This is later with Lee Matthews the Lee Matthews Podcast More what you Hear weekday
afternoons on the Drive. Leland Meldon is an astronaut for NASA and executive producer
of The Space Race. He has joined with co director Diego or Tondo de
Mendoza of a national geographic. It's a new documentary out The Space Race,
which is available everywhere you get your documentaries. It's the untold story of the
first black astronauts. Leland, let's start with you. This is taking what
we already know and attacking it from a different point of view. Yeah,
Lee, this is such an incredible journey about you know, the first,
the first to be black astronaut, and how he didn't make it because of
what was going on at the time of the civil rights and Jim Crow laws
and all these things. But it shows his indomitable spirit to not just get
depressed and said and go away. He turned into a world renowned artist who
tells stories through his one hundred and thirty two sculptures all around the country and
the world. And so that spirit that Ed Dwight had was infused into all
of us and Guy Blueford and Charlie Bolden and Mae Jimmis and all these black
astronauts that were using the foundation that edits it to rise and do incredible things
in space. And it lets kids and young kids and old kids alike see
this history that was hidden to us. It was hidden to me. I
never knew about Eddwayite until later when I was at NASA, And it's just
so important that we all know our history. I mean, what I know
about Ed White was the Apollo disaster that he perished in correct, No,
that was Ed White. This is Ed dwighte oh Dwight. I'm sorry.
Okay, Okay, now I understand, Okay, see that that's you're teaching
me something I didn't know. And that's what this documentary gets to the heart
of Diego Hertando de ro Mendoza. You are a cinematographer and co director of
this and producer and director. What attracted you about this story? Well,
I mean, this story is just absolutely incredible. Is when you when you
look at the history of space exploration, I think most most people will think
they've seen it all, they've heard it all. You know, there's hundreds
of books and movies and documentaries that tell this incredible story. But in this
film, they're going to discover, uh, you know, a group of
incredible men and women they might have never heard about. And and there's these
incredible hidden figures that contributed to the program but disappeared from that history. And
we've seen, you know, when we've shown these film at festivals, we've
you know, audiences come after the film and and ask it like how I
thought I knew everything about the space program and I'd never heard about any of
this. And I think it makes people wonder what other aspects of reality they
are like this where you know, incredible contributions done by minorities were just literally
erased or omitted from from the history. Went out Leland Melvin is with us
Diego Hetaldo del Mendoza, then Astra geographic documentary The Space Race out now Leland.
Was it more difficult for Black Americans to get into space exploration because it
was more difficult for them to get the education necessary to get there. It's
a very good question. I mean, one of the things that you know,
we we hit on in this this movie is how do we get these
young black kids into these academies so that they can you know, get the
education and the and the right stuff required to to have the credentials to be
into these types of things in aerospace. And so that's a that's a very
important point that that we we touched in the movie when We're when President Kennedy
wants to get to black vote and and there was a gentleman who wants,
uh, the president to make him a black astronaut so he can utilize these
pathways to get more kids into stem field science, psychology, engineering, and
math. And and it's you know, it's interesting to me because you know,
we in Oklahoma have Langston University. There was Tuskegee Institute in Alabama,
but but I don't know of any other specific universities that were that that had
the capability of getting some of these students to the to the science and math
that they needed. Now, sure, we had the Tuskegee Airmen, and
we certainly had pilots who knew what they were doing up in the sky,
but it was I guess it was the other the theory that had to be
worked out mathematically first. Well, you know, guy Blueford went to Penn
State. He got his okay, he got his uh his A degree at
Penn State. But he was in his aerospace engineering class. He was the
only one. He was only black person in that class. And so you
did have people going into the major universities, but was in ones and twos,
and a lot of these kids didn't know that that was even possible.
Guy Blueford's father was an electrical engineer, so for him it was normal to
in that family that they were you know, scientists and engineers and things,
and that was a possibility, but so many kids never knew about that.
This is Leland Melvin who was the executive producer and co director Diego Artando del
Mendoza of National Geographics documentary The Space Race. Diego, did you have to
pour over a lot of video to edit this down? We had the help
of NASA, who was instrumental in which was instrumental in getting us access to
the phenomenal archive the space program. But it's being thoroughly documented, so we
had hundreds and hundreds of hours. We had a phenomenal team at the Kennedy
Marshall, the production company that we worked with, who helped us calm through
these tremendous amount of footage. And I think it's a visual treat I mean,
space is something that's so thought provoking for all of us that haven't had
that experience, and so in the film, I think people will will see
space, We'll see it through a different lens. They'll see it through the
eyes of these men and women who went through so much to get to accomplish
their dreams and their mission. And I think that it's a universal story that
will inspire everyone. Leland Melvin's with US executive producer along with co director Diego
Hertadlo del Mendoza of the National Geographic documentary The Space Race, and and Leland
eventually, Oh okay, I'm sorry, I just had one more quick question,
but Leland, when when we finally did get Black Americans in space,
was it considered a victory or was it considered par for the course for NASA?
I mean, I think it was, Uh, it was both.
It was. It was the victory, but once we uh, once guy
was in space, you know, we had more people to go. So
it wasn't a one time thing. It was it was a continuous journey for
Black Americans and then also for women and other minorities to get a chance to
find space. Leland Melvin, along with Diego Diego Heart Miss Mendoza of the
Space Race, available with the National Geographic anywhere you get your natural geographic products
and gentlemen, thank you for joining us and for the film. Thank you
so much. Thank you. Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews,
the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons
from five to seven and iHeartMedia presentation