For half a decade now, influential young scientists have denounced NASA’s decision to name its deep-space telescope after James E. Webb, who led the space agency to the cusp of the 1969 moon landing. This man, they insisted, was a homophobe who oversaw a purge of gay employees.
Hakeem Oluseyi, who is now president of the National Society of Black Physicists, was sympathetic to these critics. Then he delved into archives, talked to historians and wrote a carefully sourced essay in Medium in 2021 that laid out his surprising findings.