AMERICA'S FORGOTTEN ASTRONAUT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000400460040-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 8, 1999
• Sequence Number: 40
• Publication Date: July 26, 1969
• Content Type: NSPR

CHICAGO, I$lanitized - l?'r~ iTFor Release : CIA-RDP7
NEWS .r' ..
E - '462,916
.al1L 26 1969
..: By L. F. Palm..errir.
dicate strong objections to this pilot, Maj. Harvey 7. Royer, need the kind of image that
mnntrv'.q system Of priorities. ..,aa Ini?rhri- Bob represented. t 5 t .
successful moon landing in- alter this version. The other program? Black boys and
The negative attitudes many A , careful . examination of tl
blacks have about America's later reports rcgcals nothing to :obscure his role in the space i:'estingulsh the A m e r i c a i' p
But even more reveoling is An Air Force spokesman, Ishmael Flory, director of
the depth of suspicion which however, told this writer ' that organization for the .,African-
persists in sectors of the black"; the official Air Force probe American Heritage Assn:, is
community about the death of 1', shows that both pilots ejected much more blunt:
,the only black astronaut in a. 'before the crash and that Law- :.. "Certainly' there ' isa in the''
plane crash at Edwards Air rence's parachute "did not open Afro-American cp{iimunity' a,
Force Base in California in, "sufficiently." , 1 J , suspicion that Maj..Lawrence
T ecember, 1967. t ~., The report b I a m e s Law- might have , died from foul' g
This mistrust deepened in. t is And as ion g the nation
P rence's death on "low ejec- P Y' g
n d of numerous blacks '+ Th okes-An could can talk about the space pro-.J
s
s
'th
Fastronauts killed in the space, ejected, despite the fact that States C1UZCn like Lawrence Maj.. Robert H Lawrence '
aulk,aa+tJ+.~t . .:,scl ; +. .xn aawsl+k)
k U__ 4 there will be further sus,
i
m
e
tLOn. a
p gram and those who died forl $? a
,who have complained that find no information on the t;
'most TV and press eulogie,%tol altitude at which. the pilots it, and ignore a black United + r . .-T
~
H. Lawrence. :pened.
th i Flory says this oversight`is'
li
0
Many blacks be
eve wt , "THIS
IS what makbd me 'another example of "racist
passion that astronaut Law-I
wonder ':.:. the fact thai', his .,; sickness, though it may not bear
fence, a b r i l l i a n t scTenti C. -Ml parachute didn't oven." . Mrs. .intentional." He demanded full
deliberately killed to keep a !-daughter -- Maj. Lawrence's which killed the black as
t,_,.~. ....... ?..nw, anhiavinn thPi - _ -.--_-- --__-. -
etto environment, was
mother-in-law, told me. , Her cumstances behind the .crash:;
THbJr. arLtt.ra ;with reporters. To blacks, it is urgent that!
worlds about the distrust many ( the contributions of men like,
Wnrtrc haVn of our aovern? It is known, however, that s i, - .. .n..'.
tiny ? from, their 'government that:
plaining or really knowing who F, The astronauts mother, ;the harbor such +"thov" arv- Mrc. Gwendolyn Duncan. also A Y can ghastly,
s
responsible for . Lawrence , a
death. Others insist that] iband's death," Mrs., Cress ex-',,;,significant is that there are
death. i'.., Iwnft LI__1- A< wr7nnww' nn ntlc,nnrndl
_?4?? ; gate io newdmeU.
f nati.on's first spacemen. :, p IT IS, OF course, most
t '' "This is because of a' com-
There are those who are con.! bination of bitterness and the unlikely that in the play will death ever
vin ,ed that the A l..r In.] be admitted- in oty
't a 111 e n c ncy was. emotional stress. of publicly '?'Maj. Lawrence, even if it were _bjW ,
reopening the fact of her bus- present. What is enormously.
meat. On the race, tney se i r.vialt J.riw..::a.o a ??r credit in the building of this,'
preposterous. i been e, txembly urhh.ipPy'10t:
V country. it Is upon,, such
doors have been left kmhny fszcets o, his death,' fins iratlon'that black boys and
Yet
,
open for the kind of mistrq ,including-r16.^, ;?epnlts in~iicat- P '
irls can climb to tholr. own
itxpressed by one black man sing he was the pilot of tho
ard Potential.'
He
d
w
.
,*ho, on hearing of Lawrence's,4 ',plane which crashe
La
I In a eulogy to 1
t'at the controls
d
kill
`
"
v.
.
e
?
no
They
, the
death, exclaimed:
rence at his funeral, the Rev.
hat Negro." "THERE seemed to he an `Ben Richardson said: '
Press reports on the crash y effort to make it appear that "He left us hope,. a'cause, for.
id the
id M
F
"
"
'
orce sa
rs.
. sa
The Air
to .blame,
optimism, a mdansi .by ,which
read:
[Bob 4 was
with the two pilots C
o Board of
u Chica
"ihnit fire Harth
l
e
g
,r
ane
p
as, ,
men can
crashed on the runway during' 1 ducatlptt,,,,Parent,:oo-o>y4Inat; r1K : ~oyouel~l,~ `,
nldli~ilWlii
'CPYRGHT Sanitized - Approved *' for Release -CIA ~RP P, 0Q14'9 ,.0400460040-7
s r .ten astronaut