Willa Brown
Willa Beatrice Brown Chappell (born January 22, 1906 in Glasgow, Kentucky , † July 18, 1992 in Chicago ) was an American pilot , lobbyist, teacher and civil rights activist . She was the first African American woman to receive a pilot's license in the United States, the first African American woman to run for the United States Congress, the first African American officer in the Civil Air Patrol, and the first woman in the United States to hold both a pilot's license as well as an aircraft mechanic license.
life and work
Brown was the daughter of Reverend Brown and Erice B. Brown and graduated from Wiley High School in Terre Haute , Indiana. She graduated from State Teachers College at Indiana (now Indiana University of Pennsylvania ) with a bachelor's degree in 1927. After graduating from college, she taught as a high school teacher at Roosevelt High School in Gary, Indiana . In 1929 she married her first husband, the African American firefighter Wilbur J. Hardaway, from whom she divorced in 1931. She received her master's degree from Northwestern University in 1937 . With the help of the editor of The Chicago Defender newspaper , Robert Abbott, who had also helped Bessie Coleman pursue her aviation goals, she enrolled at Aeronautical University in Chicago and earned a Masters in Mechanics in 1935. Under the guidance of the certified flight instructor and aviation mechanic Cornelius Coffey, she acquired her private pilot's license in 1938 and passed her exam with an almost perfect score of 96 percent. In 1939, Coffey, and friend Enoch P. Waters founded the National Airmen's Association of America. Their goal was to secure admission to the US military for black aviation cadets. As the organization's national secretary and president of the Chicago office, she became a racial equality activist. She persistently campaigned with the U.S. government to integrate black pilots into the separate Army Air Corps and the Federal Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP), a system established by the Civil Aeronautics Authority shortly before the outbreak of World War II . The aim of the CPTP was to provide a pool of civil pilots for use in national emergencies. Brown received the rank of officer in this first integrated unit. In 1941 she became the first African American officer in the Civil Air Patrol (CAP). She founded the Coffey School of Aeronautics with Coffey, where they trained black pilots at Chicago's Harlem Airport during the Depression . As a racial equality activist, she served as president of the Chicago branch of the National Airmen's Association of America to petition the LT.S. Government to integrate African Americans into the LT.S. Army Air Corps and inclusion of African Americans in the civilian pilot training program. When Congress voted for separate but equal participation of blacks in civilian flight training programs, the Coffey School of Aeronautics was one of the select few private aviation schools selected for participation. Her flight school was later selected by the US Army to provide black trainees for the Air Corps pilot training program at the Tuskegee Institute. Brown was instrumental in the training of more than 200 students who later became Tuskegee pilots. Eventually, she became the Civil Aviation Administration's War Training Service Coordinator and a member of the Federal Aviation Administration's Women's Council. By 1943, she was the only woman in the United States to hold both a mechanic's license and a commercial aviation license, and she and her husband formed the presidency of a major aviation company. In 1947 she and Cornelius Coffey married, but the marriage did not last long.
Brown remained politically and socially active in Chicago long after the Coffey School closed. She was the first African American woman to run for Congress as a Republican in 1946. Although this candidacy was unsuccessful, she tried again in 1948 and 1950. In the late 1940s she tried to build an airport in the Chicago area, which made her part of her political platform. In 1955 she married Reverend JH Chappell, pastor of the Chicago West Side Community Church, who died in 1991. She taught at Westinghouse High School from 1962 to 1971 and was the first African American woman to serve on the Federal Aviation Administration's Women's Council from 1972 to 1975.
Memberships
She was a member of several flight organizations including the Challenger Air Pilot's Association, the Chicago Girls Flight Club, and the Federal Aviation Administration's Women's Council.
Awards and recognitions
- 1939: quoted in the 76th Congress Report for Achievement in Aviation
- 1939: Time Magazine featured Brown in its September 25, 1939 issue
- 2002: Women in Aviation International names her one of the 100 Most Influential Women in Aerospace
- 2003: Inducted into the Kentucky Aviation Hall of Fame
- 2010: Awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Indiana State University Alumni Association
- Historic marker number 238 at the junction of Race and Washington Streets in Glasgow, Kentucky. The marker was erected in recognition of Willa Brown Chappell, "the first African American woman to obtain a pilot's license in the United States".
literature
- Henry M. Holden: Great Women in Aviation - Willa Brown Chappell - First African American Woman Pilot, Black hawk Publishing Co., 2012
Web links
- The Maker of Pilots: Aviator and Civil Rights Activist Willa Beatrice Brown
- Willa Brown Chappell: The teacher of Tuskegee Airmen
- Biography Willa Beatrice Brown Chappell
- Youtube: Willa Brown Chappell | Kentucky Life | KET
- From The Scoop: Willa Brown Chappell
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Brown, Willa |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Brown Chappell, Willa Beatrice |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American pilot, lobbyist, teacher and civil rights activist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 22, 1906 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Glasgow, Kentucky |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 18, 1992 |
| Place of death | Chicago |