Ed Dwight

Edward Joseph Dwight Jr. is an American sculptor, author, retired test pilot, and astronaut. Dwight enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1953 and was commissioned a lieutenant in 1955. In 1961, at the direction of President John F. Kennedy, he became the first African American to enter the Air Force training program from which NASA selected astronauts. Although he completed training at the Aerospace Research Pilot School in 1963 and advanced to the second round of the program, in the end he was not selected for the Astronaut Corps.