, and incoherent comments likewise fail to meet our goals, so will not be posted. Submissions longer than 120 words will be shortened.

See our full Comments Policy here.