Apollo 12 Astronaut’s 1969 Corvette Stingray Joins ‘Historic’ Event

‘Cars at the Capital’ exhibit also includes important civil rights relic and is set for Sept. 12-27 in nation’s capital.

Later this  month, the Historic Vehicle Association (HVA) will present the 25th and 26th vehicles to be added to the National Historic Vehicle Register. The fifth annual exhibition will feature two historically significant vehicles:

September 12-19: Apollo 12 Astronaut Alan Bean’s 1969 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray

September 20-27: 1966 Volkswagen Deluxe Station Wagon owned by Esau and Janie B. Jenkins

Each will be a part of the Historic Vehicle Association’s “Cars at the Capital” exhibition, which will be held from September 12-27 on the National Mall in Washington D.C. Displayed in the HVA glass enclosure on the walkway between the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, the exhibition is free to the public.

Apollo 12 Astronaut Alan Bean’s 1969 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray

Starting in 1961, General Motors offered a program to all astronauts — lease a Chevrolet Corvette for $1/year. Each would come from a former Indy 500 winner and GM dealer, Jim Rathmann, who owned a dealership close to the Space Center in Florida.

The fourth human to walk on the moon, Alan Bean, the Apollo 12 Lunar Module Pilot in 1969, took part in the lease program. Bean’s two Apollo 12 colleagues, Pete Conrad and Dick Gordon, leased identical Riverside Gold Corvettes with matching custom painted black accent “wings.” The three astronauts drove the cars to the space station for training every day.

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The current owner, Danny Reed, has owned the car for 48 years. Having seen the car in the December 1969 issue of Life Magazine, Reed was surprised to spot the car on a General Motors Acceptance Corporation lot in his hometown of Austin, Texas, in 1971. He submitted a bid under a closed bid system but lost. Six weeks later, GMAC called – the winning bidder hadn’t come up with the cash need and they wanted to know if Reed was still interested. With all he could afford at the time, he purchased the car for $3,230 – just $30 more than the third-place bidder.

1966 Volkswagen Deluxe Station Wagon owned by Esau and Janie B. Jenkins

Esau and Janie B. Jenkins were pioneers before and during the civil rights movement. As business owners, community organizers, and founders of organizations and institutions, together they dedicated their lives to providing opportunities, and hope, to the people of Johns Island, South Carolina, and beyond.

In the 1940s, using money from farming and selling produce, they would purchase buses to transport children to school and workers to jobs in Charleston, SC. During the bus rides, Esau and Janie would teach their adult passengers the information needed to pass the literacy exam so they could become registered voters. Along with others, they were responsible for The Progressive Club, a co-op started in 1948 that provided community programs such as legal and financial assistance, child and adult education, and community workshops. The building housed a grocery store, gas station, community center, meeting and classroom space. Leaders including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and others, participated in workshops and community meetings there.

Their 1966 Volkswagen was an icon throughout their community and throughout the South. On the back hatch of the microbus was painted the famous saying of Esau Jenkins: “Love is Progress, Hate is Expensive.” In 2014 the family donated the back hatch, along with the engine cover, to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., where it remains on permanent exhibit. This year, the HVA spearheaded the conservation and stabilization of the Volkswagen in partnership with the Jenkins family, the College of Charleston, the NB Center for American Automotive Heritage and B.R. Howard & Associates.

“These vehicles are an embodiment of the cultural changes associated with the sixties, a decade that transformed the nation,” said Diane Parker, Vice President of the Historic Vehicle Association. “The human-interest stories associated with these automotive treasures represent both space exploration and civil rights; two of the most significant movements of the decade.”

Schedule of Events

September 11: At 7:30 p.m., there will be a lighting ceremony at HVA’s display of the 1969 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray.

September 12: At 9 a.m., the HVA will host a press conference to officially kick-off the “Cars at the Capital” exhibition.

September 14: From 7:30 a.m. until noon, the HVA will host “Cars at the Capital and Coffee.”

September 20: At 7:15 p.m., there will be a lighting ceremony at the HVA’s display of the 1966 Volkswagen Deluxe Station Wagon.

These historically significant vehicles are privately owned and are being commemorated and recorded as part of the HVA’s National Historic Vehicle Register program, in partnership with the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Historic American Engineering Record to be permanently archived in the Library of Congress.

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