All Stories

Marlon D. Green fought and won the right to fly as a pilot for a major U.S. airline.

During World War II, the U.S. Navy did not have a program that allowed African Americans to train and fly as naval aviators. Jesse Leroy Brown, however, fought through many hurdles to become the first African American to complete Navy flight training. Discover his story.

Maj. Gen. Charles Bolden was NASA's first African American Administrator. He also served in the military and logged over 680 hours in space.

Cornelius Coffey was an advocate for the education of Black Americans in aeronautics.  

In the fifties and sixties to get hired as a stewardess put you in a club that was akin to being a movie star. Around this time, a highly qualified woman, top of her training class, beautiful and poised, didn't understand why she wasn't being hired, until an instructor told her it was because she was Black.

The Loving WR-3 was a roadable airplane designed and built by Neal V. Loving, an aeronautical engineer and pilot.

Artist Hubert Jackson creates an artwork that honors contributions made by Black women and men in the space program.

Stephanie Wilson is now one of 18 members of the Artemis astronaut team, a group of nine men and nine women from diverse backgrounds. Since NASA has announced its intent to send the first woman and the first person of color to the Moon, she is a strong candidate.

Donated by Ahmed A. “Sammy” Rayner, Jr,  these images, paired with his remembrances of his time as a Tuskegee Airman, provide vivid examples of the daily lives of the 477th Bombardment Group and experiences as a Black officer.

Brig. Gen. Charles E. McGee, the eldest of the surviving Tuskegee Airmen, passed away on January 16, 2022. His life of dedicated service included flying combat aircraft in three major wars—a feat that was unthinkable before his career began, when the US military banned African Americans from combat flying roles.