The Old Negro Space Program 2004

Wallace “Suitcase” Jefferson, Johnny Brown, is determined to win the heart of the girl he likes and applies for a job at NASA, the newly formed space program. Yet the era’s pervasive racism is laid bare as NASA remains whites-only, a reflection of the country’s segregated reality. Undeterred, he teams up with his friend Louie Hays to form the Negro American Space Society of Astronauts (NASSA), a bold venture that captures the imagination of many.

Sullivan Carew, Jordan Black voices the pivotal role, and the cast includes Rodney Saulsberry alongside Johnny Brown and Andy Bobrow as Dr. Warren Fingerroot. Together, they drive a story about ambition, friendship, and a stubborn belief that space belongs to everyone, not just a select few.

By 1960, NASSA has grown into a nationwide movement with more than 240 “blackstronauts” signing up, turning the group into a grassroots phenomenon. The members spread across the country, barnstorming in small towns to raise money and becoming minor celebrities in the process. In Washington, the government worries about losing the space race to the Soviets, but the greater fear is losing to this audacious, self-made squad.

Like NASA, NASSA experiences setbacks. Sullivan Carew dies a heroic death when his rocket-powered school bus burns up in the atmosphere, while Peter “Stinky Pete” Carver catches fire in an Illinois church parking lot. Unlike NASA, however, the blackstronauts refuse to slow down their ambitious program—Stinky Pete is extinguished and makes another launch the very next day.

The film also features a poignant letter from Sullivan Carew to his wife, written two days before his death, a tender moment that serves as a quiet counterpoint to the larger drama. It parodies the famous Sullivan Ballou letter, a nod to Ken Burns’s The Civil War, anchoring the story in a broader tradition of American memory.

NASA makes a calculated bid to pull away NASSA’s light-skinned members, attempting to recruit those who can pass as white, but this ploy proves ineffective. In response, the government enacts a “black blackout”—a deliberate silencing of positive stories about NASSA, with newspapers focusing instead on crime and unrest, relegating the group’s achievements to the back pages.

On September 31, 1966, Wallace Jefferson and Louie Hayes achieve a historic feat by landing their rocket-powered Coupe de Ville on the Moon and returning safely to Earth. Yet the moment is buried by the blackout and barely makes national headlines, published only on a distant page, far from the splash that such an achievement deserves. Frustrated by the nation’s complacency, Jefferson and his friends decide to shut down NASSA, their dream fading as quickly as it rose.