From Bronx to the Stars

Neil deGrasse Tyson grew up in the Bronx, where the night sky was obscured by city lights —

but that didn’t stop him from looking up. At the age of nine, he visited the Hayden

Planetarium and fell in love with the stars. By 14, he was giving lectures

on astronomy, already certain of his life's direction. But his journey wasn’t without resistance.

At times, he was told that someone like him — Black, from an urban neighborhood

— didn’t belong in astrophysics. He ignored the doubters. Instead, he earned degrees

from Harvard and Columbia, eventually becoming the director of the very planetarium

that once inspired him. Tyson didn’t just study the cosmos — he brought it