Celebrating Black History: Blacks in Aviation

Each year, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History announces the Black History Month theme. The 2025 Black History Month theme is African Americans and Labor. This theme reminds us that celebrating Black History requires we honor our past and plan our future.

Honoring Our Past:

Since the early 20th Century, hundreds of thousands of African Americans have worked in and made substantial contributions to the field of aviation. 

Well known are many stories about pilots, including Eugene Bullard (leaving Georgia, training in and flying for France during World War I), Bessie Coleman (leaving Chicago, training in France, and flying privately in the USA during the 1920s), and the Tuskegee Airmen (training in Alabama and flying for the USA in many countries during World War II). 

During the past century, scores of books and articles have been written about their work. A new book about Bessie Coleman, authored by Gigi Coleman and Beth Powell, was just published. 

Lesser known are stories about aviation inventors and aircraft mechanics.

According to historian Jill D. Snider, in 1911, inventor Lucean Arthur Headen learned to fly because he wanted to test a “stabilizer he had designed to prevent an airplane from skidding in the air when turning.” He also patented de-icing for airplane wings and propellers. In 1931, Headen moved to England.

In the 1930s, Cornelius Coffey and John Robinson, based in the Chicago area, taught themselves how to fly after building a single seat airplane with a motorcycle engine. Coffey became the first African American to hold a pilot’s license and an aircraft mechanics license. He also established an aeronautical school, reportedly teaching more than 1,000 students from 1938 to 1945.

According to the Baltimore Times, AvDyne Aeroservices, LLC, an aircraft maintenance company based at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport, was established in 2000 by Jerome Hodge, and is considered one of the leading aviation support service providers in the region, employing more than 50 mechanics. 

Each decade since the end of World War II saw increases in the numbers of African Americans working in aviation and the types of jobs African Americans perform in the field of aviation. These increases are due, in large part, to the volunteer work done by dozens of African American aviation organizations. 

These organizations include, but are not limited to, Tuskegee Airmen Inc., Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals, Black Pilots of America, Aviation Career Enrichment (founded by Julius Alexander in Atlanta), National Black Coalition of Federal Aviation Employees, Bessie Coleman Foundation, and Sisters of the Skies, Inc.

Sisters of the Skies, Inc. works to increase the number of female African Americans working as professional pilots. Their members fly jets carrying passengers and cargo across the globe. A few members now are retired.

Among retirees are Stayce Harris, the first female African American to achieve the rank of Lieutenant General for the Air Force, and Theresa Claiborne, a Captain flying passengers for United Airlines on its Boeing 787 to European and African destinations.

Planning for Our Future:

The Association for the Study of African American Life and History explains that the 2025 Black History Month theme “focuses on the various and profound ways that work and working of all kinds … intersect with the collective experiences of Black people. … Black people’s work has been transformational throughout the U.S., Africa, and the Diaspora. The 2025 Black History Month theme, ‘African Americans and Labor,’ sets out to highlight and celebrate the potent impact of this work.”

Every day thousands of African Americans are working in the sky or on the ground as pilots, flight attendants, aircraft engineers, aircraft manufacturing, aircraft maintenance and repair, air traffic controllers, airport managers, or airline executives. Some are working in the public sector for the military or other government agencies. Most are laboring in the private sector for small companies or major corporations. 

The “potent impact” of African Americans’ work in the field of aviation is global, reaching beyond national borders and stretching across expansive oceans. Aviation is a global enterprise. Aviation knowledge and skills have enormous value in the global marketplace. 

Boeing is among the major corporations anticipating a sizable increase in commercial aviation jobs. In its Pilot and Technician Outlook 2024-2043, Boeing reports: “Long-term demand for newly qualified aviation personnel remains strong, as 674,000 new pilots, 716,000 new maintenance technicians and 980,000 new cabin crew members will be needed to fly and maintain the global commercial fleet over the next 20 years.”

As African Americans celebrate Black History Month, our plans for our future should include intentionally connecting those of us working in the aviation field with Africans and the Diaspora. Among the opportunities to so do are those presented by Caribbean and African governments, large corporations, and small non-profit organizations. 

Some African nations own their airlines, including Ethiopia, Libya, and Rwanda.  Every African nation has an airport. Gambia reportedly has one, Nigeria 54, Mozambique 98, Kenya 197, and South Africa 407. In South America, Brazil is home to one of the world’s largest producers of helicopters and airplanes.

Organizations such as “We Were Once Them” reports it is contributing to the transformation of the aviation industry across the Caribbean and Africa, and has touched the lives of people in Jamaica, Trinidad, Tobago, Ghana, Senegal, Kenya, Rwanda, and Liberia, including delivering the first flight simulator to Liberia. For additional information on this organization, please visit https://wewot.org/

African Americans laboring in the field of aviation have taught and are teaching the sky is not the limit, and opportunities for us to fully participate in this type of labor can be found around the globe.