Black History

Ed Dwight: Internationally Renowned Artist and Former Air Force Test Pilot

Ed Dwight is an artist and former U.S. Air Force test pilot who was America’s first African American astronaut candidate.

Published

2 years ago

February 24, 2024

Oakland Post

Capt. Edward J. Dwight, Jr., the first African American selected as a potential astronaut, looks over a model of Titan rockets in November 1963. Bettmann Archive / Getty Images.

By Conway Jones

Ed Dwight is an artist and former U.S. Air Force test pilot who was America’s first African American astronaut candidate.

Born in 1933, he grew up in Kansas City, Kansas, showing artistic talent and mechanical gifts early in childhood.

While in college in the 1950s, Dwight saw an article in a newspaper with an image of a downed African American pilot in Korea.

“I said, ‘Oh my God, they’re letting Black people fly,’” Dwight said. “I went straight to the recruitment office and said, ‘I want to fly.’”

“My first flight was the most exhilarating thing in the world,” said Dwight. “There were no streets or stop signs up there. You were free as a bird.”

Before entering the military, Dwight had earned an Associates in Arts degree in engineering and while training to become at test pilot near Phoenix, Ariz., he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering in 1957.

In 1961, he was handpicked by President John F. Kennedy’s White House to join Chuck Yeager’s test pilot program at Edwards Air Force Base in California’s Mojave Desert. He was the first African American to enter NASA’s astronaut training program.

Dwight’s path to NASA disappeared after Kennedy’s assassination. He was never selected for the space program, and he resigned from the Air Force in 1966.

Afterward, he supported himself. In various ways: as an engineer, real estate, a job with IBM and even opening a barbecue restaurant in Denver, Colo. But he continued to work with his hands, particularly and built things with scrap metal, according to Wikipedia.

Enter Ed, Dwight, artist.

In 1975, the Colorado Centennial Commission commissioned him to create a series of bronzes depicting the contribution of Blacks to the American Frontier. The series of 50 bronzes was exhibited for several years throughout the United States.

In 1979, he created a bronze series entitled “JAZZ: An American Art Form,” that portrayed the history and historical roots of jazz. The series, now consists of over 70 bronzes that characterize the creation and evolution of jazz from its African and European roots to the fusion of contemporary music.

In 2005, Joyce Gordon hosted a one-man exhibit for Dwight in 2005 at her downtown Oakland art gallery.

“Ed Dwight is a phenomenal artist. His bronzes reflect the soul of Black Americans, their struggle, their resolve, their inner peace.” said Joyce Gordon. “His art reflects the soul of Black America.”