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Ronald McNair was kicked out of the library when he was nine years old because he was Black. That same structure is now named in his honor.
In 1959, police were called to a segregated library when a Black 9-year-old boy trying to check out books refused to leave, after being told the library was not for Black people.
The boy, Ronald McNair, went on to became an astronaut. The library is also now named after him. pic.twitter.com/vds2OYn6RU
— AFRICAN & BLACK HISTORY (@AfricanArchives) November 24, 2022
McNair’s Legacy
Throughout his life, McNair was confronted with the harshness of racism, and his resilience against the times he lived in lives on even decades after his death.
Due to segregation in the South, McNair was denied the ability to check out books from his local library in 1959. As a young man raised in South Carolina at the time, this type of behavior was not unusual; however, McNair took a stand against the ill treatment he received because of the color of his skin.
Rather than leaving the facility, as the librarian had advised, a 9-year-old McNair doubled down on his desire to check out the books and sat on the counter, refusing to leave.
Ultimately, the police were called and they told the librarian to allow him to check out the books.
The rest is, as one would say, history.
Making History
His physics expertise, combined with his numerous achievements in the field, ultimately led NASA to choose McNair from a pool of thousands of applicants to join its 1978 space shuttle program.
He became the second Black person to fly into space in 1984.
