Ed Dwight

Edward Joseph Dwight Jr. (born September 9, 1933) is an American sculptor, author, retired test pilot, and astronaut. Dwight enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1953 and was commissioned a lieutenant in 1955. In 1961, at the direction of President John F. Kennedy, he became the first African American to enter the Air Force training program from which NASA selected astronauts. and advanced to the second round of the program, in the end he was not selected for the Astronaut Corps.

Dwight finally traveled into space on the Blue Origin NS-25 mission in 2024, becoming the oldest person to ever participate in a spaceflight, a record previously held by William Shatner.

Biography Early life Dwight was born on September 9, 1933, in the racially segregated

At age four, Dwight built a toy airplane out of orange crates in his backyard. 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. Dwight enrolled at Kansas City Junior College and graduated with an Associate of Arts degree in engineering in 1953.

Career Piloting Dwight enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1953. 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. He earned the rank of captain while serving in the Air Force.

Pre-astronaut training

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." 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. Regardless, it was the president who selected him to enter the program, 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, and Sepia.

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".

Dwight proceeded to Phase II of ARPS, and "placed eighth as a contender for Nasa's Astronaut Group 3 in October 1963," Dwight has stated, "The day the president got killed, my life changed." 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.”

Sculpting Dwight at the Pentagon 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. 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. Upon completion, Dwight moved to Denver and earned an M.F.A. in sculpture from the University of Denver in 1977. 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?"

The other members of the crew were Mason Angel, Sylvain Chiron, Carol Schaller, Kenneth Hess and Thotakura Gopichand. Victor Glover, former NASA administrator Charles Bolden, Leland D. Melvin, Bernard A. Harris Jr. and Livingston L. Holder Jr. attended the launch.

Awards and honors 1986 – Honorary doctorate from Arizona State University 2020 – Air Force Commander's Award for Public Service 2020 – Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artist Award 2021 – Asteroid 92579 Dwight 2022 – University of Denver CAHSS Lifetime Achievement Award

Personal life Dwight was raised and is Catholic, and served as an altar boy. 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.

Sculptures As of late 2024, Dwight has created 132 memorial sculptures and over 20,000 gallery pieces, which include paintings and sculptures.

Name Picture Location Unveiled Notes African American History Monument South Carolina State House grounds – Columbia, South Carolina George Washington Williams bust Ohio Statehouse – Columbus, Ohio Erected by the Texas African American History Memorial Foundation. Tower of Freedom International Memorial to the Underground Railroad 110px Civic Esplanade – Windsor, Ontario 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.