Ed Dwight

Dwight was born on September 9, 1933, in the racially segregated Kansas City, Kansas area, to Georgia Baker Dwight (1909–2006) and Edward Joseph Dwight Sr. (1905–1975), who played second base and centerfield for the Kansas City Monarchs and other Negro league teams from 1924 to 1937.{{Cite web |title=Ed Dwight |work=The HistoryMakers |date=June 19, 2002 |access-date=July 25, 2015 |url=http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/ed-dwight-39 }}{{cite web |last=Dwight |first=Georgia A. |title=Guide to the Dwight Family Collection — Dwight family papers, 1921-1993 |url=http://etext.ku.edu/view?docId=ksrlead%2Fksrl.kc.dwightgeorgia.xml%3Broute%3Dksrlead%3Bbrand%3Dksrlead%3Bquery%3D |website=The University of Kansas Libraries |publisher=Kenneth Spencer Research Library |access-date=December 21, 2019 |archive-date=September 19, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150919134001/http://etext.ku.edu/view?docId=ksrlead%2Fksrl.kc.dwightgeorgia.xml%3Broute%3Dksrlead%3Bbrand%3Dksrlead%3Bquery%3D |url-status=dead }}{{Cite web |title=Negro Leagues Baseball eMuseum: Personal Profiles: Eddie Dwight |url=https://www.nlbemuseum.com/history/players/dwight.html |work=Negro Leagues Baseball Museum |access-date=May 1, 2020}}{{Cite web |title=Eddie Dwight Negro Leagues Statistics & History |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=dwight000edd |website=Baseball-Reference.com |access-date=May 1, 2020}}

At age four, Dwight built a toy airplane out of orange crates in his backyard. As a child, he was an avid reader and talented artist who was mechanically gifted and enjoyed working with his hands. He attended grade school at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Kansas City. While delivering newspapers, he saw Air Force pilot Dayton Ragland, a Black man from Kansas City, on the front page of The Call. Having grown up in racist segregation, he instantly "wigged out", becoming inspired to follow this career path while thinking "This is insane. I didn't even know they let black pilots get anywhere near airplanes. ... Where did he get trained? How did he get in the military? How did all this stuff happen right before my nose?"{{cite episode |station=KCUR-FM |network=NPR |location=Kansas City |title=KCK Native On Being The First African-American To Train For NASA |url=https://www.kcur.org/show/central-standard/2017-01-19/kck-native-on-being-the-first-african-american-to-train-for-nasa |access-date=July 17, 2020 |series=Central Standard |air-date=January 19, 2017}} In 1951, he became the first African-American male to graduate from Bishop Ward High School, a private Catholic high school in Kansas City, Kansas. He was a member of the National Honor Society and earned a scholarship to attend the Kansas City Art Institute.{{cite magazine |last1=Robinson |first1=Louie |date=July 1963 |title=First Negro Astronaut Candidate |magazine=Ebony |volume=XVIII |issue=9 |pages=71–81 |url={{google books |id=_Gx3HzvAuMYC |page=71 |plainurl=yes}} |access-date=July 17, 2020 |via=Google Books}}{{cite book |title=Distinguished African Americans in Aviation and Space Science |last1=Gubert|first1=Betty Kaplan|last2=Sawyer|first2=Miriam|last3=Fannin|first3=Caroline|date=2001|publisher=Oryx Press |isbn=1573562467 |location=Westport, CT|pages=[https://archive.org/details/distinguishedafr00gube/page/113 113–117]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/distinguishedafr00gube/page/113}}{{cite web |title=About Ed Dwight |url=https://www.eddwight.com/about-ed/ |website=Official website}} Dwight enrolled at Kansas City Junior College and graduated with an Associate of Arts degree in engineering in 1953.

Dwight enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1953.{{Cite web |title=Behind the Scenes |publisher=Ed Dwight Studios, Inc. |work=eddwight.com |access-date=July 25, 2015

|url=http://www.eddwight.com/about/behind-scenes |archive-date=August 9, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150809025235/http://www.eddwight.com/about/behind-scenes |url-status=dead}} He completed his airman and cadet pre-flight training at Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio, Texas. He then traveled to Malden Air Base in Malden, Missouri, to finish his primary flight training. He earned a commission as an Air Force second lieutenant in 1955 before being assigned to Williams Air Force Base, southeast of Phoenix, Arizona.

While training to become a test pilot, Dwight attended night classes at Arizona State University. In 1957, he graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering. Dwight later completed Air Force courses in experimental test piloting and aerospace research at Edwards Air Force Base in 1961 and 1962, respectively.{{cite magazine|last1=Sanders|first1=Charles L.|date=June 1965|title=The Troubles of 'Astronaut' Edward Dwight |magazine=Ebony|volume=XX|issue=8|pages=29–36 |url={{google books |id=Nd4DAAAAMBAJ |plainurl=yes |page=29}} |access-date=July 17, 2020}} He earned the rank of captain while serving in the Air Force.{{Cite magazine |magazine=Ebony |last=White, III |first=Frank |date=February 1984|volume=XXXIX |issue=4 |issn=0012-9011

|pages=54–58 |title=The Sculptor Who Would Have Gone into Space|url={{google books |id=ttgDAAAAMBAJ |page=54 |plainurl=yes}} |access-date=July 17, 2020}}

File:American-black-sculptor-and-former-test-pilot-Edward-Joseph-Ed-391768059582.jpg

In 1961, Chuck Yeager ran the Aerospace Research Pilot School (ARPS), a U.S. Air Force program that had sent some of its graduates into the NASA Astronaut Corps. According to Yeager, Air Force General Curtis LeMay called and told him: "Bobby Kennedy wants a colored in space. Get one into your course."Chuck Yeager, Yeager: An Autobiography (New York: Bantam, 1986), 269–270. Dwight was supposedly selected to enter ARPS shortly after this phone call. According to Dwight, civil rights leader Whitney Young personally advocated the idea of a Black astronaut to President Kennedy at a meeting involving Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and A. Philip Randolph, and this was the "genesis of the administration's actions" that led to his selection as a trainee. In Dwight's telling, this meeting occurred in 1959, before Young became director of the National Urban League and while Kennedy was a U.S. senator from Massachusetts. While Dwight affirms that Young personally "confided that story" to him, Young's biographer states that this purported meeting did not happen.Paul, Richard; Moss, Steven (May 1, 2015). "First of Race in Space: Ed Dwight". We Could Not Fail: The First African Americans in the Space Program. University of Texas Press. pp. 89–104. ISBN 9780292772496. Regardless, it was the president who selected him to enter the program, when in 1961 Dwight "received a letter from the Pentagon, authorised by President John F Kennedy, asking him if he'd like to become the first black astronaut."{{Cite web |last=Nelson |first=Sue |date=30 May 2024 |title=Ed Dwight: A space pioneer who finally became an astronaut |url=https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240530-ed-dwight-a-space-pioneer-who-finally-became-an-astronaut |archive-url=https://archive.today/20250326230220/https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240530-ed-dwight-a-space-pioneer-who-finally-became-an-astronaut |archive-date=26 March 2025 |access-date= |website=BBC |language=en-GB}} Dwight's selection into the Air Force program garnered international media attention, and he appeared on the covers of news magazines such as Ebony, Jet,{{cite magazine |magazine=Jet |volume=XXIII |issue=26 |date=April 18, 1963 |title=Report on First Negro Astronaut Trainee |pages=15–19 |url={{google books |id=wLsDAAAAMBAJ |page=14 |plainurl=yes}} |access-date=July 17, 2020}} and Sepia.{{Cite book|title=We Could Not Fail: The First African Americans in the Space Program|last1=Paul|first1=Richard|last2=Moss|first2=Steven|date=May 1, 2015|publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=9780292772496 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/wecouldnotfailfi0000paul/page/89 89–104]|language=en|chapter=First of Race in Space: Ed Dwight|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zoSzBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA89|url=https://archive.org/details/wecouldnotfailfi0000paul/page/89}}

During an interview with French media outlet Radio Campus Orléans in October 2024, Dwight claimed that President Kennedy asked Wernher Von Braun if he could include a black astronaut in NASA's program, which Von Braun refused on the grounds that it would "destroy NASA with a fight with black people at NASA".{{Cite web |last=Caumont |first=Félix |date=October 20, 2024 |title=« Je suis la personne noire la plus connue dont personne n'a jamais entendu parler. » Ed Dwight : une histoire américaine. |url=https://orleans.radiocampus.org/actualite-emission/ed-dwight/ |access-date=2024-10-20 |website=Radio Campus Orléans 88.3 FM |language=fr-FR}}

Dwight proceeded to Phase II of ARPS,Multiple sources:

• {{Cite web|title=Los Angeles Public Library Photo (1)|url=https://tessa.lapl.org/cdm/ref/collection/photos/id/55869|website=tessa.lapl.org|access-date=May 1, 2020}} ;
• {{Cite web|title=Astronaut–Capt. Edward J. Dwight : Los Angeles Public Library Photo (2)|url=https://tessa.lapl.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/photos/id/55868/rec/3|website=tessa.lapl.org|access-date=May 1, 2020}} ;
• {{Cite web|title=Astronaut–Capt. Edward J. Dwight : Los Angeles Public Library Photo (3)|url=https://tessa.lapl.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/photos/id/55866/rec/1|website=tessa.lapl.org|access-date=May 1, 2020}} ;
• {{Cite web|title=Astronaut–Capt. Edward J. Dwight : Los Angeles Public Library Photo (4)|url=https://tessa.lapl.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/photos/id/55867/rec/2|website=tessa.lapl.org|access-date=May 1, 2020}} and "placed eighth as a contender for Nasa's Astronaut Group 3 in October 1963," but "[o]nly the first seven" on this list "were selected," becoming the famed Mercury Seven. Dwight was one of the "26 potential astronauts recommended to NASA by the Air Force," but NASA did not ultimately select him.{{Cite web |last=Coyle |first=Jake |date=Feb 9, 2024 |title=Ed Dwight was supposed to be the 1st Black astronaut. At 90, he's finally getting his due |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/ed-dwight-was-supposed-to-be-the-1st-black-astronaut-at-90-hes-finally-getting-his-due |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241002001721/https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/ed-dwight-was-supposed-to-be-the-1st-black-astronaut-at-90-hes-finally-getting-his-due |archive-date=October 2, 2024 |access-date=2025-03-26 |website=PBS News |language=en-us}} Dwight has stated, "The day the president got killed, my life changed." Kennedy died on a Friday and, according to Dwight, by Monday "he had papers in his mailbox shipping him out to Germany." However, after meeting with Dwight, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy "had the Pentagon cancel those orders," and a day later he received new papers "sending him to Canada." In January 1964, Dwight was stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. Dwight resigned from the Air Force in 1966, claiming, according to The Guardian, that "racial politics had forced him out of NASA and into the regular officer corps".{{cite AV media |people=Stone, Robert (Writer, Director, Producer) |year=2019 |title=Chasing The Moon Episode 1 |trans-title=It Took Millions of Steps to Make One Giant Leap |language=English |type=DVD |time=1:18:05 |publisher=WGBH Educational Foundation |id=AE61703 |isbn=9781531709419 |oclc=1531709419 }}{{cite news |last1=Brown |first1=Walter J. |title=Ed Dwight Was Set to Be the First Black Astronaut. Here's Why That Never Happened. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/16/us/ed-dwight-was-set-to-be-the-first-black-astronaut-heres-why-that-never-happened.html |access-date=February 20, 2021 |work=The New York Times |agency=The New York Times Company |date=July 16, 2019 }} Nonetheless, he denies being bitter about the experience, stating: "Here you get a little 5-foot-four guy who flies airplanes and the next thing you know this guy is in the White House meeting all these senators and congressmen," remarking that it "opened the world to me.”

In August 2020, Dwight was made an honorary Space Force member in Washington, D.C.{{Cite web|title=First Black astronaut candidate becomes honorary Space Force member |url=https://www.9news.com/article/news/community/voices-of-change/ed-dwight-first-black-astronaut/73-ebebf9f3-d98f-4850-b392-1e3f1feedc39 |access-date=November 18, 2020|website=KUSA.com|date=August 15, 2020 |language=en-US}}

File:Space Force celebrates trailblazer (6299706).jpeg in 2020, during his honorary induction into the U.S. Space Force.]]

After resigning from the Air Force, Dwight worked as an engineer, in real estate, and for IBM. He opened a barbecue restaurant in Denver.{{Cite web|title=A Denver sculptor was the first black man trained as an astronaut ahead of Apollo 11, but he never made it to space|url=https://www.denverpost.com/2019/07/05/ed-dwight-jr-first-black-man-trained-astronaut-apollo-11/ |date=July 5, 2019 |website=The Denver Post|language=en-US|access-date=May 1, 2020}} Dwight was also a successful construction entrepreneur and occasionally "built things with scrap metal". Dwight's artistic interest in sculpting and interest in learning about black historical icons grew after Colorado's first black lieutenant governor, George L. Brown, commissioned him to create a statue for the state capitol building in 1974.{{cite news |last1=Brune |first1=AM |title=Ed Dwight shows 'the angst, all the emotions' of black heroes in sculpture |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/may/28/ed-dwight-honouring-americas-black-heroes-in-sculpture |access-date=December 21, 2019 |agency=The Guardian |date=May 28, 2015 |quote=Originally from Kansas City, he joined the U.S. Air Force in 1953, where he served as a fighter pilot and was appointed by President John F. Kennedy to train as the country's first black astronaut. He left in 1966, he said, after racial politics forced him out of NASA and back into the regular officer corps.}} Upon completion, Dwight moved to Denver and earned an M.F.A. in sculpture from the University of Denver in 1977. He learned how to operate the University of Denver's metal casting foundry in the mid-1970s.

Dwight has been recognized for his innovative use of negative space in sculpting. Each of his pieces involves Blacks and civil rights activists, with a focus on the themes of slavery, emancipation, and post-reconstruction. Most of the pieces depict only Black people, but the Underground Railroad Sculpture in Battle Creek also honors Erastus and Sarah Hussey, who were conductors on the Underground Railroad. Dwight's first major work was a commission in 1974 to create a sculpture of Colorado Lieutenant Governor George L. Brown. Soon after, he was commissioned by the Colorado Centennial Commission to create a series of bronze sculptures entitled "Black Frontier in the American West".

Soon after he completed the "Black Frontier in the American West" exhibit, Dwight created a series of more than seventy bronze sculptures at the St. Louis Arch Museum at the request of the National Park Service. The series, "Jazz: An American Art Form", depicts the evolution of jazz and features jazz performers such as Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, and Charlie Parker.

File:Black Space Week 2024 at the NMAAHC (NHQ202406170027).jpg in 2024.]]

Dwight owns and operates Ed Dwight Studios, based in Denver. Its {{convert|25000|sqft|m2}}, facility houses a studio, gallery, foundry, and a large collection of research material.{{cite web |title=About Ed Dwight |url=https://www.eddwight.com/about-ed/ |access-date=January 22, 2025 |website=Ed Dwight Sculptor & Historian}} The gallery and studio is open to the public.

In 2024, Dwight was selected for a suborbital spaceflight mission and flew on Blue Origin's New Shepard NS-25, sponsored by Space For Humanity on May 19, 2024. He became the oldest person to fly in space at 90 years 8 months and 10 days, surpassing William Shatner.{{Cite web |title=New Shepard's 25th Mission Includes America's First Black Astronaut Candidate |url=https://www.blueorigin.com/news/new-shepard-ns-25-mission-announcement |access-date=2024-04-04 |website=Blue Origin |language=en-US}} Post-flight, Dwight articulated experiencing the overview effect, "Out the window, I could see the Earth. Everything looked ordered and neat and wonderful and beautiful. There was no separation between countries or states. And you ask yourself: As wonderful as it all is, why can’t the people who live on it get along? Why don’t they want to take care of such a beautiful place?"{{cite web |last1=Rosengren |first1=John |date=February 7, 2025 |title=The Ride of His Life |url=https://www.aarp.org/benefits-discounts/members-only-access/info-2025/ride-of-his-life.html |url-status=live |website=AARP}}

The others members of the crew were Mason Angel, Sylvain Chiron, Carol Schaller, Kenneth Hess and Thotakura Gopichand.{{Cite web |date=2024-04-12 |title=Who is Gopi Thotakura, the first Indian "space tourist" to fly with Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin? |url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/who-is-gopi-thotakura-the-first-indian-space-tourist-to-fly-with-jeff-bezoss-blue-origin-101712901651200.html |access-date=2024-04-14 |website=Hindustan Times |language=en}} Victor J. Glover, former NASA administrator Charles Bolden, Leland D. Melvin, Bernard A. Harris Jr. and Livingston L. Holder Jr. attended the launch.

• 1986 – Honorary doctorate from Arizona State University{{cite web |url=https://graduation.asu.edu/honorary/past |title=Past Honorary Degree Recipients |work=Arizona State University |date=February 5, 2009 |access-date=July 7, 2022 |archive-date=September 3, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190903030457/https://graduation.asu.edu/honorary/past |url-status=dead }}
• 2020 – Air Force Commander's Award for Public Service{{cite news |url=https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article/2304360/space-force-celebrates-trailblazer/ |title=Space Force celebrates trailblazer |work=United States Space Force |date=August 7, 2020 |first=Armando A. |last=Schwier-Morales}}
• 2020 – Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artist Award{{cite web |url=https://bonfils-stantonfoundation.org/leadership/annual-awards-program/current-honorees/ed-dwight/ |title=2020 Honoree: Artist Award |work=Bonfils-Stanton Foundation|date=November 5, 2020 }}
• 2021 – Asteroid 92579 Dwight{{cite news |url=https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/newly-named-asteroids-reflect-contributions-of-pioneering-astronauts |title=Newly Named Asteroids Reflect Contributions of Pioneering Astronauts |date=March 16, 2021 |work=NASA}}
• 2022 – University of Denver CAHSS Lifetime Achievement Award{{cite news |url=https://liberalarts.du.edu/news-events/all-articles/cahss-lifetime-achievement-award-winner-ed-dwight |title=CAHSS Lifetime Achievement Award Winner: Ed Dwight |work=University of Denver |date=June 1, 2022}}

Dwight was raised Catholic, and served as an altar boy.{{Cite web|last=Ludolph|first=Emily|title=Ed Dwight was set to be the first Black astronaut. Here's why that never happened. |url=https://www.phillytrib.com/news/ed-dwight-was-set-to-be-the-first-black-astronaut-heres-why-that-never-happened/article_43930fa5-1e21-5f4d-8bd0-8a340df72e03.html |access-date=January 19, 2021 |website=The Philadelphia Tribune |date=July 19, 2019 |language=en}} In 1997, he was the lead sculptor on the statue of the Madonna and Child for the Our Mother of Africa Chapel, a structure devoted to African-American Catholics in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the largest church in North America. Dwight was the only black artist involved in the project. He was inducted into Phi Beta Sigma fraternity as an honorary brother at their 2023 conclave, held in Houston, Texas.[https://www.nationalshrine.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/BNSIC-Architectural-Details-of-the-Basilica.pdf] (PDF) National Shrine: ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS OF THE BASILICA. Retrieved October 22, 2021.

As of late 2024, Dwight has created 132 memorial sculptures and over 20,000 gallery pieces, which include paintings and sculptures. His works include these:{{Cite web|url=https://www.eddwight.com/memorials|title=Memorials & Public Art |work=eddwight.com |publisher=Ed Dwight Studios, Inc. |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191221103144/https://www.eddwight.com/memorials|archive-date=December 21, 2019|access-date=July 25, 2015}}

Furthermore, Dwight said in October 2024 that he was currently working on a memorial to Normandy beaches in honor of the black soldiers of World War II.

• Tuskegee Airmen

{{reflist}}

{{commons category|Ed Dwight}}

• {{Official website|https://eddwight.com/}}
• {{IMDb name|id=8696789}}
• Barbaro, Michael (host), [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/21/podcasts/the-daily/moon-black-astronaut-ed-dwight.html/ The Almost Moon Man], (July 21, 2019) The Daily. The New York Times podcast featuring journalist Emily Ludolph speaking with Ed Dwight.
• {{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/16/us/ed-dwight-was-set-to-be-the-first-black-astronaut-heres-why-that-never-happened.html|title=Ed Dwight Was Set to Be the First Black Astronaut. Here's Why That Never Happened. |first=Emily|last=Ludolph|date=July 16, 2019|work=The New York Times}}
• DiMeo, Nate, [http://thememorypalace.us/2015/08/the-ballad-of-captain-dwight/ The Ballad of Captain Dwight] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170906224347/http://thememorypalace.us/2015/08/the-ballad-of-captain-dwight/ |date=September 6, 2017 }} (August 28, 2015) Episode 75 of The Memory Palace, podcast centered on Dwight's astronaut training. Includes interview extracts.
• {{YouTube|id=Xj1sJQW98nE|title=I Was Poised to be the First Black Astronaut. I Never Made it to Space.}} (December 19, 2019) part of The New York Times' Almost Famous Op-Doc series.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dwight, Edward}}

Category:Living people

Category:1933 births

Category:20th-century African-American artists

Category:20th-century American male artists

Category:20th-century American sculptors

Category:21st-century African-American people

Category:African-American Catholics

Category:American Roman Catholics

Category:African-American sculptors

Category:African-American United States Air Force personnel

Category:American male sculptors

Category:Military personnel from Kansas

Category:People from Kansas City, Kansas

Category:Sculptors from Kansas

Category:United States Air Force officers

Category:United States Air Force personnel of the Korean War

Category:United States Air Force personnel of the Vietnam War

Category:People who have flown in suborbital spaceflight

Category:New Shepard passengers