First black astronaut returns to Philly as role model for students

A famous Philadelphian with an out-of-this-world pedigree came back to his hometown to speak to schoolchildren.  

Guy Bluford is the first African American to go into space, having participated in four space shuttle flights in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Bluford says he wants to be someone the students, who came to meet him at City Hall, can look up to .

“It’s good to be back and serve as a role model for these kids so that they have a future and dream of things that they really want to do,” he said.Bluford says he’s always an ambassador for the city of Philadelphia, even though he doesn’t live here anymore.”I’ve lived all over the country and I’ve pissed everyone off because I say I’m a Philadelphian living in Cleveland, Ohio and they don’t appreciate that,” he joked.Bluford told the young children to aim for the stars in life and maybe the can reach space as he did.