Following traditional cosmologies of African peoples. Examining the image and lack of presence of black people in imagined future worlds. Examining it's impact on the first two black astronauts in the US Space Program at the height of the Cold War and the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement. We look at the dream of flight from 200BCE to present.
This object (shown in sketch) was found in 1898 in a tomb at Saqqara, Egypt and was later dated as having been created near 200 BCE. As airplanes were unknown in the days when it was found, it was thrown into a box marked "wooden bird model" and then stored in the basement of the Cairo museum. It was rediscovered by Dr. Khalil Messiha, who studied models made by ancients. The "discovery" was considered so important by the Egyptian government that a special committee of leading scientists was established to study the object.
Emory Conrad Malick Emory C. Malick, Curtiss Aviation School, 1912 Emory Conrad Malick (1881-1958) was the first licensed African American aviator, earning his International Pilot’s License (Federation Aeronautique Internationale, or F.A.I., license), #105, on March 20, 1912, while attending the Curtiss Aviation School on North Island, San Diego, California. Mr. Malick was also the first African American pilot to earn his Federal Airline Transport License, #1716, which was issued on April 30, 1927. But his name is as yet unknown.
Sun Ra (born Herman Poole Blount, legal name Le Sony'r Ra;[1] May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993) was a prolific jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy," musical compositions and performances. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama. He is a 1979 inductee of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. "Of all the jazz musicians, Sun Ra was probably the most controversial," critic Scott Yanow said,[2] because of Sun Ra's eclectic music and unorthodox lifestyle. Claiming that he was of the "Angel Race" and not from Earth, but from Saturn, Sun Ra developed a complex persona using "cosmic" philosophies and lyrical poetry that made him a pioneer of afrofuturism.
Eugene Jacques Bullard (9 October 1895 – 12 October 1961), the first African-American military pilot, was born Eugene James Bullard.[1] His life has been surrounded by many legends.[2] Bullard was one of only two black combat pilots in World War I (the other being Ahmet Ali Çelikten).
In the 1920s, professional women blues singers Alberta Hunter, Ethel Waters, Gertrude Saunders, Beulah 'Sippie' Wallace and others made an impact with the blues while on tour and in concerts in Europe where the all black shows were warmly accepted. When John Hammond contracted Bessie Smith to do what became her last recording session in 1933, it was for the Parlophone Label in England. The main song that come out of that session was "Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out."
Elizabeth "Bessie" Coleman (January 26, 1892 – April 30, 1926) was an American civil aviator. She was the first female pilot of African American descent[1] and the first person of African-American descent to hold an international pilot license
AfroFuturism from the Surrealist Movement. French filmmaker Jean Renoir would later remark that he directed the sensual dance fantasy Charleston because he'd "just discovered American jazz." He also had some stock footage left over from his previous silent success Nana, and decided it would be provident to fashion a new film from these leavings. Even without the benefit of sound, one can hear the jazzy rhythms of Charleston through the exuberant gyrations of an African-American dancer whom Renoir and his star, actress Catherine Hessling, had discovered for this picture. Originally titled Sur un air de Charleston, the film was also released as Charleston Parade in English-speaking countries. In some areas of the US and Europe, the film was greeted with protests from censorship boards who simply couldn't appreciate the aesthetic value in Catherine Hessling's near-nude dance numbers. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
The Motion Picture Production Code was the set of industry moral censorship guidelines that governed the production of most United States motion pictures released by major studios from 1930 to 1968.
Black No More: Being an Account of the Strange and Wonderful Workings of Science in the Land of the Free, AD 1933-1940 is a 1931 Harlem Renaissance era satire on American race relations by George S. Schuyler (pronounced Sky-ler).
Black Empire was a tongue-in-cheek speculative fiction novel by conservative African American writer George S. Schuyler originally published under his pseudonym of Samuel I. Brooks. The two halves of the book originally ran as weekly serials in the Pittsburgh Courier. "Black Internationale" ran in the Courier from November 1936 to July 1937, "Black Empire" ran from October 1937 to April 1938. Combined and edited in 1993 by Robert A. Hill and R. Kent Rasmussen, editors at UCLA's Marcus Garvey Papers, the collected novel detailed the attempts of a radical African-American group called the Black Internationale, equipped with superscience and led by the charismatic Doctor Belsidus, who succeed in creating their own independent nation on the African continent. The novel is believed to be a lampoon of Marcus Garvey's Back-to-Africa movement and the Black Star Line.
The Double V campaign: The campaign was an attempt by African American soldiers in World War 2 to show that by helping to win in the war, that they could build conditions domestically for victory over discrimination. The term “Double V” stood for a goal which was "Victory over our enemies at home and victory over our enemies on the battlefields abroad.” The campaign’s immediate affect by my point of view was the end of racial discrimination in the United States military services.
The Yalta Conference was held towards the end of World War II. So you’re asking yourself: "What does some stupid conference have to do with the Cold War?". Well, many decisions were made at this conference which led to many fronts of the Cold War, most notably, Germany.
The atomic bombings of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan were conducted by the United States during the final stages of World War II in August 1945. To date the two bombings are the only instance of the use of nuclear weapons in wartime.
When the question of putting a black man in space arose, Generals at the Pentagon replied "We have been putting monkey's in space for years." The first ever monkey astronaut was Albert, a rhesus monkey, who on June 11, 1948 rode to over 63 km (39 mi) on a V2 rocket. Albert died of suffocation during the flight.[1][2][3] Albert was followed by Albert II who survived the V2 flight but died on impact on June 14, 1949 after a parachute failure.[2] Albert II became the first monkey in space as his flight reached 134 km (83 mi) - past the Kármán line of 100 km taken to designate the beginning of space.[4] Albert III died at 35,000 feet (10.7 km) in an explosion of his V2 on September 16, 1949. Albert IV on the last monkey V2 flight died on impact on December 8 that year after another parachute failure.[2] His flight reached 130.6 km. Alberts I, II, and IV were rhesus monkeys while Albert III was a cynomolgus monkey.
David Icke and I (Bill Ryan) recently met with Credo Mutwa, the great Zulu shaman, healer, and keeper of African tradition. He told us a horror story. The short version of what happened is this. A few months ago, earlier in 2010, Credo was being pestered daily over the phone by someone who claimed he was from a group of young Zulus about his "betrayal of the Zulu nation" by talking so much to white people. Exasperated, he put the famous and priceless Necklace of the Mysteries on his shoulders and took a train to Swaziland to confront the people who were giving him such a hard time. When he arrived, he was set upon and tortured. They started pulling his fingernails out with pliers. The Necklace was taken from him, and he was put on a train back home. In the background, throughout all this, was a white man whom Credo did not recognize. If you know ANYTHING about the theft of this priceless, ancient artifact, of inestimable value to the history of Africa and the human race - but very likely now in the hands of white men who are only interested in money - please contact DavidIckeContact@aol.com in full confidence. Thank you. Bill Ryan 22 August 2010
"The Other Foot" Mars has been colonized solely by black people. When they learn that a rocket is coming from Earth with white travelers, they institute a Jim Crow system of racial segregation in retaliation for how white people have treated blacks over the years. When the rocket lands, the traveler tells them that the Earth has been destroyed—including all of the horrific mementos of racial discrimination (such as trees used for lynching blacks). The blacks, feeling sorry for the white travelers losing their homes, decide to take them in and choose not to go through with their segregation plan.
First appeared in Other Worlds, July 1950. In an unnamed Southern town, a group of white men learn that all African Americans are planning to emigrate to Mars. Samuel Teece, a racist white man, decries their departure as a flood of African Americans passes his hardware store. He tries to stop one man, Belter, from leaving due to an old debt, but others quickly take up a collection on his behalf to pay it off. Next he tries to detain Silly, a younger man who works for him, saying that he signed a contract and must honor it. As Silly protests, claiming that he never signed it, Teece's grandfather volunteers to take his place. Several of Teece's friends stand up to him and intimidate him into letting Silly depart. As Silly drives off, he yells to Teece, "What you goin' to do nights?" - referring to Teece's nightly activities with a gang that had terrorized and lynched blacks in the area. The enraged Teece and his grandfather give chase in their car, but soon find the road cluttered with the discarded belongings of the rocket passengers. After they return to the hardware store, Teece refuses to watch as the rockets lift off. Wondering how he and his friends will spend their nights from now on, he takes a small triumph in the fact that Silly always addressed him as "Mister" even as he was leaving. This episode is a depiction of racial prejudice in America. However, it was eliminated from the 2006 William Morrow/Harper Collins, and the 2001 DoubleDay Science Fiction reprinting of The Martian Chronicles.
Gaines waged a number of battles with the Comics Code Authority in an attempt to keep his magazines free from censorship. In one particular example noted by comics historian Digby Diehl, Gaines threatened Judge Charles Murphy, the Comics Code Administrator, with a lawsuit when Murphy ordered EC to alter the science-fiction story "Judgment Day", in Incredible Science Fiction #33 (Feb. 1956).[15] The story, by writer Al Feldstein and artist Joe Orlando, was a reprint from the pre-Code Weird Fantasy #18 (April 1953), inserted when the Code Authority had rejected an initial, original story, "An Eye For an Eye", drawn by Angelo Torres,[16] but was itself also "objected to" because of "the central character being black."[17] The story depicted a human astronaut, a representative of the Galactic Republic, visiting the planet Cybrinia inhabited by robots. He finds the robots divided into functionally identical orange and blue races, one of which has fewer rights and privileges than the other. The astronaut decides that due to the robots' bigotry, the Galactic Republic should not admit the planet. In the final panel, he removes his helmet, revealing himself to be a black man.[15] Murphy demanded, without any authority in the Code, that the black astronaut had to be removed. As Diehl recounted in Tales from the Crypt: The Official Archives: This really made 'em go bananas in the Code czar's office. 'Judge Murphy was off his nut.
"I See the Moon" is a popular song written by Meredith Willson.[1] The Mariners, in the United States, and The Stargazers, in the United Kingdom, had the best-known versions. The Stargazers' recording reached number one in the UK Singles Chart in 1954.[1] In taking "I See the Moon" to number one, the Stargazers became the first act in British chart history to reach number one with their first two records to reach the chart.[1] Several singles released in the interim, "Broken Wings" and "I See the Moon", failed to chart.[1] The Stargazers' recording was produced by Dick Rowe, one of eight of his UK chart topping successes in that role.[1] The song is normally performed as a lullaby-like ballad, though the Stargazers' version was a more humorous rendering with a pub-style piano accompaniment and the singers putting on "funny" voices. A recording by Don Cameron[disambiguation needed] with Morton Fraser's Harmonica Band was made in London on February 17, 1954. It was released by EMI on the His Master's Voice label as catalog number B 10675.
The Comics Code Authority was formed by the Comics Magazine Association of America as an alternative to government regulation, to allow the comic publishers to self-regulate the content of comic books in the United States. Its code, commonly called "the Comics Code," lasted through the early 21st century. Many have linked the CCA's formation to a series of Senate hearings and the publication of psychologist Fredric Wertham's book Seduction of the Innocent.
According to Credo Mutwa, the Southern Cross is the Tree of Life, 'our holiest constellation'. The Stars A legend of the Karanga people held that the stars were the eyes of the dead, while many Tswana hled that they were the spirits of those unwilling to be born. Other Tswana believed that they were the souls of those so long dead that they were no longer ancestor spirits. The Venda pictured the stars as hanging from the solid dome of the sky by cords, while other groups believed the stars to be holes in the solid rock dome of the sky.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott, a seminal event in the U.S. civil rights movement, was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. The campaign lasted from December 1, 1955, when Rosa Parks, an African American woman, was arrested for refusing to surrender her seat to a white person, to December 20, 1956, when a federal ruling, Browder v. Gayle, took effect, and led to a United States Supreme Court decision that declared the Alabama and Montgomery laws requiring segregated buses to be unconstitutional.[1] Many important figures in the civil rights movement took part in the boycott, including Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ralph Abernathy.
The movement was characterized by major campaigns of civil resistance. Between 1955 and 1968, acts of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience produced crisis situations between activists and government authorities. Federal, state, and local governments, businesses, and communities often had to respond immediately to these situations that highlighted the inequities faced by African Americans.
December 1, 1955 The Montgomery Bus Boycott, a seminal event in the U.S. civil rights movement, was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. The campaign lasted from December 1, 1955, when Rosa Parks, an African American woman, was arrested for refusing to surrender her seat to a white person, to December 20, 1956, when a federal ruling, Browder v. Gayle, took effect, and led to a United States Supreme Court decision that declared the Alabama and Montgomery laws requiring segregated buses to be unconstitutional.[1] Many important figures in the civil rights movement took part in the boycott, including Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ralph Abernathy.
Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896, which allowed state-sponsored segregation, insofar as it applied to public education. Handed down on May 17, 1954, the Warren Court's unanimous (9–0) decision stated that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." As a result, de jure racial segregation was ruled a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. This ruling paved the way for integration and was a major victory of the civil rights movement.
First Cold War Victory: Sputnik launched by Soviet Union is Major Victory in Cold War.
Explorer 1 was the United States' first satellite in space. The Feb 1 1958 launch of the satellite — twice the size of a basketball — was an important moment for the country, as the Space Race with the Soviet Union was just beginning.
Mercury, America's first human space flight program, introduced the nation to its first astronauts. There were six total flights with six astronauts flown. Total flight time for these missions was 53 hours, 55 minutes and 27 seconds.
January 20, 1961
In Mali, West Africa, lives a tribe of people called the Dogon. The Dogon are believed to be of Egyptian decent and their astronomical lore goes back thousands of years to 3200 BC. According to their traditions, the star Sirius has a companion star which is invisible to the human eye. This companion star has a 50 year elliptical orbit around the visible Sirius and is extremely heavy. It also rotates on its axis. This legend might be of little interest to anybody but the two French anthropologists, Marcel Griaule and Germain Dieterlen, who recorded it from four Dogon priests in the 1930's. Of little interest except that it is exactly true. How did a people who lacked any kind of astronomical devices know so much about an invisible star? The star, which scientists call Sirius B, wasn't even photographed until it was done by a large telescope in 1970. The Dogon stories explain that also. According to their oral traditions, a race people from the Sirius system called the Nommos visited Earth thousands of years ago. The Nommos were ugly, amphibious beings that resembled mermen and mermaids. They also appear in Babylonian, Accadian, and Sumerian myths. The Egyptian Goddess Isis, who is sometimes depicted as a mermaid, is also linked with the star Sirius. The Nommos, according to the Dogon legend, lived on a planet that orbits another star in the Sirius system. They landed on Earth in an "ark" that made a spinning decent to the ground with great noise and wind. It was the Nommos that gave the Dogon the knowledge about Sirius B. The legend goes on to say the Nommos also furnished the Dogon's with some interesting information about our own solar system: That the planet Jupiter has four major moons, that Saturn has rings and that the planets orbit the sun. These were all facts discovered by Westerners only after Galileo invented the telescope. The story of the Dogon and their legend was first brought to popular attention by Robert K.G. Temple in a book published in 1977 called The Sirius Mystery. Science writer Ian Ridpath and astronomer Carl Sagan made a reply to Temple's book, suggesting that this modern knowledge about Sirius must have come from Westerners who discussed astronomy with the Dogon priests. The priests then included this new information into the older traditions. This, in turn, mislead the anthropologists.
Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space, when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on 12 April 1961. Gagarin became an international celebrity, and was awarded many medals and titles, including Hero of the Soviet Union, the nation's highest honour. Vostok 1 marked his only spaceflight, but he served as backup crew to the Soyuz 1 mission (which ended in a fatal crash). Gagarin later became deputy training director of the Cosmonaut Training Centre outside Moscow, which was later named after him. Gagarin died in 1968 when the MiG-15 training jet he was piloting crashed.
American naval aviator, test pilot, flag officer, NASA astronaut, and businessman, who in 1961 became the second person, and the first American, to travel into space. This Mercury flight was designed to enter space, but not to achieve orbit. Ten years later, at age 47 the oldest astronaut in the program, Shepard commanded the Apollo 14 mission, piloting the lander to the most accurate landing of the Apollo missions. He became the fifth person to walk on the Moon, and the only astronaut of the Mercury Seven to walk on the Moon
Pres. Kennedy consults Harry Belafonte on how to get the black vote..Belafonte brings Dr King and Whitney Young to the table. One of the items discussed is the appointent of a black astronaut by Whitney Young, King opposes this, preferring to focus on more immediate practical needs.
When an alien artifact discovered on Earth is found to have come from Venus, an international team of astronauts embarks to investigate its origins. The first African cosmonaut was Communications Officer Talua (actor Julius Ongewe) from Der Schweigende Stern (The Silent Star), better known in the West as The First Spaceship On Venus! No American Sci-fi films have included any key black characters at this point.
Italian Film Assignment Outer Space (1960) features former Katehrine Dunham dancer Archie Savage as a key character in the space film. No American Sci-fi films have included any key black characters at this point.
Capt. Edward Dwight, Jr, assigned by President Kennedy as the first balck astronaut candidate in 1961.
James Howard Meredith (born June 25, 1933) is an American civil rights movement figure, a writer, and a political adviser. In 1962, he was the first African-American student admitted to the segregated University of Mississippi,[1] an event that was a flashpoint in the American civil rights movement. Motivated by President John F. Kennedy's inaugural address, Meredith decided to exercise his constitutional rights and apply to the University of Mississippi.[2] His goal was to put pressure on the Kennedy administration to enforce civil rights for African Americans
On April 17, 1961, 1400 Cuban exiles launched what became a botched invasion at the Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba. In 1959, Fidel Castro came to power in an armed revolt that overthrew Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. The U.S. government distrusted Castro and was wary of his relationship with Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union. Before his inauguration, John F. Kennedy was briefed on a plan by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) developed during the Eisenhower administration to train Cuban exiles for an invasion of their homeland. The plan anticipated that the Cuban people and elements of the Cuban military would support the invasion. The ultimate goal was the overthrow of Castro and the establishment of a non-communist government friendly to the United States.
Fidel Castro left his hard-won accommodations at the Shelburne Hotel in midtown Manhattan this evening, complaining to Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold of the hotel's "unacceptable cash demands." He threatened to sleep at the UN, or in Central Park: "We are mountain people. We are used to sleeping in the open air." Castro compained of a "climate of inhospitality" in the city and at the Shelburne, where his delegation was asked to put up $10,000 cash to cover their twenty rooms and insure against damage. The Cubans were unable to raise the money and objected that it was unfair. Castro and his entourage were offered rooms in Harlem, at the Theresa Hotel.
The "Address at Rice University on the Nation's Space Effort", or better known simply as the "We choose to go to the moon" speech, was delivered by then U.S. President John F. Kennedy in front of a large crowd gathered at Rice University in Houston, Texas on September 12, 1962. It was one of Kennedy's earlier speeches meant to persuade the American people to support the effort of NASA to send a manned space flight to the moon.
Russian Cold War Victory #3. Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman to go into space when she flew Vostok 6 in 1963. She spent almost three days in space and orbited Earth 48 times. That was her only trip into space. Tereshkova later toured the world to promote Soviet science and became involved in Soviet politics.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, commonly known as "Jack" or by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from January 1961 until he was assassinated in November 1963.
The Day of Kennedy's assasination Ed Dwight is prevented from flying. One day later he is dropped from the Astronaut program and mave executive director of the nonexistant German Space Program. After an attempt to sabotage his plane, he resigns from the Air Force.
October 15, 1966
In June 1967, Lawrence successfully completed the Air Force Flight Test Pilot Training School at Edwards AFB, California. That same month he was selected by the USAF as an astronaut in the Air Force's Manned Orbital Laboratory (MOL) program, thus becoming the first black astronaut.
Millions remember the countdowns, launchings, splashdowns, and parades as the U.S. raced the USSR to the moon in the 1960s. But few know that both countries also ran parallel space programs, whose covert goal was to launch military astronauts on spying missions. With investigative journalist James Bamford, NOVA delves into the untold story of this top-secret space race, which might easily have turned into a shooting war in orbit.
awrence was killed on December 8, 1967, in the crash of an F-104 Starfighter at Edwards Air Force Base, California. He was flying backseat on the mission as the instructor pilot for a flight test trainee learning the steep-descent glide technique. The pilot flying made such an approach but flared too late. The airplane struck the ground hard, its main gear failed, it caught fire, and rolled. The front-seat pilot, ejected upward, survived with major injuries. The back seat, which delays a moment to avoid hitting the front seat, ejected sideways, killing him instantly.
Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that landed the first humans on the Moon, Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, on July 20, 1969, at 20:18 UTC. Armstrong became the first to step onto the lunar surface six hours later on July 21 at 02:56 UTC. Armstrong spent about two and a half hours outside the spacecraft, Aldrin slightly less, and together they collected 47.5 pounds (21.5 kg) of lunar material for return to Earth. A third member of the mission, Michael Collins, piloted the command spacecraft alone in lunar orbit until Armstrong and Aldrin returned to it just under a day later for the trip back to Earth.
Black Panther Leader killed in his sleep.
From the late 1970's until the late 1980's, NASA employed Nichelle Nichols to recruit new astronaut candidates. Many of her new recruits were women or members of racial and ethnic minorities, including Guion Bluford (the first African-American astronaut), Sally Ride (the first female American astronaut), Judith Resnik (one of the original set of female astronauts, who perished during the launch of the Challenger on January 28, 1986), and Ronald McNair (the second African-American astronaut, and another victim of the Challenger accident).
We'd love to hear from you. Please send questions or feedback to the below email addresses.
Before contacting us, you may wish to visit our FAQs page which has lots of useful info on Tiki-Toki.
We can be contacted by email at: hello@tiki-toki.com.
You can also follow us on twitter at twitter.com/tiki_toki.
If you are having any problems with Tiki-Toki, please contact us as at: help@tiki-toki.com
Close