Yes, we all know he was an astronaut, and President Obama is selecting him to head NASA. Oh yeah, and he's black. None of the diaries here, or news articles about the appointment, or rumors leading up to the appointment went beyond his NASA bio, or his wikipedia entry.
Just as I've done in previous diaries re: Valarie Jarrett, Alma Powell, and other folks of color who pop into the headlines, I decided to dig a bit deeper about this brother, particularly since at first google I found almost nothing about "him", other than the standard stuff mentioned above.
Let me digress for a moment, and state that for years black folks have had an alternate universe here in America, with our own "Who's Who" (like "Who's Who in Colored America: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Persons of African Descent in America"), our own glossy publications like Ebony and Jet, our own newspapers, like the Amsterdam News. If you grew up black in America your family subscribed to these publications, and if you went to a beauty parlor, barbershop or doctor's office there were always a stack of back issues.
So when I found little about him in the TM, or as I call it the WTM, I figured he would have a listing in one of those books that chronicles the achievements of African-Americans, which usually have a readership in our community. I was right.
I found Distinguished African Americans in aviation and space science
By Betty Kaplan Gubert, Miriam Sawyer, Caroline M. Fannin.
What it didn't say told me a lot more than what it did cover.
Bolden was born in August of 1946, one year before I was born in August of 1947 so we are from the same generation. Like me, he is the child of two teachers. The difference between us is that he was born in Columbia SC, and I was born in the North. While I was in the integrated NYC school system, he was in a Jim Crow separate and unequal world.
But since my mom's family were all educators and professionals who were products of that same Southern system, I am well aware of the intense desire to educate and achieve instilled in young people by those teachers, in spite of the lack of materials and funding.
Here is an interesting quote from Bolden, "While there were distinct disadvantages to attending schools that were not as well funded equipped as the white schools, we were blessed with superbly dedicated teachers..."
This PSA aired in South Carolina gives a glimpse of his family:
Charles Bolden Encourages You To Teach in South Carolina
Bolden's grandmother Malinda Grier Bolden is one of the portraits featured in a book of the early black portrait photography of Richard S. Roberts, A true likeness : the black South of Richard Samuel Roberts, 1920-1936 edited by Thomas L. Johnson and Phillip C. Dunn.
Moving along in the bio, it mentions his entry into the Naval Academy. and these words were interesting, "Bolden was eager to attend the US Naval Academy. While still in High School he wrote to his Senators and his congressman, as well as to then vice President Lyndon B Johnson. Johnson answered the young man and asked Bolden to get in touch with him when the time came to apply to the Academy. During his senior year, when it became clear that neither the senators nor the congressman would appoint him (my bold), he wrote to Johnson, who was then President, reminding him of his promise, and asking for his help. Johnson arranged for Bolden to be appointed by an an Illinois congressman, and upon graduation from high school Bolden enrolled at the US naval academy in Annapolis Maryland."
The article goes on to mention in passing his first year was "rough" (I'll bet) and then there is this weird quote from his first company officer John Riley Love, who was "impressed by the the young man's intelligence and character, "he established himself as a 'non-color person' who did not use the color of his skin or his race as a crutch when something went wrong'.
Well, not weird really. Let me translate that into black speak.
Bolden was able to keep his mouth shut, and bear up under the racism.
My cousin, a star basketball player and scholar entered the Naval Academy a few years after Bolden, but had the support of his Senator from Delaware. Even so, the racism was so intense, he left after a series of incidents. Luckily he did not have to depend on the Navy as a career, and the same senator from Delaware got him a job in private industry.
Though few historians have examined the history of blacks at the Naval Academy, one author who has done two histories is Robert John Schneller, Jr, who wrote Blue and Gold and Black: Racial Integration of the U.S. Naval Academy, and Breaking the Color Barrier.
Schneller's research is featured in a Library of Congress webcast.
So do I know more about him than when I started? A bit. I know his roots. In my community we tend to want to know, "Who are your people?" meaning family/kin.
This diary has nothing to do with his ability to head or lead NASA. I don't know doodley about space or the space program other than I'm happy to know that Jim Crow won't happen out there in the space of the future.
Was just curious this morning.