Another Hidden Figure: Clyde Foster Brought Color to NASA

American Experience and The Undefeated

This article was originally published by American Experience and The Undefeated to accompany the PBS documentary, CHASING THE MOON. Written by Michael A. Fletcher.

Clyde Foster in front of the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama in 1965. (Photo by Don Rutledge, Courtesy of Lucy Rutledge)

Clyde Foster came of age in Alabama in the 1950s, a place and time so oppressive for African Americans that a former Nazi rocket scientist stood out as a figure of racial moderation.

Foster’s father worked at a Birmingham iron foundry, where the dirtiest, most backbreaking jobs were reserved for African Americans. Every day he would come home dog-tired, prompting his son to vow that he would earn a living using his mind, not his back. By itself, that was an audacious plan for a black man living in Alabama.

But Foster did much more than just find himself a desk job. He became a pioneering figure in the U.S. space program. Over nearly 30 years working for NASA, beginning in the agency’s earliest days, his mathematical calculations helped propel rockets into space. His focused determination helped establish a computer science program at what is now Alabama A&M University, making the historically black institution the first public college in Alabama to offer the major. And his quiet and relentless advocacy brought hundreds of African Americans into space industry jobs in the Deep South, helping to shift perceptions of black people in ways both subtle and profound.

Read the full article at American Experience and The Undefeated