Remembering the Space Age. - Black Vault Radio Network (BVRN)

102 Societal Impact of Spaceflight
102 reMeMBerING the SpaCe aGe
the Germans were not only perceived as not supportive of african
american causes or simply privileged in comparison; as Smith explains, they
also appeared to actively engage in undermining african-american institutions,
such as alabama a&M, by supporting the Jim Crow system of dual education:
this is one of the negative things they’ve done—they were
(the ones) who helped found the University of alabama here
in huntsville. and I say negative because there was already a
state supported school in huntsville and it’s called alabama
a&M. and so you now have this clash, this friction, this
tension, between the new white school and the old black
school, both state supported. So, that’s one of the things
the Germans also did. Von Braun. So, in other words, von
Braun may have brought his european ethnocentrism . . .
from Germany to huntsville. and it was nothing out of the
ordinary for him to . . . advocate the opening of a Jim Crow
school. So, the Germans were not advocates of racial integration,
as far as I know. 35
Von Braun was indeed instrumental in getting substantial funding for the
University of alabama, huntsville, which was founded before desegregation in
1961. 36 Instead of pointing to von Braun, Clyde Foster ofers another explanation
35. Smith interview, July 29, 2007. For more information about the dual system of education in
alabama, see the higher education desegregation case known as John F. Knight, Jr., and alease
S. Sims, et al. vs. the State of alabama, et al., Civil action No. CV 83-M-1676, “which began
in Montgomery in 1981.” the case was “concerned with eliminating vestiges of historical,
state enforced, racial segregation and other forms of ofcial racial discrimination against
african americans in alabama’s system of public universities.” Both alabama a&M and Uah
among others were defendants in this case. For a detailed historical overview of the “history of
discrimination against african americans in higher education” in alabama, see Opinion 1 Fed.
Supp., Vols. 781-835 787, F. Supp. 1030, Knight v. State of ala., (N.D. aL 1991). after approving
multiple remedial decrees, the court ordered the case closed in December 2006. Information
about the case and full-text pDF fles of the opinions are available at: http://knightsims.com/index.
html (accessed January 5, 2008).
36. Uah existed as an extension of the University of alabama in varying forms since 1950. In 1961,
von Braun intervened in the town’s education politics by addressing the alabama legislature,
requesting funds to build and equip a research institute on the Uah campus. the alabama
legislature approved $3 million in revenue bonds for the University. See “alabama a&M
University: historical Sketch,” Ofce of Information & public relations, http://www.aamu.edu/
portal/page/portal/images/AAMUHistory.pdf (accessed December 10, 2007) and “If you really
investigate Uah’s history, how it all started and when and why, you might decide that the whole
thing goes back to 1943 and the day pat richardson was hit in the neck by a softball,” phillip
Gentry, University relations, http://urnet.uah.edu/News/pdf/UAHhistory.pdf (accessed December
11, 2007). For accounts of von Braun’s role in the expansion of Uah, see Ben Graves, “panelist
#7,” in A Century of Flight: ‘Creating Rocket City’ by David Lilly (huntsville, aL: 2003) and Bob
Ward, Dr. Space: The Life of Wernher Von Braun, pp. 170-171.