I remember July, 20th, 1969.
I was an African-American teenager in East Philly.
That July was typically hot and sticky in that part of Pennsylvania.
I recall the day time high was about 89.
My dad was working that Saturday at a local gas station, and I was enjoying
a game of stick ball with my African-American friends that evening.
Even if I wanted to watch the Apollo 11 mission that day, our B&W TV
was in bad shape.

Besides, my friends back in 69 thought that the Apollo 11 mission
"was for the honkies"...They thought that 'whitey' was taking billions
of dollars from black brothers across America and using it on sending three white
guys to the moon...They resented that..So did I at the time.
Yes, their comments were racist, so were mine.
I grew up, and my resentment of whites disappeared in college.

But in 1969 we also thought Reverend Jesse Jackson got it right by denouncing
the NASA program.
I think Mr. Jackson changed his mind too when Challenger blew up in 86, killing Ron McNair,
a fellow African-American.

40 years later, and now having moved from Philly north to Canada, becoming African-Canadian, and in love with astronomy
and space travel .

That's the way we black people thought of Apollo 11 back then.