AMERICAN WINGS

An account of how brilliant and resourceful early-20th-century Black aviators created their own runway to the skies.

Originally trained as auto mechanics, Cornelius Robinson Coffey and John Charles Robinson shared a common dream of becoming pilots despite facing racism. “We’re going to make it regardless,” Coffey prophetically declared after they were both reluctantly admitted—under threat of a lawsuit—into Chicago’s Curtiss–Wright School of Aviation. They successfully finished their program, persuading the school’s initially hostile director to register a cohort of Black students whom they could teach as assistant instructors. Coffey and Robinson then sought interested men and women through advertisements in the Chicago Defender, whose publisher sponsored pioneering Black pilot Bessie Coleman. They organized the Brown Eagle Aero Club, and Robinson even accepted an invitation from Haile Selassie to help train Ethiopian pilots as the country prepared to defend itself against fascist Italy. Smith and Wein tightly thread together overlapping narrative threads, including the early evolution of aviation, the history of Tuskegee University, the role of the African American press, and tense geopolitical matters concerning the only African country to have escaped European colonization. Photographs scattered throughout are an additional treat, adding a special layer to the storytelling. The writing is accessible and buoyant, creating anticipation for what is to come, all culminating in an engaging slice of history.

A fascinating, well-told American story full of compelling innovation.