Willa Brown

Born on January 21, 1906 in Glasgow, Kentucky, Willa B. Brown was the first Black American woman to earn her pilot’s license within United States aviation schools. She trained with Janet Harmon-Bragg at the Aeronautical University.  Along with Harmon-Bragg and Cornelius Coffey, they collaborated on multiple projects that called for the integration of aviation training schools and the admittance of Black pilots into civilian aviation-related professions.  In 1935, Brown obtained her mechanic’s license, followed by her private pilot’s license in 1939.  During the war, Brown helped Coffey train pilots who would eventually become Tuskegee Airmen.  In addition to her great contributions to aeronautical integration, she was also the first Black woman to run for United States Congress.  Willa B. Brown died July 18, 1992 in Chicago, Illinois.

 Janet Harmon-Bragg 

 Janet Harmon-Bragg 

Born on March 24, 1907 in Griffin, Georgia, Janet Harmon-Bragg was the first Black American woman to hold a commercial pilot’s license.  After completing her initial flight training in Chicago, Illinois, at the Curtiss Wright School of Aeronautics, her initial license was given on December 31, 1932, but the exact type of license was later discontinued and she was forced to train and test for an updated license.  She formed the Challenger Aero Club with Cornelius Coffey, and it was at his school where she was only two of six women to graduate from training.  She also helped found the National Airmen’s Association of America (NAAA), because the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP) would not allow Black students.  After meeting with then-Senator Harry Truman, representatives of the NAAA were successful in changing the laws and Black students were admitted to the CPTP, albeit segregated.  During World War II, Harmon-Bragg interviewed with Ethel Sheehy of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) and although Sheehy did not outright deny Janet entrance, she was eventually refused by Jacqueline Cochran.  In 1943, she went to Tuskegee to complete her final commercial pilot’s license training. She passed the written exam and the practical, but the examiner, T.K. Hudson refused to pass her, despite being impressed with her skills. A few months later, she flew back to Chicago and went to Pal-Waukee Airport where she attempted to obtain her license once again.  Mr. Ritter, the examiner in Illinois, passed her and she picked up her new license a few days later.  Janet Harmon-Bragg died on April 11, 1993 in Blue Island, Illinois. 

Jill E. Brown-Hiltz

Born in 1950 in Baltimore, Maryland, Jill E. Brown-Hiltz was the first Black American female commercial pilot.  She started flight lessons at 17 and earned her pilot’s license with the intent of becoming a career pilot.  Initially, she enlisted in the United States Navy and began flight training, but she decided to take an alternate route to her chosen profession and was honorably discharged in 1974.  After teaching home economics for a few years, she contacted Warren H. Wheeler, another Black pilot, who was starting his own airline company, aimed at employing and serving the Black community.  Brown-Hiltz spent two years with Wheeler Airlines before seeking employment at a major airline.  In 1978, she was contacted by Texas International Airlines and hired immediately.  After a year with the company, she began flying cargo planes for Zantop International Airlines.  Unfortunately, she was forced to file suit against United Airlines in 1987, alleging discriminatory hiring practices.  For the next 20 years, she fought in the courts for equal opportunities within the airline industry, but her suits were ultimately dismissed.

Patricia Banks

Patricia Banks and Capital Airlines

In 1960, after a lengthy and tedious process of court sessions, the New York State Commission against Discrimination faulted Capital Airlines for failing to hire Patricia Banks, a black woman who had been denied employment as a flight attendant despite meeting all job requirements, due to her race. They were then given 30 days in which to hire her, and became only one of two black flight attendants in the country. 

Patrice Clarke-Washington

Captain Patrice Clarke-Washington

Patrice Francise Clarke was born on September 11, 1961, in Nassau, Bahamas. She first became interested in aviation when she participated in career week activities at her high school in Nassau, Bahamas, and at that time it was an interest in becoming a stewardess. However, that soon changed, and her interest soon turned to becoming a pilot. Clarke attended Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida and graduated in April, 1982, with a commercial pilot's certificate and a Bachelor's of Science in aeronautical science, and was the first black woman to graduate from the university. Clarke's career involved working for a few different airlines, starting as a pilot for a charter company, Trans Island Airways, in the Bahamas, from 1982-1984. She then flew as a first officer with Bahamasair from 1984-1988 before she was hired as a flight engineer for United Parcel Service in May 1988. While working as a first officer for UPS she was promoted to captain in November, 1994, becoming the first black female pilot with a commercial airline. Also, in 1994, she married Ray Washington, a captain for American Airlines.

Ruth Carol Taylor

Ruth Carol Taylor

Ruth Carol Taylor was born on December 27, 1931 in Boston, Massachusetts. Taylor attended Elmira College and graduated as a Registered Nurse from the Bellevue School of Nursing in New York and worked as a nurse for the New York City Transit Authority. Irritated at the racial discrimination being shown to people of color, and the denial of them being able to apply for the position, Taylor applied for a job as a stewardess with Mohawk Airlines. Taylor was only one of about 800 black females that were interviewed by Mohawk Airlines, and in December 1957 was hired with the company. On February 11, 1958, Taylor became the first black female stewardess in the United States.  However, after only six months she was let go due to a another discriminatory barrier: the airline's marriage ban, a common practice among airlines of the day of dismissing flight attendants who became either married or pregnant. While her career as a stewardess was short-lived, her contributions were not, and soon after she was hired, TWA also began hiring black flight attendants, and others followed.

Lieutenant Jeanine McIntosh-Menze

Lieutenant Jeanine McIntosh-Menze

Jeanine McIntosh was born in Jamaica in 1979. At an early age McIntosh had a love for airplanes, watching them soar overhead at her community of Portmore. McIntosh attended Vaz Preparatory School in Kingston before migrating with her family to Canada where they settled before relocating to South Florida. There, she attended high school at Miami Killian High School and graduated from Florida International University where she studied International Business.   After graduating she decided to pursue her love of flying, eventually taking flying lessons at the North Perry Airport in Pembroke Pines and afterwards getting a job as a flight instructor at Opa-Locka Airport in North Miami. While she worked there, she was exposed to the careers in the United States Coast Guard because of all the carriers there, and her interest to fly one of the planes. In 2003 McIntosh joined the US Coast Guard after graduating from the Coast Guard Officer Candidate School. McIntosh began her Coast Guard aviation training at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas in January 2005. In June of the same year, she earned her wings, becoming the first black female to successfully complete flight training and be assigned as a pilot in the US Coast Guard.

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