The Space Race brings an out-of-this-world perspective to Black History Month

(CNN) – The annual influx of Black History Month programming yields an out-of-this-world documentary in The Space Race, which recognizes pioneers in integrating the space program, the resistance they faced and even the Soviet Union preceding America in sending a person of color into orbit. From the title to the execution, this National Geographic presentation has the right stuff. Much of The Space Race – directed by Lisa Cortés and Diego Hurtado de Mendoza – will be revelatory to those whose image of the space program and NASA relies heavily on movies like 1983’s The Right Stuff, with the all-White Mercury 7 squad. Related Stories As the documentary notes, John F. Kennedy wanted to integrate the program but found that obvious candidates, like World War II’s Tuskegee Airmen, were too old. At 27, Ed Dwight was offered an opportunity to become the first Black astronaut in 1961 but faced the headwinds of being portrayed as a token addition by legendary pilot Chuck Yeager, who, as Dwight tells it, instructed his peers not to interact with him and kept pressuring him to quit. Dwight’s dream died with JFK’s assassination, and while other Black participants were gradually admitted to the space program,...