We Could Not Fail: The First African Americans in the Space Program

This “surprising and insightful” history profiles ten African American engineers, mathematicians, and others who worked for NASA’s space program (Lauren Helmuth, New York Times Book Review).

The Space Age began just as the struggle for civil rights forced Americans to confront the bitter legacy of slavery, discrimination, and violence against African Americans. NASA itself became an agent of social change, with President Kennedy opening its workplaces to African Americans. In We Could Not Fail, Richard Paul and Steven Moss profile ten pioneer African American space workers whose stories illustrate the role NASA and the space program played in promoting civil rights.

Paul and Moss recount how these technicians, mathematicians, engineers, and an astronaut candidate surmounted barriers and navigated being the sole African American in a NASA work group. These brave and determined men went on to help transform Southern society by integrating colleges, patenting new inventions, holding elective office, and reviving and governing defunct towns.

Adding new names to the roster of civil rights heroes and a new chapter to the story of space exploration, We Could Not Fail demonstrates how African Americans broke the color barrier by competing successfully at the highest level of American intellectual and technological achievement.