LISA DESJARDINS: And finally tonight, the last in our series Hidden Histories.

Space exploration has long fascinated humans from the fantasy of the ancient Greeks to the reality of the moon landing the last century, venturing into space is about pushing into new frontiers, but not just the technological.

Tonight, we bring you the story of pilot and astronaut candidate Ed Dwight.

JOHN YANG: Ed Dwight had sky high dreams from the time he was growing up in the Midwest.

JERMAINE FOWLER, Author, "The Humanity Archive": Dwight's first love with art actually.

He drew and trace cartoons in newspapers from a small child.

But his second passion was airplanes.

JOHN YANG: Jermaine Fowler is the author of The Humanity Archive.

JERMAINE FOWLER: He hung around his local hangar, and so he begins cleaning out airplanes when he's five and six years old.

JOHN YANG: Being around this all-white group of aviators piqued Dwight interest in flying.

But in segregated Kansas City, Kansas, it was hard to imagine a future for himself in the air.

JERMAINE FOWLER: One day's delivering newspapers, and he saw Air Force pilot Dayton Ragland, a black man from Kansas City, on the front page of a black newspaper called The Call.

This is kind of when the light bulb went off, like I could be a pilot, too.

JOHN YANG: After earning an associate's degree in engineering, Dwight joined the U.S. Air Force and trained to become a test pilot.

He was stationed in Texas, Missouri, and Arizona, and on the side earned his bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering.

Michael Cassutt is an author and space historian.

MICHAEL CASSUTT, Space Historian: The Air Force at its test pilot school started creating what they call a space school that would allow you to be more qualified to fly for NASA.

JOHN YANG: Through it all, Dwight had one goal in mind, to become America's first black astronaut.

JERMAINE FOWLER: There was one time in 1962 where Dwight, he's flying this F-104 Starfighter nicknamed the Chrome javelin, and this is a supersonic aircraft that reaches the edges of the earth's atmosphere, and it's very dangerous up there.

You could black out, you could crash, you could die.

And, you know, he's ready for this thrill.

He really wants to become this astronaut.

JOHN YANG: It was the early 60s, America was roiled by the civil rights movement and captivated by the space race with the Soviet Union.

White House officials had a stake in Dwight joining NASA's all-white astronaut corps.

MICHAEL CASSUTT: The Kennedy administration had made it clear to the higher ups of the Air Force that they were interested in having a black Air Force officer not only go through the school, but then become a candidate to be a NASA astronaut, to be part of the apollo program.

ED DWIGHT: To the onlooker, I suppose you could say that this is definitely a sign of progress for the negro in the country.

I personally think that -- I would like to think as an individual rather than me being a Negro.

JOHN YANG: Dwight was thrust into the media spotlight.

MICHAEL CASSUTT: Ebony and other magazines and newspapers talking about him while he was probably just trying to keep his head down and do a good job as a student.

JOHN YANG: NASA was not immune to the nation's racial tensions.

JERMAINE FOWLER: Chuck Yeager who ran the Edwards Air Force Base, he did not want him there from the very beginning.

So he's always getting this push back, people questioning if he's there only because he's black and he's under immense scrutiny.

JOHN YANG: Still, Dwight persisted.

He completed the rigorous training and with a recommendation from the Air Force, applied to become a NASA astronaut.

NO NAME GIVEN: I guess you all know why you're here today and why we're here.

We'd like to introduce the new group of 14 astronauts.

JOHN YANG: Future Apollo astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Alan Bean and Eugene Cernan were among those selected.

Dwight did not make the cut.

MICHAEL CASSUTT: He left a year later, signed his commission and went on to business and a new life.

JOHN YANG: Dwight retired from the Air Force, moved to Colorado, and turned to a childhood passion he'd left behind.

JERMAINE FOWLER: He didn't make history as an astronaut, but he makes it in the form of art.

So he has all these great historical monuments all across the country, from Atlanta to Denver to Washington, D.C. JOHN YANG: It took until 1983 for a black American to go into space, when Guion Bluford was a space shuttle Challenger mission specialist.

Nine years later, Mae Jemison became the first black woman in space aboard the shuttle endeavor.

Dwight paved the way for both of them, even though his own dream of space flight was never fulfilled.

For "PBS News Weekend,' I'm John Yang.