NASA and the Long Civil Rights Movement
Published on 30. November 2019
Book
Hardback
266 pages
978-0-8130-6620-2 (ISBN)
Description
As NASA prepared for the launch of Apollo 11 in July 1969, many African American leaders protested the billions of dollars used to fund "space joyrides" rather than help tackle poverty, inequality, and discrimination at home. This volume examines such tensions as well as the ways in which NASA's goal of space exploration aligned with the cause of racial equality. It provides new insights into the complex relationship between the space program and the civil rights movement in the Jim Crow South and abroad.Essays explore how thousands of jobs created during the space race offered new opportunities for minorities in places like Huntsville, Alabama, while at the same time segregation at NASA's satellite tracking station in South Africa led to that facility's closure. Other topics include black skepticism toward NASA's framing of space exploration as "for the benefit of all mankind," NASA's track record in hiring women and minorities, and the efforts of black activists to increase minority access to education that would lead to greater participation in the space program. The volume also addresses how to best find and preserve archival evidence of African American contributions that are missing from narratives of space exploration.NASA and the Long Civil Rights Movement offers important lessons from history as today's activists grapple with the distance between social movements like Black Lives Matter and scientific ambitions such as NASA's mission to Mars.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Florida
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paper over boards
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
562 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8130-6620-2 (9780813066202)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Brian C. Odom | Stephen P. Waring
NASA and the Long Civil Rights Movement
E-Book
04/2022
1st Edition
University Press of Florida
from
€64.99
Available for download
Persons
Brian C. Odom is a historian at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Stephen P. Waring, chair of the Department of History at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, is coauthor of Power to Explore: A History of Marshall Space Flight Center, 1960-1990.
Content
List of Figures
Foreword: "How We Tell About the Civil Rights Movement and Why It Matters" - Jacquelyn Dowd Hall
Introduction: Exploring NASA in the 'Long' Civil Rights Movement - Brian C. Odom and Stephen P. Waring
Part I. New Frameworks1. Space History Matures--and Reaches a Crossroads - Margaret A. Weitekamp
2. Bringing Mankind to the Moon: The Human Rights Narrative in the Space Age - P.J. Blount and David Miguel Molina
3. Bringing the Moon to Mankind: The Civil Rights Narrative and the Space Age - David Miguel Molina and P.J. Blount
Part II. Southern Context
4. The Newest South: Race and Space on the Dixie Frontier - Brenda Plummer
5. "Accommodating the Forces of Change": Civil Rights and Economic Development in Space Age Huntsville, Alabama - Matthew L. Downs
6. NASA, the Association of Huntsville Area Contractors, and Equal Employment Opportunity in the 'Rocket City,' 1963-1965 - Brian C. Odom
Part III. International Context
7. Arnaldo Tamayo Mendez and Guion Bluford: The Last Cold War Race Battle - Cathleen Lewis
8. The Congressional Black Caucus and the Closure of NASA's Satellite Tracking Station at Hartebeesthoek, South Africa - Keith Snedegar
Part IV. Broader Context
9. "A Competence Which Should Be Used": NASA, Social Movements, and Social Problems in the 1970s - Cyrus C. M. Mody
10. The Gates of Opportunity: NASA, Black Activism, and Educational Access - Eric Fenrich
11. "Petite Engineer Likes Math, Music" - Christina K. Roberts
Conclusion: "And Where Do We Go from Here?" Ensuring the Past and Future History of Space - Jonathan Coopersmith
List of Contributors
Index
Foreword: "How We Tell About the Civil Rights Movement and Why It Matters" - Jacquelyn Dowd Hall
Introduction: Exploring NASA in the 'Long' Civil Rights Movement - Brian C. Odom and Stephen P. Waring
Part I. New Frameworks1. Space History Matures--and Reaches a Crossroads - Margaret A. Weitekamp
2. Bringing Mankind to the Moon: The Human Rights Narrative in the Space Age - P.J. Blount and David Miguel Molina
3. Bringing the Moon to Mankind: The Civil Rights Narrative and the Space Age - David Miguel Molina and P.J. Blount
Part II. Southern Context
4. The Newest South: Race and Space on the Dixie Frontier - Brenda Plummer
5. "Accommodating the Forces of Change": Civil Rights and Economic Development in Space Age Huntsville, Alabama - Matthew L. Downs
6. NASA, the Association of Huntsville Area Contractors, and Equal Employment Opportunity in the 'Rocket City,' 1963-1965 - Brian C. Odom
Part III. International Context
7. Arnaldo Tamayo Mendez and Guion Bluford: The Last Cold War Race Battle - Cathleen Lewis
8. The Congressional Black Caucus and the Closure of NASA's Satellite Tracking Station at Hartebeesthoek, South Africa - Keith Snedegar
Part IV. Broader Context
9. "A Competence Which Should Be Used": NASA, Social Movements, and Social Problems in the 1970s - Cyrus C. M. Mody
10. The Gates of Opportunity: NASA, Black Activism, and Educational Access - Eric Fenrich
11. "Petite Engineer Likes Math, Music" - Christina K. Roberts
Conclusion: "And Where Do We Go from Here?" Ensuring the Past and Future History of Space - Jonathan Coopersmith
List of Contributors
Index