It is said history has a way of magnifying the stories of people who achieved feats over the stories of people who pioneered and paved the way for others to achieve greatness.
One such story is that of Edward Joseph Dwight Jr, the first black man to be trained as an astronaut but never made it into space.
His selection as the first-ever African-American astronaut brought a lot of world-wide media attention and exposed him to a lot of racist reactions. Critics questioned his physical and mental capabilities and fortitude, skeptical that a black man had what it took to make it to space.
Retiring from the Air Force in 1966, it took the world 17 years for the first black man to make it to space.
In this article, we look at African-American astronauts who made it to space:
