Did the Space Race help launch a generation of Black Scientist?

Great Debates
1

HERE is a cite that tells the story of one of many African American scientist, that the U.S. greatly benefited from during the Space Race of the 1960’s.There were many others that very few know about, that made great contributions to NASA during this critical tyime in out history. One in particular was a guy that almost single handedly derived the ultimate battleplan that NASA used to beat the Soviets to the moon. I can’t remember his name, but I remember hearing about him during a McDonalds commercial during Black History month. NASA already had a battleplan to get Astronauts there, but it would have taken a very long time. This guy “who was a mathmatical genius” provided a plan that almost cut that time in half which resulted in the US beating the Soviets. The US Navy even named a Nuclear powered Submarine after him. If ANYONE out there knows the name of this guy, please post it here for all of us to see.

Question to Debate: Did the Space Race of the 1960’s launch careers of several unsung African American Scientist that remain obscured from our history books?

For whatever reason you choose to answer, be it YES or NO, please state the reason for your answer and please provide any cites you may have.

2

Here is the link again http://www.africana.com/research/blackfacts/bl_fact_167.asp

3

Yes.
Is the fact that they are not identified bad or with malicious intent? No.

Lots of scientists choose to go into science for various reasons and most of them (not attempting to belittle them in any sense) do not end up with discoveries that are significant enough to merit mention in high school textbooks.

4

Your question contains a contradiction. If these black scientists were unsung and “obscured from our history books”, then where would one get the information needed to answer your question in the affirmative? By the way you phrase your question, it seems you have already made up your mind on the issue.

Besides, history books generally don’t discuss modern scientists anyway, regardless of race. They seem to stop at about the Wright Brothers.