Bayram Cigerli Blog

Bigger İnfo Center and Archive

The Audacious Aviatrix

Name:
Willa Brown

Born:
January 22, 1906/Glasgow, Kentucky

Died:
July 18, 1992/Chicago, Illinois

Occupation:
Pilot, African-American civil rights activist, educator

What Makes Her Bitchin’:
Maybe you've heard of Bessie Coleman, but do you know about Willa Brown? She was the first African-American woman to receive her commercial pilot’s license in America AND the first black female to become an officer in the U.S. Civil Air Patrol. She also earned her MBA from Northwestern, and co-founded the Coffey School of Aeronautics to help train African-American pilots. What have you done lately? Yep, that's what I thought...

Betcha’ Didn’t Know:
Willa successfully lobbied the U.S. government to integrate African-American pilots into the “separate-but-equal” Army Air Corps and the federal Civilian Pilot Training Program. Having cultivated a taste for politics, she later ran unsuccessfully for Congress.

For more about this audacious aviatrix, check-out: