Robert Lawrence Faces Racist Question

The first Black astronaut selected by the United States was Air Force Major Robert Henry Lawrence Jr. in June 1967. At the announcement, a reporter asked, "Will you have to sit in the back seat of the capsule?" Lawrence and the other astronauts laughed at the question. He never reached space, dying at age 32 in an F-104 plane crash in December 1967, less than six months after his selection.

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