"Willa Beatrice Brown" (Janary 22,1906- July 18 1992)

Pilot and aviation educator,was born in Glasgow, Kentucky, the only daughter of Hallie Mae

 

Carpenter and Eric B. Brown, a farm owner.After 1910 the family, as part of the migration of African Americans from the rural South to northern cities, moved to Terre Haute, Indiana,hoping for greater opportunities in employment and education.There her father worked in a creosote factory.He was also pastor of the Holy Triumphant Church in 1920 and of the Free Church of God in 1929.At Wiley High School,Willa was one of only seven black students in the hundred-member chorus.During her high school years Willa also did part-time domestic work.She graduated in 1923 and entered Indiana State Normal School, a teaching training school that later became part of Indiana University.She majored in business, minored in French, and joined the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.In September 1927, ready to begin her teaching career, Willa headed for Gary Indiana.The home of U.S. Steel, Gary was known for its innovative school system (with swimming pools, laboratories,and adult education)and served as model for other American cities.Called the "City of the Century," it experienced a building boom and a population surge of eastern Europeans and African Americans who came for jobs in the steel mills.The number of African American children in Gary rose from 267 in 1916 ti 1,1125 in 1920 and to more than 4,000 in 1930. The influx of African Americans generated resentments among whites.When eighteen blacks were admitted to Emerson High School, more than six hundred white students walked out. This led to the opening in April 1931 of Roosevelt School, a state-of-the art high school for black students.There she chaired the commercial department, which taught typewriting and stenography;she also taught those subjects at the evening school for adults.Willa introduced a typewriting club, which produced the Annex News,perhaps the only student newspaper in Gary's schools.On November 24 1929 Willa married Wilbur J. Hardaway.AGraduate of Tuskegee Institute and the newly elected alderman of the Fifth Ward, he was one of Gary's first black fireman when its "colored"fire station was created two years earlier. Willa continued to teach, using four summer vacations to complete her bachelor's degree,which she received in August 1931.The Hardaway's stormy marriage ended a few months later, but Willa remained in Gary and taught through the end of the school year.Willa then moved to Chicago and chose positions where she could put her skills to good use during the Depression.From 1932 to 1939 she worked for the federal government as well as in private venues.Her employers included Dr. Julius H.Lewis the first African American faculty member of the University of Chicago's medical school (1937-1938);Dr.Theodore K. Lawless a renowned African American dermatologist and philanthropist (1938-1939);and Horace Clayton, coauthor of Black Metropolis (1939).While working as a drugstore cashier in 1934,she met John C. Robinson, a pilot.Willa joined the Challenger Aero Club, created by John in 1931,and found herself in a circle of African American aviation enthusiasts.Being at Chicago's Harlem Airport was exhilarating for Willa who "was always an outdoor person."She began preparatory courses at the Aeronautical University,established in 1929 by the Curtiss0Wright Flying Service.That there were classes for African Americans all thanks to the outstanding efforts of John and Cornelius R. Coffey,who had to threaten legal action before they were admitted some years earlier.Then then were hired to teach other African Americans.On May 13 1934 Willa was serious injured in a car accident while returning from a Mother's Day visit.She was hospitalized with a broken arm, several broken ribs, and fractured vertebra.After recovering from the accident she continued flying,earning a student license in 1937 and a private pilot license in 1938.Her charisma,energy,and talent for attracting attention were evident when she arrived at Chicago Defender to request coverage of an air show that a group of thirty flyer's planned to stage.An editor, Enoch P.Waters, reported that the older reporters "polished their glasses to get an undistorted view...[Willa] made a stunning appearance in white jodhpurs,white jacket,white boots,that all of the typewriters suddenly went silent." The flayer's got their publicity.Enoch suggested forming a national organization as a clearinghouse for information about African Americans aviation activities. On August 16 1937 the National Airmen Association of America (NAAA) revived its character, with the Chicago Defender providing the mailing address.Some other charter members included Cornelius Coffey, Chauncey Spencer, a pioneer pilot and civil rights activists, and Janet Bragg,also a pioneer pilot.Willa as secretary,assumed public relations duties. Her letters, flying visits to black colleges, and radio addresses helped the group grow and establish chapters in other cities.For the next decade, her life became one of ceaseless and aggressive effort for the inclusion of blacks into the aviation mainstream and the country's war mobilization.Chauncey Spencer said,"Willa was persistent and dedicated.She was the foundation,framework,and the builder of people's souls. She did not for herself, but all of us." Willa and Cornelius founded the Coffey School of Aeronautics in 1938,with Cornelius as president and chief flight instructor and with Willa as director.In 1939 Willa became the first African American woman to receive a commercial pilot license with a ground instructor rating and radio license. That same year, as war approached, the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP) was launched to provide a source of trained manpower.CPTP was working through colleges only, the Coffey school wanted certification as a training center.Willa successfully conducted separate demonstrations for government officials of college and non-college students' flying,to prove that Negroes could absorb technical education, appoint in doubt since a 1925 War Department report. An article in Time magazine reported that Willa "has labored mightily to whip up interest in flying among Negroes, get them a share in the ...training program."About two hundred pilots were trained,and many went on to secondary training at the segregated Tuskegee (Alabama) Army Air Field,which produced America's black air corps, the Tuskegee Airmen.She was appointed federal coordinator for the Chicago unit of the CPTP in February 1940 and remained there until 1943.In 1942 Willa became the first African American member of the Civilian Air Patrol (CAP) IN Illinois,one of 400 pilots accepted of the 1,560 who had applied in Illinois.As Lieutenant of the segregated aquadron,she had charge of 25 pilots,several light planes, and four army training biplanes.The Coffey school closed at war's end,on February 7 1947 Cornelius and Willa married. This marriage also was short-lived,ending in divorce.Willa was married for the third time in 1955, to the Rev. J.H. Chapell,whom she met while they were both employed at the Great Lakes Naval Training Base in Waukegan. In 1962 Willa returned to teaching to teaching high school-level aeronautics and commerical subjects;She continued teaching until her retitement in 1971.That year she became the first black woman appointed to the Federal Aviation Administration's Women's Advisory Committee on Aviation,serving until 1974.In recognition of her leadership, Willa was invited to speak at the Tuskegee Airmen's fourth annual convention in August 1974. She was unable to attend,but in remarks read at the meeting,she wrote,"We desperately wanted blacks to fly and we desperately wanted them to be accepted into the Army Air Corps as cadets...we threw the word 'I' out of our vocabulary altogether. We needed everybody's help...The YMCA,the Chicago Urban League, the Chicago Board of Education, NAACP, the Eighth Regiment Armory,civic-minded individuals in all walks of life,other flying schools in the area, and,of course,churches of all denominations supported the effort."Willa was honored as a pioneer in the "Black Wings exhibition at the National Air and Space Museum in 1982. She died in Chicago.