archivesfoundation:Happy birthday, Willa Beatrice Brown! The first African-American woman to receive
archivesfoundation:Happy birthday, Willa Beatrice Brown! The first African-American woman to receive a commission as a lieutenant in the U.S. Civil Air Patrol would have been 109 years old today. Ambitious and highly motivated, Brown first became a teacher and later earned an M.B.A from Northwestern University. Still on the hunt for adventure, she took flying lessons and became the first African-American woman in the United States to hold a private pilot’s licence. Brown later married her flying instructor Cornelius R. Coffey, and they set up a flying school in Chicago for African-Americans. Together they campaigned tirelessly for the racial integration of pilot training schemes during WWII. Willa Brown eventually became the coordinator of war-training service for the Civil Aeronautics Authority and later was a member of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Women’s Advisory Board. Image: “Willa Beatrice Brown, a 31-year-old Negro American, serves her country by training pilots for the U.S. Army Air Forces. She is the first Negro woman to receive a commission as a lieutenant in the U.S. Civil Air Patrol.” -- source link