Black History Month 24
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Everyone who is old enough remembers where they were when the space shuttle challenger exploded just 73 seconds after blast off 30 years ago today.

Ronald E.  Mcnair, the second African American to reach outer space was one of the 7 astronauts who died in the disaster.  He was survived by his wife Cheryl and his two children.

Born in Lake City, South Carolina, in 1950, Mcnair was a 5th degree black belt karate instructor and jazz saxophonist.

He was a graduate of carver high school, received a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from North Carolina a&t state university and a PhD in physics from Massachusetts institute of technology.

He was posthumously awarded with the congressional space medal of honor.

His older brother, Carl recalls Ron starting to dream about space when he was 9 years old.  In 1959 he once took a mile walk to the segregated public library without anyone knowing. When he tried to check out some books, the librarian called the police and Ron’s mother pearl.

When two policemen arrived and realized the situation, one of them asked the librarian to allow Ron to check out books. By then his mom had arrived and assured the librarian that Ron would take good care of them.  The librarian reluctantly handed over the books and Ron‘s mom turned to him and said “what do you say?”  And Ron answered, “thank you, ma’am.”

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(Photo Source: AP)

Little Known Black History Fact: Ron McNair  was originally published on blackamericaweb.com