By Don Valentine
Dr. McNair was an academic prodigy and began studying calculus math at 9-years-old. This precocious 4th grader should have been learning his introductory multiplication tables. In 1959 the police were called to remove a young menace to the backwater town library of Lake City, SC. It was a tiny snapshot of how craven the Jim Crow era was for our society. The White librarian proved to be a heinous recreant and told a little boy he could not read a book!
The story is recorded by historyhustle.com “…he politely” took his books up to be checked out, but was told by the librarian that he can’t. Because he’s Black, he must leave, she said. The librarian called the police and his mother. When the police arrived, they told the librarian to let him have the books, which she reluctantly did. And Ronald thanked her and left with his mother. “Later, the Lake City Library became the Dr. Ronald E. McNair Life History Center. “God works in mysterious ways”-W. Cowper
He was born October 12, 1950, in Lake City. Dr. McNair’s lineage was three generations removed from slavery. His fortitude and stamina could be attributed to the benefits of slavery. But, there were zero benefits to being a slave! Any presumed attribute existed inherently, and being a slave was an impediment, not a benefit.
A detailed article by The Daily Beast quoted Dr. McNair on his rough childhood. “I gained qualities in that cotton field,” Ron said. “I got tough. I learned to endure. I refuse to quit.” By age four, his father said, “he was too smart to stay home.” Mr. McNair lied to get him into kindergarten.
The teenage genius was class valedictorian at sixteen. While in high school he starred in baseball, basketball, football, and played sax for the school band. At this time he was on his way to a 5th degree Black belt. Dr. McNair was not a nerd to be bullied. Next, to North Carolina A&T, for a degree in physics and the brothers of Omega Psi Phi. He earned a Ph.D. in physics from M.I.T. Following his graduation in 1976, Dr. McNair became a physicist at Hughes Research Laboratories.
NASA selected him as an astronaut, and went to space on February 3, 1984. It made him the second Black man in space. The first was Guion Bluford August 1983. Sadly on his next trip to space, in 1986, the Challenger exploded. We lost all of the crew on board.
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