More than a million people gathered along Florida鈥檚 Space Coast to watch the Apollo 11 lift off from Launchpad 39A on the sunny afternoon of July 16, 1969. The event was the culmination of a technological race started by President John F. Kennedy in 1963 with the goal of beating the Soviet Union to the moon.

But not everyone was cheering that summer day.

A group of 500 mostly African American protesters led by civil rights leader Ralph Abernathy arrived outside the gates of the Kennedy Space Center a few days before the launch. They brought with them two mules and a wooden wagon to illustrate the contrast between the gleaming white Saturn V rocket and families who couldn鈥檛 afford food or a decent place to live.

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The Southern Christian Leadership Conference's Poor People's marchers line up mules near the gates to the Kennedy Space Center on July 15, 1969.

Abernathy was one of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.鈥檚 closest aides. After King鈥檚 assassination in April 1968, Abernathy led the Poor People鈥檚 March on Washington that summer. A year later, as NASA prepared to launch Apollo 11, the Alabama preacher led a group of mostly Black Americans to show NASA and the assembled media that all was not well in America鈥檚 cities.

鈥淭here was a debate about what America was at the time,鈥 says Neil Maher, author of 2017鈥檚 Apollo in the Age of Aquarius, and a professor of history at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Maher says the Apollo space program divided Americans among supporters who thought it would energize a country that had gotten lost, and those who believed that it represented a huge waste of money that instead should go to solving societal problems.

鈥淲as it a country to spend $20 billion to land two men on a dead rock in space or try to solve some of the problems closer to home on Earth?鈥 Maher says. 鈥淎 lot of grass roots movements argued to use the [NASA] money to solve problems here.鈥

The protest began peacefully with Abernathy and the others gathered in front of the NASA gates for a candlelight vigil on the evening of July 14 followed by a march on July 15. As NASA administrator Thomas Paine under a lightly falling rain to meet Abernathy and the others in an open field, the group began singing 鈥淲e Shall Overcome鈥 and media crews recorded the event. Protesters carried signs reading 鈥$12 a day to feed an astronaut, we could feed a child for $8.鈥

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Reverend Ralph Abernathy, flanked by associate Hosea Williams stand on steps of a mockup of the lunar module displaying a protest sign while demonstrating at the Apollo 11 moon launch site.

The two men鈥擯aine the Stanford-educated engineer, and Abernathy the Alabama-born Baptist preacher (who also earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree in mathematics)鈥攖alked for a while. Paine later recorded his :

鈥淥ne-fifth of the population lacks adequate food, clothing, shelter and medical care, [Rev. Abernathy] said. The money for the space program, he stated, should be spent to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, tend the sick, and house the shelterless.鈥

Abernathy told Paine that he had three requests for NASA, that 10 families of his group be allowed to view the launch, that NASA 鈥渟upport the movement to combat the nation鈥檚 poverty, hunger and other social problems,鈥 and that NASA technical people work 鈥渢o tackle the problem of hunger.鈥

鈥淚f we could solve the problems of poverty in the United States by not pushing the button to launch men to the moon tomorrow,鈥 Paine said while holding a microphone, 鈥渢hen we would not push that button.鈥

Paine added that he hoped Abernathy would 鈥渉itch his wagons to our rocket, using the space program as a spur to the nation to tackle problems boldly in other areas, and using NASA鈥檚 space successes as a yardstick by which progress in other areas should be measured.鈥

The meeting ended and the two men shook hands. Paine offered tickets to Abernathy鈥檚 group for the VIP viewing area to watch the moonshot on the following day. Abernathy then prayed for the safety of the astronauts and said he was as proud as anyone at the accomplishment. 

AP Photo
NASA Administrator Thomas Paine wears a miniature "hangman's noose" around his neck with a note that reads "I Helped Hang Poverty,"given to him by&nbsp;<em>Reverend Ralph Abernathy on&nbsp;</em>July 15, 1969.

"On the eve of man's noblest venture, I am profoundly moved by the nation's achievements in space and the heroism of the three men embarking for the moon,鈥 , according to a UPI report. But, he added, "What we can do for space and exploration we demand that we do for starving people."

鈥淭he Abernathy protest was an example that Apollo did not happen in bubble,鈥 said , author of Apollo to the Moon: A History in 50 Objects, and curator of space history at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. 鈥淚t was very connected to everything else that was going on in the country.鈥

In the months and years that followed the meeting, NASA tried to make good on the promises Paine made that day at Cape Canaveral. NASA engineers took sensors initially used to detect contaminants in space capsules and converted them to measure urban air pollution. Another project took spacecraft insulation and made new kinds of walls and windows for public housing. But Maher says the efforts didn鈥檛 amount to much.

鈥淚t was more of an advertising effort,鈥 he said.

The Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, 1969, was for many people the apogee of NASA鈥檚 popular support. A year after the Apollo 11, Gil Scott-Heron released a spoken-word critique of the space missions 鈥淲hitey on the Moon鈥 (a song featured in the 2018 film First Man.) And, in the months and years following Apollo 11, public and political support for space exploration waned. The nation鈥檚 focus had shifted to the Vietnam War, campus protests and movements focused on civil rights, women鈥檚 rights and the environment.

By 1970, NASA officials scrubbed the final three moon landings and President Richard Nixon rejected a new NASA recommendation to build a station on the moon that could be used as a base for exploration of Mars.

鈥淲e must build on the successes of the past, always reaching out for new achievements,鈥 on March 7, 1970. 鈥淏ut we must also recognize that many critical problems here on this planet make high priority demands on our attention and our resources.鈥

The last astronaut to walk on the moon left in December 1972.

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