[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 10065-10066]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               HONORING AVIATION'S PIONEER WOMEN OF COLOR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, on Saturday, May 3, 2003, the 
Chicago ``DODO'' Chapter of Tuskegee Airmen, Incorporated, in concert 
with Black Pilots of America will honor three of Aviation's Pioneer 
African American Women of Color, Bessie Coleman, Willa Beatrice Brown 
and Janet Harmon, at a ceremony to be held on Saturday, May 3, at the 
Lincoln Cemetery, 123rd and Kedzie Avenue in Chicago.
  I shall be pleased to join Mr. Rufus Hunt, aviation historian, and 
this group of aviation enthusiasts, flyers, former flyers, mechanics 
and others who love to fly and have dedicated themselves to keeping the 
legacy of these three women alive.
  Bessie Coleman was the first African American female pilot. She grew 
up in poverty and discrimination, came to Chicago from Texas, decided 
that she wanted to fly, and, with encouragement from Robert Abbott, who 
was the owner of the Chicago Daily Defender newspaper, she was able to 
put together resources, go to Paris, go to France and learn to fly, 
which she did.
  She returned to America as a heroine, flew many exhibitions, and 
ultimately though was unfortunately killed in an accident when a wrench 
got caught in the gears of her plane and she did not have her seat belt 
on and she was thrown out of the plane, and, unfortunately, died.
  There is a Bessie Coleman Drive at O'Hare Airport in Chicago that has 
been dedicated in her memory, and, of course, she has been placed on a 
stamp by the United States Post Office.
  Janet Harmon Bragg was born in Griffin, Georgia, grew up with her 
siblings, decided that she wanted to fly and ultimately was the first 
African American woman to get a commercial pilot's license.
  Willa Brown, an African American woman, ended up purchasing her own 
airplane, as well as organizing groups and clubs and organizations 
promoting flying.
  Mr. Speaker, all three of these women made tremendous contributions 
to the field of aviation, and every year people from the Tuskegee 
Airmen and other pilots groups fly over Bessie Coleman's grave. They 
have done this since 1931, and it is a way of paying tribute to women 
of color and the contributions that they have made to aviation. I 
commend them for this effort, for keeping these legacies alive.
  Mr. Speaker, on Saturday, May 3, 2003, the Chicago ``DODO'' Chapter 
of Tuskegee Airman Incorporated, in concert with Black Pilots of 
America will honor three of Aviation's Pioneer Women of Color, Bessie 
Coleman, Willa Beatrice Brown and Janet Harmon at a ceremony to be held 
on Saturday May 3, at the

[[Page 10066]]

Lincoln Cemetry, 123rd and Kedzie Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. I shall 
be pleased to join Mr. Rufus Hunt, Aviation Historian and this group of 
aviation enthusiasts, flyers, former flyers, mechanics and others who 
love to fly and have dedicated themselves to keeping the legacy of 
these three great women alive.
  Bessie Coleman (1892-1926). Bessie Coleman, the first African 
American female pilot, grew up in poverty and discrimination. The year 
after her birth in Atlanta, Texas, an African American man was tortured 
and burned to death in nearby Paris for allegedly raping a five year 
old girl. The incident was not unusual: lynchings were common 
throughout the South. African Americans were essentially barred from 
voting by literacy tests. They could not ride in railway cars with 
white people, or use a wide range of public facilities set aside for 
whites. When young Bessie first went to school at the age of six, it 
was to a one-room wooden shack, a four-mile walk from her home. Often 
there was not paper to write on or pencils to write with.
  When Coleman turned 23 she moved to Chicago to live with two of her 
older brothers. When she decided that she wanted to learn to fly, the 
double stigma of race and gender meant that she would have to go to 
France in order to realize her dreams. It was soldiers returning from 
World War I with wild tales of flying exploits which first interested 
Coleman in aviation. It was also her brothers who taunted her with 
claims that French women were superior to African American women 
because they could fly. In fact, very few American women of any race 
had a pilots license in 1918. Those who did were predominantly white 
and wealthy. Every flying school that Coleman approached refused to 
admit her because she was both black and a woman. On the advice of 
Robert Abbott, the owner of the Chicago Defender Newspaper, one of the 
first African American millionaires, Coleman decided to learn to fly in 
France. She learned French at the Berlitz School in the Chicago Loop, 
withdrew the savings she had accumulated from her work as a manicurist 
and manger of a chili parlor, and with financial support from Robert 
Abbott and another African American business person she set off from 
New York for Paris on November 20, 1920. The only non-Caucasian in her 
class, it took her seven months to learn to fly. When she returned to 
the United States in 1921, she was greeted by great crowds and for more 
than five years performed at countless air shows. However, she refused 
to perform anyplace where Blacks were not permitted. In 1926, on her 
last flight in Jacksonville, Florida, an unsecured wrench got caught in 
the gas controls. The plane with a young mechanic, William Willis in 
the pilots seat, went out of control, and Bessie who was not wearing a 
seatbelt was thrown to her death. Ten thousand people turned out for 
her funeral. She has not been forgotten, beginning in 1931, a group of 
Black pilots instituted a annual fly over her grave, a postage stamp 
exists in her honor, Bessie Coleman Drive exists at Chicago's O'Hare 
airport and she continues to help others to know that they too can fly.
  Willa B. Brown (1906-1992). The first African American woman to get a 
commercial pilots license. Willa B. Brown was born January 21, 1906 in 
Glasgow, Kentucky U.S.A. She received her bachelor's degree in 1927 at 
Indiana State Teacher's College. For a while, she taught school in 
Gary, Indiana and then, in 1932, after having divorced her husband, she 
moved to Chicago, Illinois. Influenced by Bessie Coleman, Willa started 
taking flying lessons in 1934. Soon she became a member of the flying 
club, the Challenger Air Pilot's Association, and the Chicago Girls 
Flight Club. She also purchased her own airplane. In 1937, she received 
her pilot's license and that same year, she received a master's degree 
from Northwestern University. Also in 1937, she co-founded the National 
Airmen's Association of America with her flight instructor, Cornelius 
R. Coffey. The association's goal was to promote African American 
aviation. In 1938, they started the Coffey School of Aeronautics, where 
approximately 200 pilots were trained in the next seven years. Some of 
those pilots later became part of the 99th Pursuit Squadron at Tuskegee 
Institute, also know as the Tuskegee Airmen.
  Brown lobbied Washington for inclusion of African Americans in the 
Civilian Pilot Training Program and in the Army Air Corps, and in 1941, 
she became a training coordinator for the Civil Aeronautics 
Administration and a teacher in the Civilian Pilot Training Program. 
The following year, she became the first African American member of the 
Civil-Air-Patrol. She also promoted aviation on the radio and taught it 
in high schools. In 1972, Brown became a member of the Women's Advisory 
Committee on Aviation in the Federal Aviation Agency. Willa B. Brown 
died July 18, 1992.
  Janet Harmon Bragg. Janet Harmon Bragg was born in Griffin, Georgia 
in 1912. She grew up with her mother, father and siblings, the youngest 
of seven children. After graduation from high school in Fort Valley, 
Georgia, she enrolled in the all girls, all Black Spelman College in 
Atlanta, Georgia. She earned her degree in nursing from Mac Bicar 
Hospital which was on Spelman's campus. She moved to Rockford, Illinois 
and later on to Chicago where she began a career in nursing. Although 
Mrs. Bragg started out in the field of nursing and made her living from 
it, her interest in flying started when she was a little girl. She put 
it this way, ``As a child I always wanted to fly. . . . I used to watch 
the birds . . . . how they would take off and land. . . . It was 
interesting to see how they would drop this tail down when they would 
run and take off.'' One day in 1933, in Chicago as she was coming out 
of a house, she saw on a billboard across the street a drawing of a 
bird building a nest with chicks in the nest. A caption read, ``Birds 
learn to fly. Why can't you? She said to herself, They do have to learn 
to fly.'' That incident cinched it, according to Mrs. Bragg. The owners 
of a Black Insurance Company in Chicago where she worked encouraged her 
to pursue her educational and other goals. She enrolled in the 
Aeronautical School of Engineering to begin her groundwork. Black and 
white students were segregated. She was the first Black female student 
to enter the class. Here she learned to fly and to take care of planes. 
She was able to take a few lessons at a private airport but the rate of 
$15 per hour in 1933 proved too costly. Therefore, she took $600 and 
bought her own plane. With the purchase of the plane, Mrs. Bragg and a 
few other Black pioneer aviators started their own airport in Robbins, 
Illinois, about 20 miles Southwest of Chicago. This group also formed 
the Challenger Aero Club. This group went on to establish the Coffy 
School of Aviation in 1939. This school and five other Black colleges 
participated in the civilian pilot training program and later fed 
students into the Army Air Corps training program at Tuskegee, Alabama. 
In short, Mrs. Bragg was at the heart of Black aviation in Chicago from 
its inception.
  Mrs. Bragg, retired from flying in 1965 and from nursing in 1972. 
Since moving to Tucson, Arizona, she has been active with the Urban 
League and Habitat for Humanity. She has participated in the Adopt a 
Scholar Program at Pima College, as a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, 
lectures locally and nationally on such topics as aviation and women in 
science and aerospace. She was proclaimed outstanding citizen of Tucson 
in 1982.
  Mr. Speaker, all three of these women have made outstanding 
contributions to the field of aviation and Chicago is indeed proud that 
we can lay claim to some part of their legacies.

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