Civil Rights Activists Protest Apollo 11 (2019)

It was sort of a life insurance policy. And of course, this is all going on during the escalating war in Vietnam, during a very contentious period, to say it mildly, for racial equality in the United States. How did Americans square the two? Well, in many cases, they didn't square them that well. You know, at the same time that you've got this sort of positive, good news story of America's race to the moon, you've got these very historic events, Civil Rights Crusade, the escalation in Vietnam, and the anti-war protests that result from that and so on. And they come together at some level at the time of the launch of Apollo 11 in July of 1969, where Ralph Abernathy brings some protesters during his Poor People's Campaign to the Kennedy Space Center to protest this launch.

And to the credit of the NASA administrator, a fellow by the name of Tom Paine, reminiscent of the 18th century Tom Paine, not the same person at all, he went out and met with him. And he heard their concerns, and their concerns were, why are we spending money on this when there are so many needs here on Earth? That is a very valid question, one that NASA struggled to answer throughout its history without very good success. And Abernathy made clear that we don't object to the astronauts, and we don't really object to going to the moon, but we do think that we could spend our money better. And Paine, to his credit, said, you know, I'm in agreement with you on a lot of this. If I could solve the problems that you have identified by not pushing the button tomorrow to send the astronauts to the moon, I would not push that button. But you and I both know that this is not going to solve the problem.

You know, I would urge you to be supportive of this, and I will be supportive of you and your desires as well. We can solve a lot of problems in this nation through our use of science and technology, and that's what NASA is all about. And Abernathy bought that. Paine then asked him to pray for the safety of the astronauts, which he did beautifully. And then him and some of the members of his campaign went over to the launch and saw it the next day. And in response to that experience, and it's a moving experience to watch a rocket go up, it's sort of an epiphany in a lot of ways as you see this thing rise majestically in the distance, Abernathy, when interviewed about it, said, you know, I'm as proud as any American about this, but I really think we need to reconsider our priorities. Well, you've actually written about a kind of Apollo nostalgia that developed for a bygone