How NASA Chief Triumphed Over America's Most Notorious Segregationist

Administrator Charles Bolden shared an optimistic reflection about his experience with Strom Thurmond.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden; inset: former U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond. (Photos: Gabriella Demczuk/Getty Images; Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Feb 10, 2016· 1 MIN READ

Culture and education editor Liz Dwyer has written about race, parenting, and social justice for several national publications. She was previously education editor at Good.

He was a staunch segregationist, and he still holds the record for longest filibuster in U.S. history for the 24 hours and 18 minutes he spent stalling the Senate vote on the Civil Rights Act of 1957. The existence of Essie Mae Washington-Williams, the daughter he fathered in the 1920s with a 16-year-old black maid, was a secret until she went public after his death in 2003. And it seems while South Carolina politician Strom Thurmond was senator he also tried to keep Charles Bolden, the first black person to lead NASA, from being admitted to the Naval Academy.

In an interview on Tuesday with NPR’s Morning Edition, Bolden talked about NASA’s push to go to Mars and shared his own history with Thurmond. The poignant anecdotes are a reminder of how tough overcoming segregation is and the complexity of America’s relationship with race.

Bolden recalled how Thurmond and the other South Carolina senators refused to nominate him to the Naval Academy in 1963. “It was clear why they were not supporting me, and it was because of the times. They were just not about to appoint a black to the Naval Academy or to any academy,” Bolden told NPR. He appealed to President Lyndon B. Johnson, who sent a retired federal judge out across the country to recruit young black men. Bolden ended up being appointed by Rep. William Dawson of Chicago.

Fifty-three years after Bolden’s rejection by Thurmond, with Donald Trump praised in some quarters for his proposal to ban Muslims and his derogatory statements about people of Mexican descent, it may be tough for some Americans to see progress.

Indeed, most of America’s schools have become resegregated, kids of color are suspended more often, and black youths can be dragged away from their desks and slammed to the ground—and in South Carolina, Thurmond's home state, nine black members of a Charleston church were shot last summer by a white supremacist. It's no wonder that the majority of Americans describe race relations as "generally bad."

But will America ever change for the better? Bolden's story took a twist that might prove inspirational to some. Despite publicly blocking Bolden, Thurmond may have been a closet supporter.

“My mother went to her grave believing that Strom Thurmond probably helped. Because every milestone in my life after I got to the Naval Academy, as long as he lived, I got a handwritten note from him, you know, saying congratulations," Bolden said.

Although there have been critics of the idea that Thurmond renounced his racist views in his later years, Bolden interprets the late senator's actions as a sign that people’s hearts can change.

"I took from that, that even people who seem to be evil or seem to be bad, deep down inside they know what's right, and they want to do it, and they will try to find a way, you know, to make good things happen," Bolden said. "I am the eternal optimist, and I am an idealist."