Ed Dwight facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Ed Dwight
Dwight while serving as a captain in the United States Air Force
Born	Edward Joseph Dwight Jr. (1933-09-09) September 9, 1933 (age 91) Kansas City, Kansas, U.S.
Education	Kansas City Junior College (AA) Arizona State University, Tempe (BS) University of Denver (MFA)
Known for	Sculpture
Awards	Air Force Commander's Award for Public Service
Military career
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	United States Air Force
Years of service	1953–1966
Rank	Captain

Edward Joseph Dwight Jr. (born September 9, 1933) is an American sculptor, author, former test pilot, and astronaut. He is the first African American to have entered the Air Force training program from which NASA selected astronauts. He was controversially not selected to officially join NASA. He finally achieved spaceflight on May 19, 2024, surpassing William Shatner as the oldest person to fly in space.

Biography

Early life

Dwight was born on September 9, 1933, in the racially segregated Kansas City, Kansas area, to Georgia Baker Dwight (1909–2006) and Edward Joseph Dwight Sr. (1905–1975), who played second base and centerfield for the Kansas City Monarchs and other Negro league teams from 1924 to 1937.

At age four, Dwight built a toy airplane out of orange crates in his backyard. As a child, he was an avid reader and talented artist who was mechanically gifted and enjoyed working with his hands. He attended grade school at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Kansas City. While delivering newspapers, he saw Air Force pilot Dayton Ragland, a Black man from Kansas City, on the front page of The Call. Having grown up in racist segregation, he instantly "wigged out", becoming inspired to follow this career path while thinking "This is insane. I didn't even know they let black pilots get anywhere near airplanes. ... Where did he get trained? How did he get in the military? How did all this stuff happen right before my nose?". In 1951, he became the first African-American male to graduate from Bishop Ward High School, a private Catholic high school in Kansas City, Kansas. He was a member of the National Honor Society and earned a scholarship to attend the Kansas City Art Institute. Dwight enrolled at Kansas City Junior College and graduated with an Associate of Arts degree in engineering in 1953.

Career

Piloting

Dwight in Air Force uniform

Dwight enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1953. He completed his airman and cadet pre-flight training at Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio, Texas. He then traveled to Malden Air Base in Malden, Missouri, to finish his primary flight training. He earned a commission as an Air Force second lieutenant in 1955 before being assigned to Williams Air Force Base, southeast of Phoenix, Arizona.

While training to become a test pilot, Dwight attended night classes at Arizona State University. In 1957, he graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering. Dwight later completed Air Force courses in experimental test piloting and aerospace research at Edwards Air Force Base in 1961 and 1962, respectively. He earned the rank of captain while serving in the Air Force.

Pre-astronaut training

In 1961, Chuck Yeager was running the Aerospace Research Pilot School (ARPS), a U.S. Air Force program that had sent some of its graduates into the NASA Astronaut Corps. Yeager said Curtis LeMay called and told him, "Bobby Kennedy wants a colored in space. Get one into your course." Dwight was selected to enter ARPS shortly after that phone call. Dwight has said that Whitney Young of the National Urban League put the idea of a Black astronaut in President Kennedy's head during a meeting with Kennedy, Young, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and A. Philip Randolph. However, in Dwight's telling, this meeting happened in 1959, when Whitney Young was an unknown college administrator and Kennedy was a senator from Massachusetts. Young's biographer says that this meeting did not happen. Nonetheless, Dwight's selection into this Air Force program garnered international media attention, and Dwight appeared on the covers of news magazines such as Ebony, Jet, and Sepia.

During an interview to the French media Radio Campus Orléans in October 2024, Dwight claims that John Kennedy asked Wernher Von Braun if he could put a black astronaut into NASA's space program, to which Von Braun said "no" because "it'll destroy NASA with a fight with black people at NASA".

Dwight proceeded to Phase II of ARPS, but was not selected by NASA to be an astronaut. He resigned from the Air Force in 1966, claiming, according to The Guardian, that "racial politics had forced him out of NASA and into the regular officer corps".

In August 2020, Dwight was made an honorary Space Force member in Washington, D.C.

Sculpting

After resigning from the Air Force, Dwight worked as an engineer, in real estate, and for IBM. He opened a barbecue restaurant in Denver. Dwight was also a successful construction entrepreneur and occasionally "built things with scrap metal". Dwight's artistic interest in sculpting and interest in learning about black historical icons grew after Colorado's first black lieutenant governor, George L. Brown, commissioned him to create a statue for the state capitol building in 1974. Upon completion, Dwight moved to Denver and earned an M.F.A. in sculpture from the University of Denver in 1977. He learned how to operate the University of Denver's metal casting foundry in the mid-1970s.

Dwight has been recognized for his innovative use of negative space in sculpting. Each of his pieces involves Blacks and civil rights activists, with a focus on the themes of slavery, emancipation, and post-reconstruction. Most of the pieces depict only Black people, but the Underground Railroad Sculpture in Battle Creek also honors Erastus and Sarah Hussey, who were conductors on the Underground Railroad. Dwight's first major work was a commission in 1974 to create a sculpture of Colorado Lieutenant Governor George L. Brown. Soon after, he was commissioned by the Colorado Centennial Commission to create a series of bronze sculptures entitled "Black Frontier in the American West".

Soon after he completed the "Black Frontier in the American West" exhibit, Dwight created a series of more than seventy bronze sculptures at the St. Louis Arch Museum at the request of the National Park Service. The series, "Jazz: An American Art Form", depicts the evolution of jazz and features jazz performers such as Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, and Charlie Parker.

Dwight owns and operates Ed Dwight Studios, based in Denver. Its 25,000 square feet (2,300 m²), facility houses a studio, gallery, foundry, and a large collection of research material. The gallery and studio is open to the public.

Suborbital spaceflight on New Shepard

In 2024, Dwight was selected for a suborbital spaceflight mission and flew on Blue Origin's New Shepard NS-25, sponsored by Space For Humanity on May 19, 2024. He became the oldest person to fly in space at 90 years 8 months and 10 days, surpassing William Shatner. The others members of the crew were Mason Angel, Sylvain Chiron, Carol Schaller, Kenneth Hess and Thotakura Gopichand. Victor J. Glover, former NASA administrator Charles Bolden, Leland D. Melvin, Bernard A. Harris Jr. and Livingston L. Holder Jr. attended the launch.

Awards and honors

• 1986 – Honorary doctorate from Arizona State University
• 2020 – Air Force Commander's Award for Public Service
• 2020 – Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artist Award
• 2021 – Asteroid 92579 Dwight
• 2022 – University of Denver CAHSS Lifetime Achievement Award

Personal life

Dwight in 2020

Dwight was raised Catholic, and served as an altar boy. In 1997, he was the lead sculptor on the statue of the Madonna and Child for the Our Mother of Africa Chapel, a structure devoted to African-American Catholics in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the largest church in North America. Dwight was the only black artist involved in the project. He was inducted into Phi Beta Sigma fraternity as an honorary brother at their 2023 conclave, held in Houston, Texas.

Sculptures

As of late 2024, Dwight has created 132 memorial sculptures and over 20,000 gallery pieces, which include paintings and sculptures. His works include these:

Name	Picture	Location	Unveiled	Notes
African American History Monument		South Carolina State House grounds – Columbia, South Carolina	March 29, 2001
Alex Haley / Kunta Kinte Memorial		The City Dock – Annapolis, Maryland	December 1999
Black Revolutionary War Patriots Memorial		Constitution Gardens – Washington, D.C.	1991
Captain Walter Dyett Statue		Chicago, Illinois
Concerto		Folly Theater – Kansas City, Missouri
Dr. Benjamin Mays		Morehouse College Commons – Atlanta, Georgia
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.		Anne Arundel Community College – Annapolis, Maryland	2006
Statue of Martin Luther King Jr.		Houston, Texas	2007
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial		City Park – Denver, Colorado	2002
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. & Coretta Scott King		Allentown, Pennsylvania	2011
Gateway to Freedom International Memorial to the Underground Railroad		Philip A. Hart Plaza – Detroit, Michigan	2001
George Washington Williams bust		Ohio Statehouse – Columbus, Ohio
Hank Aaron		Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium – Atlanta, Georgia	1982
Inauguration of History and Hope – Inaugural Sculpture Scene of President Barack Obama		Touring exhibit	2010
Jack Trice Memorial		Iowa State University – Ames, Iowa
Jazz: An American Art Form		St. Louis Arch Museum – St. Louis, Missouri
John Hope Franklin Tower of Reconciliation		Tulsa, Oklahoma
Mayor Harold Washington		Harold Washington Cultural Center – Chicago, Illinois	2004
Memorial to Rosa Parks, Mother of the Civil Rights Movement		Grand Rapids, Michigan	2010
Mother of Africa Chapel		Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception – Washington, D.C.	1997
Mr. Frederick Douglass		Frederick Douglass National Historic Site – Washington, D.C.	1980	Dwight's first commission
Quincy Jones Sculpture Park		Chicago, Illinois
Soldiers Memorial		Lincoln University – Jefferson City, Missouri	2007
Texas African American History Memorial		Texas State Capitol – Austin, Texas	November 19, 2016	Erected by the Texas African American History Memorial Foundation.
Tower of Freedom International Memorial to the Underground Railroad		Civic Esplanade – Windsor, Ontario	2001
Underground Railroad Memorial		Kellogg Foundation headquarters – Battle Creek, Michigan	1994
United House of Prayer for All People		Lincoln Cemetery – Suitland, Maryland	2008
William E. Smith, Director of Airports		Denver, Colorado
Denmark Vesey Monument		Charleston, South Carolina	2014

Furthermore, Dwight said in October 2024 that he was currently working on a memorial to Normandy beaches in honor of the black soldiers of World War II.

See also

• Tuskegee Airmen