Early life Dwight was born on September 9, 1933, in the racially segregated At age four, Dwight built a toy airplane out of orange crates in his backyard. 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 enlisted in the
United States Air Force in 1953. He earned the rank of
captain while serving in the Air Force. Dwight was supposedly selected to enter ARPS shortly after this phone call. According to Dwight, civil rights leader
Whitney Young personally advocated the idea of a Black astronaut to President Kennedy at a meeting involving Kennedy,
Martin Luther King Jr., and
A. Philip Randolph, and this was the "genesis of the administration's actions" that led to his selection as a trainee. Regardless, it was the president who selected him to enter the program, Dwight's selection into the Air Force program garnered international media attention, and he appeared on the covers of news magazines such as
Ebony,
Jet, and
Sepia. During an interview with French media outlet
Radio Campus Orléans in October 2024, Dwight claimed that President Kennedy asked
Wernher Von Braun if he could include a black astronaut in NASA's program, which Von Braun refused on the grounds that it would "destroy NASA with a fight with black people at NASA". Dwight proceeded to Phase II of ARPS, and "placed eighth as a contender for Nasa's
Astronaut Group 3 in October 1963," Dwight has stated, "The day the
president got killed, my life changed." Nonetheless, he denies being bitter about the experience, stating: "Here you get a little 5-foot-four guy who flies airplanes and the next thing you know this guy is in the White House meeting all these senators and congressmen," remarking that it "opened the world to me.”
Sculpting in 2020, during his honorary induction into the
U.S. Space Force. After resigning from the Air Force, Dwight worked as an engineer, in real estate, and for
IBM. 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. Post-flight, Dwight articulated experiencing the
overview effect, "Out the window, I could see the Earth. Everything looked ordered and neat and wonderful and beautiful. There was no separation between countries or states. And you ask yourself: As wonderful as it all is, why can’t the people who live on it get along? Why don’t they want to take care of such a beautiful place?" The other members of the crew were Mason Angel, Sylvain Chiron, Carol Schaller,
Kenneth Hess and Thotakura Gopichand.
Victor Glover, former NASA administrator
Charles Bolden,
Leland D. Melvin,
Bernard A. Harris Jr. and
Livingston L. Holder Jr. attended the launch. == Awards and honors ==