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First black astronaut honored 30 years after death
December 8, 1997
Lawrence
Web posted at: 9:33 a.m. EST (1433 GMT)CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- Thirty years to the day after his death in an Air Force plane crash, Maj. Robert Lawrence Jr. is being recognized as a full-fledged astronaut, the first black astronaut, in fact.
His sister refuses to dwell on the long bureaucratic struggle to get her brother's name carved into the four-story granite monument that honors astronauts killed in the line of duty.
"The recognition is appropriate whenever it comes," said Barbara Lawrence, a university administrator in New York.
Lawrence's son is less charitable. While gratified that his father's name finally is on the Astronauts Memorial Foundation's Space Mirror, Tracey Lawrence had no intention of attending Monday's dedication ceremony because of "the antagonism, or what might appear to be antagonism, on the part of the board of directors."
"They refused to recognize him. What do they call it? It was really unanimous refusal to recognize him for a period of years," Tracey Lawrence said last week from Chicago, where he runs a philosophical organization. "The folks in the family have suffered a lot through the years because of this ongoing circle of non-recognition."
Lawrence was killed in the crash of an F-104 fighter during a training exercise on December 8, 1967, six months after he was named to the Air Force's manned orbiting laboratory program. The other pilot on board survived.
Had he lived, Lawrence likely would have moved to NASA, as did many of his colleagues when the Air Force canceled the short-lived and unsuccessful orbiting laboratory program in 1969.
Air Force definition of astronaut was different
By National Aeronautics and Space Administration standards, anyone selected for astronaut training is an astronaut, plain and simple. Teacher Christa McAuliffe's name, for example, is on the Space Mirror even though she died without ever reaching space when the shuttle Challenger exploded.
But by Air Force standards of the 1960s, the 32-year-old Lawrence, a test pilot with a Ph.D. in chemistry, never earned his astronaut wings since he never flew as high as the required 50 miles.
"A forgotten figure," says his son.
And because he did not meet that Air Force criteria, the Astronauts Memorial Foundation refused repeatedly to etch Lawrence's name onto the Space Mirror at Kennedy Space Center.
"We wanted to make sure he had the same full honor the other 16 had," explained Jim De Santis, foundation president. "We never wanted a situation where people came to see the Space Mirror and said, 'There were 16 astronauts and there was Maj. Lawrence who was never declared an astronaut.'"
Congressman helps
Everything changed last year when a congressman from Lawrence's hometown of Chicago, U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, persuaded the Air Force to verify Lawrence's astronaut status. Rush saw it as "a classic case of institutional racism."
Lawrence -- who would have been America's lone black astronaut until NASA chose three in 1978 -- officially was confirmed as an astronaut by the Air Force last January. Two weeks later, the foundation's board of directors voted unanimously to add his name alongside 16 others on the Space Mirror.
"I don't think they're bestowing an honor on Lawrence," said James Oberg, an aerospace consultant who pushed long and hard for Lawrence's inclusion. "Having Lawrence's name on the memorial honors the memorial -- not the other way around."
Copyright 1997 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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