Jesse Leroy Brown, the Navy’s first aircraft pilot, was also the first African American pilot killed in the Korean War. Born October 13, 1926 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, he was one of the five children of John Brown, a sharecropper, and schoolteacher Alice Brown. An all-around … Read MoreJesse Leroy Brown (1926-1950)
One of a handful of women to become members of the Tuskegee Airmen, Sergeant Amelia Robinson Jones was born on July 3, 1919, on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina, the youngest of fourteen children of Sipio and Susan Robinson. The family moved to Savannah, Georgia in … Read MoreAmelia Robinson Jones (1919-2015)
Robert Leander Martin was a member of the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II. Martin was born on February 9, 1919 to unnamed parents in Dubuque, Iowa. His mother died shortly after his birth. Martin became inspired to become a pilot after attending an air … Read MoreRobert Leander Martin (1919-2018)
Herbert Eugene Carter was one of the original thirty-three Tuskegee Airmen. He flew seventy-seven missions with fellow Tuskegee Airmen during World War II. Carter was born on September 27, 1919 to Ann Sykes Carter and George Washington Carter in Amory, Mississippi. He attended Tuskegee High … Read MoreHerbert Eugene Carter (1919-2012)
Mildred Louise Hemmons Carter became one of the first women to earn a pilot’s license through the Civilian Pilot Training Program. She was also the first black female pilot in Alabama. Despite her initially being denied admission into the Tuskegee Airmen program, Hemmons would later … Read MoreMildred Louise Hemmons Carter (1921-2011)
Wilfred DeFour was an aircraft technician and member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, a group of African American pilots and support personnel who were in the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War II. DeFour was born on April 12, 1918 in Colon, Panama to … Read MoreWilfred DeFour (1918-2018)
Retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Merryl Tengesdal is the first African American female U-2 pilot in history and is the first African American woman to fly the Air Force’s U-2 Dragon Lady Spy Plane. She is the only black woman alongside five white women and … Read MoreColonel Merryl Tengesdal (1971- )
Marcel Pliat was one of several French nationals who served in the Russian Imperial Army during World War I but he was the only black man to serve in the Russian Imperial Air Force. Pliat was born in French Polynesia (now Tahiti) around 1890. His … Read MoreMarcel Pliat (ca. 1890-1917?)
Azellia White was the first African American woman to earn her pilot’s license in Texas and a trailblazer in the aviation field. Jones was born in Gonzalez, Texas, on June 3, 1913. Her father was a sharecropper and her mother was a midwife. She attended … Read MoreAzellia Jones White (1913-2019)
Tuskegee Airman Jack Daniels Holsclaw was born in Spokane, Washington, on March 21, 1918. His father, Charles, was a clerk in a downtown store, and his mother, Nell, was a manager at Pacific Telephone and Telegraph. Holsclaw attended North Central High School in Spokane, where … Read MoreJack Daniels Holsclaw (1918-1998)
