Is the story true about the American women who proposed sending black children into space instead of dogs?

On the Internet you can find publications about a provocative initiative allegedly proposed in the late 1950s in the United States. We checked how true they are.

In 1957, the dog Laika sent into space on Sputnik 2. Scientists and flight organizers understood that the mongrel would not return to Earth alive. This decision was met with condemnation and outrage around the world. How reports Faktrum website, allegedly after the flight, “the UN received a letter from a group of women from Mississippi. They demanded to condemn the inhumane treatment of dogs in the USSR and put forward a proposal: if for the development of science it is necessary to send living beings into space, there are as many black children in their city for this purpose.” There is a similar statement in article in the historical magazine "Diletant". This story is also told by several million-plus publics on VKontakte, for example "5 interesting facts", History Porn, "Book of Records", "5 Quick Facts", "Look what I learned" And "Did you know?". Publications on other social networks are also dedicated to the unusual initiative of American women, for example in Facebook, Telegram, LiveJournal And "Yandex.Zene".

Reports of the launch of Sputnik 2 with Laika on board did cause protests outside the USSR. Thus, in the UK, animal rights activists offered hold a minute of silence every day while the satellite and the dog are in orbit. At the UN headquarters in New York passed a demonstration in which ordinary Americans took part along with their pets. Even in the French press appeared photographs from this march - along with the dogs there was a poster with the inscription “Send Khrushchev!”

The source that first reported the existence of the letter from the Mississippi women is book Lithuanian journalist Albertas Laurinciukas “The Third Side of the Dollar.” At the turn of the 1950s and 1960s, Laurinciukas worked in the USA, he was a correspondent for the newspaper “Rural Life”, so theoretically he could know about such a letter. At the same time, in other sources, in particular in UN materials or specialized literature on this topic, the story about the proposal received from Mississippi is told, if at all, as a historical anecdote.

Reports of such a letter being sent to the UN would hardly have caused serious surprise among the American public of that time - the confrontation between segregationists and blacks had intensified in the United States, was gaining strength The civil rights movement, one of the centers of which became Mississippi State At the same time, discover notes about an unusual letter in reputable American newspapers of the late 1950s failed. Separately, we note that Laurinciukas’ book began to be published in the mid-1960s, several years after Laika’s flight. It is surprising that a Soviet newspaper correspondent working in the United States did not pay attention to such a provocative letter in a timely manner.

This is not accurate

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Is it true that a person without a spacesuit will explode in outer space?
2. Is it true that in Russia cosmonauts are not allowed to have tattoos?
3. Soviet Space Dogs