Powell, William J. (aviator)

Impact on the world

Founded the Bessie Coleman Aero Club in 1929, the first organization of African American aviators in the country, then in 1931 organized the first all-Black air show in U.S. history, drawing 15,000 spectators to watch the first flying formation composed entirely of Black pilots; he also founded Bessie Coleman Aero, the first African American-owned airplane manufacturing company, and his 1934 book 'Black Wings' helped inspire a generation of Black aviators who later became Tuskegee Airmen.

Life & background

Born in Kentucky in 1897 and raised in Chicago, Powell studied engineering at the University of Illinois before serving as a lieutenant in the segregated 365th Infantry Regiment during World War I, an experience that left him with lasting health effects from poison gas exposure. A 1927 aerial tour over France, taken at a veterans' reunion, ignited his fascination with flight, and after earning his own pilot's license in 1932 he had already founded, in 1929, the Bessie Coleman Aero Club in Los Angeles, named for the pioneering aviator who had died three years earlier and dedicated to opening aviation to African Americans systematically excluded from flight schools, mechanic licensing, and even airline passage. The club's flight school, led by chief instructor James Herman Banning, trained Black pilots and mechanics, and in 1931 Powell organized the first all-Black air show in American history, leading the first all-Black flying formation himself before a crowd of 15,000. He went on to found Bessie Coleman Aero, the first African American-owned airplane manufacturing company, publish a monthly journal on Black aviation, and write 'Black Wings' in 1934, a book dedicated to Coleman's memory that historians credit with helping inspire the generation of pilots who became the Tuskegee Airmen; he died in 1942, only briefly outliving the 99th Pursuit Squadron's establishment.

Sources

1. Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum; Blue Sky News (Black Aviators)