"Eventually, NASA selected [Charlie Bolden] in 1980 for the second group of space shuttle astronauts. Around 10 minutes into his first space flight, which he piloted, the crew was orbiting Earth when he saw a big island — which turned out to be Africa, he said. 'Being of African descent, I had spent a lot of time studying the geography of the planet so I’d be able to try to find, perhaps, one or more of the countries from which my [...]

"In an exclusive interview with Space.com in 2020, Charles 'Charlie' Bolden — a former astronaut who served as NASA administrator from 2009 to 2017 — reflected on his experiences as a Black man and leader of space exploration, along with his feelings about racism and violence against people of color today, which he said are ubiquitous in American society because 'this is what our nation was founded on…'" Read the full article here: Full Article

"Born in 1946 and raised in segregated South Carolina, Bolden, an African American, set his sights on the U.S. Naval Academy, despite legislators from his district withholding their recommendations. "Bolden finally made it to the Naval Academy—and hated it. 'I thought it was tough. I thought it was unfair. I faced discrimination,' Bolden recalls. 'I cried to my mom and dad every weekend during my [freshman] year, saying I wanted to come home. My dad told me to just hang in there [...]