(gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) - In a nutshell, his childhood was completely marked by, "How can I be useful to others with what I have?"

(gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) - [Narrator] It was the early 1950s in America.

Racial prejudice and segregation were often the rule in the workplace, at school, and in daily life.

It was in this time of conflict and change that 16-year-old Robert Henry Lawrence Jr.

launched himself on a trajectory that would lead him to becoming America's first African American astronaut.

In 2025, Bradley University unveiled a statue of Robert Lawrence to recognize and honor his inspiring accomplishments as a Bradley student, scientist, and pioneer in space exploration.

Robert Lawrence was not a Peoria native, but the person he was to become took root here in Central Illinois.

Born in Chicago in 1935, young Robert Lawrence excelled from an early age.

He attended Haines Elementary School in the South Side of Chicago, loved chess, and built model airplanes.

He graduated from Englewood High School in the top 10% of his class.

In the high school yearbook, he said his ambition was to be useful to mankind.

- He was an avid lover of science and music.

Trained in classical piano.

From a young age, was very passionate about science, and we were told that every Christmas, he asked for the newest, most elaborate chemistry set that was available.

- [Narrator] Robert's athletic abilities as a runner won him a track scholarship at Bradley University.

He arrived on campus in 1952, pledged the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, and joined the Air Force ROTC.

He chose chemistry as his major and became active in the student chapter of the American Chemical Society.

Some universities at that time would not admit African American students, or put up barriers to segregate them from the white student body and deny equal opportunities.

Bradley was different.

- I have to say that our department was sort of a microcosm of itself and very supportive of all students.

The faculty at that time just saw themselves as put there with a mission to help cultivate the potential of all the students regardless of race, gender, orientations.

- [Narrator] By all accounts, Robert saw himself as just another student pursuing his dreams.

- He was determined, and I think his family had raised both he and his sister to pursue their dreams, and even, you know, in face of adversity.

I mean, they were very humble people, but they would not back down from adversity.

- [Narrator] Robert graduated from Bradley in 1956 and became an Air Force instructor pilot, assigned to train airmen in the German Air Force.

When he returned to the United States, he married his high school sweetheart, Barbara Cress.

A son, Tracey, was born a year later.

The ambitious pilot and chemist continued to climb higher.

He was accepted into the graduate program at the Ohio State University, and in 1965, he earned his PhD in physical chemistry, one of the most difficult branches of chemistry.

- When he wrote the dedication for his PhD dissertation, dedicated his work to African Americans who, and I quote... - [Narrator] "Have spent their lives in the performance of menial tasks, struggling to overcome both natural and manmade problems of survival.

To such men and women, scientific investigation would've seemed a grand abstraction.

However, it has been their endeavors which have supplied both the wherewithal and motivation that initiated and helped sustain this effort."

- [Narrator] Graduate degree in hand, Robert became a senior pilot in the Air Force, and in 1967, he completed test pilot school.

That same year, he was selected to be part of the Air Force's Manned Orbital Laboratory program, a classified mission that would have used the Gemini spacecraft as part of an American space station.

Tragically, Robert was killed in a plane crash on December 8th, 1967, doing what he loved, training other pilots.

The Manned Orbital Laboratory was canceled in 1968, but all of the pilots in Robert's group later flew Space Shuttle missions.

Had he lived, its likely that Robert Lawrence would've gone into space.

NASA later said his accomplishments as a pilot and his flight maneuver data were critical to the Space Shuttle program.

- Since his tragic death, he's been honored in a number of ways, and his legacy lives on in many places.

He's part of a mural in the St.

Louis Airport, where they recognize space, contributors to space, and scientists and astronauts.

He also has buildings and lecture halls named after him at ICC, Illinois State University, the Ohio State University, and at Bradley, we have a lecture hall named after him.

We have endowed scholarships.

We've been talking for a few years about how to recognize and truly honor him.

The decision to erect a statue in his likeness came about.

- I accepted this project because it was a fantastic opportunity to do something to honor an individual that has not gotten as much recognition as he should.

And the fact that the first Black astronaut graduated from Bradley University is one of the great examples of what Lydia Moss Bradley, you know, wanted our institution to do.

- [Narrator] The artist feels that the sculpture doesn't just honor an outstanding Bradley alum, it's also a gift to the community that he chose for his education.

- It says that we can do anything that we wanna do if we set our minds to it.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] Major Lawrence's legacy is visible across the Bradley University campus.

Current chemistry students are surrounded by reminders of his brief, but consequential life.

- He's not just this, he's not just that.

Yes, he's America's first Black astronaut.

He's also the first astronaut, as far as I can tell, that had a PhD in chemistry.

But he had these intersections of other things in his life.

He was involved with a family, okay?

He had interest in track.

He was a Greek.

And there's all these different things that come together to make him who he was.

- [Narrator] Family and supporters lobbied to have Major Lawrence added to the Space Mirror Memorial at the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

He was finally memorialized there on December 8th, 1997, 30 years after his tragic death.

- I'm enthusiastic about spreading the news about him, 'cause I think he's a great person.

I would've loved to have had him as a student in my research lab.

- I'm so inspired by the stories that I hear from those that knew him, that flew with him, that were what we would refer to as the right stuff pilots, that were white, having a Black guy as their, you know, best friend in a time when you couldn't eat together in a restaurant.

Like, it was a completely different world outside than it was inside of that tight knit group, and I think it's easy for someone in his position to pull out, you know, the ledger and all the wrongs that were done to him, but he didn't do that.

I don't believe that his death was for nothing, and I do believe he lived a full life in regards to just that quality that perhaps maybe it takes some of us 100 years to understand the things that he learned in 16 years.

- We've come a long way since the 1950s and '60s, but there's still a lot of racial strife and tension and a lot to be learned, and I think Major Lawrence's story is that we're all humans and we all have dreams and ambitions, and that we should be able to recognize and interact with each other in a respectful way, and help each other, lift each other up.

Having a statue there is sort of a day-to-day reminder of that, that why we're here, what our mission is, and what we can actually help our students achieve.

He is the epitome of Bradley Brave.

- He was always focused, he was always going forward.

One of his crew members in the MOL program always said that he walked slow, but he never looked back.

(gentle music continues)