A Joyful Practice

En L’Air (a special Black History 2.5-for-1 note) February 23, 2023

Many blessings to those observing and/or preparing for Lent. Peace and ease to all during this “Season for Non-violence” and all other seasons!

This is a special post for February 11^th and February 12^th. The word for these dates are creativity and humility. You will find both in the stories below.

“‘What was Jake’s last name? Can you tell me?’

She shrugged. ‘I don’t think he had one. He was one of those flying African children. They must all be dead a long time now.’

‘Flying African children?’”

– Milkman and Susan Byrd in Chapter 14 of Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

According to Orville Wright, the desire to fly is a human birthright “handed down to us by our ancestors” and I easily buy into that idea because I grew up hearing so many stories about flying: from Daedalus and Icarus to Wilbur and Orville Wright and from Amelia Earhart to the Tuskegee Airmen. Then there were stories of  enslaved Africans who, as one of my favorite spirituals indicated, could “fly away.” Later, I would learn that they flew in all the different ways people fly in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon. Of course, the history of flight – as it is usually taught in the United States – is very much “his”–story, a story of men in flight. With the exception of those Africans in the song, the Tuskegee Airmen, and Toni Morrison’s characters (and the notable exception, of Ms. Earhart and Pilate), the stories I heard growing up were mostly about white men in flight. Oh, yes, and many of these stories – especially the ones not about white men – ended tragically.

But, what about the stories just regarding women? And, what about the stories that didn’t end tragically? How creative did people have to be to follow their dreams and let their hearts soar?

Well, for many years, women in the United States were only hired as flight attendants (née stewardesses or cabin hostesses) a job that mostly required women to meet a certain beauty standard – and, in America, for a long time, that beauty standard did not include women who were minorities. So, it is no surprise that the first Black person hired as a stewardess was actually African. Her name is Léopoldine Emma Doualla-Bell Smith – and, she had no idea she was making history when she became a stewardess in 1957. In fact, for many years, people would identify Ruth Carol Taylor as the first Black stewardess, because of all the publicity surrounding her maiden flight on February 11, 1958.

“Once there was a princess who made history in the sky…. She loved animals and wanted to be a veterinarian. But her father said women could only be nurses or teachers. Her father was wrong.”

– quoted from the profile of Léopoldine Emma Doualla-Bell Smith in Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Real-Life Tales of Black Girl Magic by CaShawn Thompson, edited by Lilly Workneh 

Léopoldine Emma Doualla-Bell Smith is a princess, born into the royal Douala family of Cameroon. In high school, she received ground hostess training for Union Aéromaritime de Transport (UAT) and Air France and then, when she graduated at the age of seventeen, she went to Paris to take flight training. The following year, in 1957, she joined UAT as a “hôtesse de l’air,” In 1960, the same year that UAT merged with Transports Aériens Intercontinentaux to form Union de Transports Aériens (UTA), she was offered a job with Air Afrique, an airline created to service the eleven newly independent French-speaking nations. At the time, the then Miss Doualla-Bell was the only qualified African in French aviation and her employment identification card was No. 001. She was promoted to first cabin chief, but throughout her employment at Air Afrique she faced racism and sexism. Some white customers did not want her to serve them; others acted as if her “service” included sex. In fact, at one point she slapped a customer who touched her inappropriately. The incident. however, did not cost her her job. She retired from Air Afrique in 1969 and became the manager of Reunited Transport Leaders Travel Agency (in Libreville, Gabon) until she relocated to Washington D.C. in 1975.

While studying English at Georgetown University, she her future husband, an American named Leroy Smith. The Smiths moved to Gabon in 1976, at which point Mrs. Doualla-Bell Smith worked as an Air Zaire’s station and officer manager at the Libreville airport and supported the Skal Club (also known as Skal International), an international association that promoted travel and tourism in Africa. Beginning in 1983, the Smiths worked in the Peace Corps – yet, even then, Léopoldine Emma Doualla-Bell Smith kept working in travel and tourism. To this day, as a retiree in Denver, she volunteers at the Denver International Airport and promotes travel and tourism via the company she co-founded with her husband (Business and Intercultural Services for Educational Travel and Associated Learning (BISETAL)).

“Although [Léopoldine Emma Doualla Bell Smith] developed close relationships with some of her fellow flight crewmembers over the years, the racial divide was clear when they stepped off the plane in other countries.

For example, during the days of apartheid in South Africa she was not allowed to walk off the plane with her co-workers. Instead of joining the rest of the crew at a local hotel, once she was covered and whisked away to the home of a fellow employee who lived in the country.”

– quoted from the NBC News story “World’s First Black Flight Attendant Honored: Léopoldine Doualla-Bell Smith, world’s first black flight attendant honored.” (posted online March 15, 2015)

While the young Léopoldine Emma Doualla-Bell Smith didn’t know she was making history in 1957, Ruth Carol Taylor was very intentional in her decision to break the color barrier. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts in December 27, 1931. Her father, William Edison Taylor, was a barber and her mother, Ruth Irene Powell Taylor, was a nurse. The family moved to a farm in upstate New York when Ms. Taylor was young and so she ended up attending Elmira College and then earning a Nursing degree from  Bellevue School of Nursing in New York City. She worked as a registered nurse for several years and then decided to apply to be a stewardess at Trans World Airline (TWA), which rejected her application. Not to be thwarted, she filed a complaint against the company with the New York State Commission on Discrimination and also applied to Mohawk Airlines, a regional carrier, that had publicly expressed interest in hiring minority flight attendants.

About 800 Black women applied to the regional carrier, which hired Ruth Taylor in December of 1957. On February 11, 1958, she flew from Ithaca to New York City and, in the process, became the first African American flight attendant. The flight created so much publicity (and public pressure) that TWA, the airline that had rejected Ms. Taylor, hired Margaret Grant in May 1958. Ms. Grant, who was attending Hunter College at the time, was publicly declared the first African American flight attendant for a major airline carrier. She started training on June 12, 1958, after she graduated; however, she was terminated before she completed the training, because it was discovered that she had sickle cell anemia.

Around the same time Ms. Grant started her training, Ruth Carol Taylor was forced to give up her position, because she married her fiancé Rex Legall (they had been engaged since before she was hired). The couple moved to the British West Indies and then to London, and also had a daughter, before getting a divorce. Ms. Taylor subsequently moved to Barbados, where she created the country’s first professional nursing journal, and had a son, before returning to New York City in 1977. In addition to participating in the Civil Rights Movement, she co-founded the Institute for InterRacial Harmony (IIH), which developed the Racism Quotient Test, to measure racist/colorist attitudes and, in 1985, she wrote The Little Black Book: Black Male Survival in America or Staying Alive and Well in an Institutionally Racist Society.

“…[Ruth Carol Taylor] didn’t take the job because she thought being a flight attendant would be so great. She says she did it to fight discrimination.

‘It wasn’t something that I had wanted to do all my life,’ she tells JET about being a flight attendant. ‘I knew better than to think it was all that glamourous. But it irked me that people were not allowing people of color to apply… Anything like that sets my teeth to grinding.’”

– quoted from the JET Magazine article entitled, “First Black Flight Attendant Is Still Fighting Racism” (printed in the “Labor” section of the May 12, 1997 issue)    

After Ruth Carol Taylor and Margaret Grant in 1958, no other African Americans would be hired by airlines until 1960. Eventually, however, African Americans were employed in every aspect of aviation. A prime example of that is the fact that, on February 12, 2009, then Captain Rachelle Jones Kerr, First Officer Stephanie Grant, and Flight Attendants Robin Rogers and Diana Galloway became the first all African American commercial flight crew. Their historic flights (on Atlantic Southeast Airlines flights #5202 and #5106, between Atlanta and Nashville) were not planned; they happened because someone called in sick. Still, the odds of everything falling into place as it did were pretty low considering there were less Black women licensed to fly then than there are now; and now, there are still less than 1%.

There are several initiatives to change the overall landscape. For instance, women have operated Delta Air Lines’ WING program (Women Inspiring the Next Generation) since 2015. The program introduces school-aged girls to jobs in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) via flights fully staffed by women. This means that the students get to see women are working as pilots, flight attendants, ticket agents, baggage handlers, air traffic controllers, ground crew, and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents.

In 2016, former U. S. Coast Guard pilot Angel Hughes and United Airlines pilot Nia Gilliam-Wordlaw organized a meeting that would become Sisters of the Skies (SOS), “a nationally recognized [non-profit] organization focused on increasing the number of black female pilots in professional flight decks in both military and commercial aviation.” SOS holds networking conferences, provides mentors for aspiring pilots, and also offers scholarships.

“When we got to the gate in Nashville, and all of the passengers were off, we asked the gate agent would she take our picture. So we stuffed ourselves in the galley and one by one, she took our cell phones and snapped our picture. She asked us, ‘Why do you want your pictures taken?’ Flight Attendant, Diana Galloway said, “Oh, it’s because we’re sisters!’ The gate agent’s response was priceless. She said, “Oh, your mother must be so proud!’”

– quoted from “12th Anniversary of the First All-Female African American Flight Crew” by First Officer Stephanie Grant, Director of Development for Sisters of the Skies, Inc. 

Before any of the women above flew – in fact, before any of these women were born and could dream of flying – “the Black Swallow” and “Queen Bess” were among a handful of Black, Indigenous, and Asian Americans flying through the air.

Eugene James Bullard, later known as Eugene Jacques Bullard, is remembered as the first African American fighter pilot to fly in combat, and one of four Black pilots during World War I. Although he was the only one of the four from the United States, her never flew for America. Born October 9, 1895, in Columbus, Georgia, he escaped the racism of the South as so many others did at the time – by becoming an expatriate. First he traveled to Scotland and then to England and France. In fact, he was in France at the beginning of World War I and served in several of France’s Marching Regiment of the Foreign Legion (R.M.L.E.). He eventually joined the 170th French Infantry Regiment, but was wounded on the Western Front, in March 1916, during the Battle of Verdun. During his recovery, he learned to fly (as part of a bet) and was able to go through training at the Aerial Gunnery School in Cazaux, Gironde and flight training at Châteauroux and Avord. After receiving his pilot’s license (#6950) from the Aéro-Club de France on May 5, 1917, he returned to the Western Front as one of the 270 American aviators at the Lafayette Flying Corps. That same year, Corporal Bullard was assigned to Escadrille SPA 93. Around the same time that he was flying for France, the United States started recruiting the Americans in the Lafayette Flying Corps; however, the man who would earn 14 French war medals and became known as “L’Hirondelle noire” or “L’Hirondelle noire de mort” (“The Black Swallow” or “The Black Swallow of Death”) was not selected to join the Air Service of the American Expeditionary Forces simply because he was Black.

After World War I, he returned to Paris and worked in as a jazz musician, a club manager, a club owner, a boxer, and a variety of other capacities that put him in close proximity with members of the Harlem Renaissance (not to mention their white contemporaries). He also opened Bullard’s Athletic Club which was a gymnasium offering physical culture, boxing, massage, ping pong and hydrotherapy. He briefly served in the French infantry during World War II; however, after being wounded, he returned to the United States, via Spain. Despite being brutally attacked during the Peekskill riots, Eugene Jacques Bullard would live in New York City until he died of stomach cancer on October 12, 1961.

“One fact, however, emerged as a constant throughout Bullard’s incredible 66 years. Despite late-life recognition in his birth country, which included a well-publicized embrace by a visiting Charles De Gaulle, and, in 1959, a deep tribute on the radio from Eleanor Roosevelt, Bullard never enjoyed the pursuit of happiness in America that he did in France, where he was awarded numerous prestigious honors. As [journalist Phil Keith, with his co-author Tom Clavin] write, ‘It was a proud moment for a black man not quite 21-years-old, far from home, and recognition he never could have received had he been on American soil.’”

– quoted from the NPR’s Baum on Books “Book Review: ‘All Blood Runs Red’” by Joan Baum (published January 30, 2020) 

Elizabeth “Bessie” Coleman became the first African American woman and first Native American to hold a pilot license when she earned her license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale on June 15, 1921. Her African American and Cherokee heritage also made her the first Black person and the first Indigenous American to earn an international pilot’s license. Born in Atlanta, Texas on January 26, 1892, the woman who became known as “Queen Bess” and “Brave Bessie” would eventually make her living as a stunt pilot. Before that, however, she worked as a laundrywoman in Waxahachie, Texas. She earned enough money  taking in laundry and picking cotton to attend one semester at the Colored Agricultural and Normal University (now Langston University, the only Historically Black Colleges or Universities in Oklahoma). When she had to drop out of college, due to a lack of funds, followed her brothers to Chicago, Illinois, where trained at Burnham School of Beauty Cultures to be a manicurist at a barbershop. In fact, it was at the barbershop that she got truly motivated to be a pilot.

Since no American flight school would train her, Bessie Coleman used the money she earned as a manicurist to learn French and then travel to France to take flying lessons. Once trained, she became a barnstorming daredevil. She was often criticized for the risks she took – and she was no stranger to accidents and broken bones and bruises. But, her aerobatic stunts gave her a platform which she used to speak out against racism, to promote aviation, and to encourage people of color to pursue aviation as career (or a hobby). Like some other prominent entertainers, she put her money where her mouth was and refused to perform at events where African Americans were not permitted to attend.

“One day John Coleman strutted into the White Sox Barbershop and began teasing Bessie. He started comparing African-American women to French women he had seen during [World War I]. John said that African-American women could not measure up to French women. The French women had careers. They even flew airplanes. He doubted that African-American women could fly like the French women. Bessie waited for the barbershop customers to stop laughing. Then she replied, ‘That’s it. You just called it for me.’”

– quoted from “Chapter 3. Seeking Independence” in The Life of Bessie Coleman: First African-American Woman Pilot by Connie Plantz 

Ultimately, being a principled daredevil while also facing racism cost her. At one point, she opened up a beauty salon in Chicago in order to earn extra money so that she could buy her own airplane. Sadly and tragically, the airplane she was able to purchase was poorly maintained. On April 30, 1926, in preparation for an air show in Jacksonville, Florida, the plane spiraled out of control killing Bessie Coleman and her mechanic and publicist, William D. Wills, who had been piloting the airplane.

Although Bessie Coleman’s was just barely 34 years old when she tragically died doing what she loved, her legacy still lives. There have been schools, scholarships, and at least one library named after her. The United States Postal service issued a commemorative stamp in her honor in 1995; a Google Doodle was posted on what would have been her 125^th birthday; she has been inducted into numerous halls of fame; and Mattel recently issued a Barbie doll in her honor. There are streets and boulevards named after her in the United States and there are airport roads bearing her name all over the world.

Bessie Coleman’s legacy also lives on in the lives of the women she inspires and the people they inspire. For instance, in 1992, Mae Carol Jemison (born October 17, 1956) became the first Black woman to travel into space. At the time, the African American chemical engineer and M. D. was working for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. She was making history at the age of 35 (mere weeks before her 36^th birthday) – and she was doing it while carrying a photo of the Brave/Queen Bessie.

There have been also been commemorative fly-overs in her honor and, in 2022, a commemorative American Airlines flight (from Dallas-Fort Worth to Phoenix) was fully staffed by African American women: from the cockpit and aisles all the way to the tarmac (cargo and maintenance crew) there were sisters of the skies.

“For communities who may not fly often, that outreach and activism from Black aerospace professionals and pilots can combat the unknown and can help show Black communities that being a pilot is a real possibility.

‘A parent comes up to me and she says, “You a pilot?” and I said, “Yes, ma’am.” And she said, “They let us be pilots?” And that really was something,’ says [Delta Airlines Captain Stephanie Johnson]. ‘The parents don’t know what the opportunities are, because they didn’t grow up with opportunities. And so it was even more important, that “OK, this has just got to be my life because I can open people’s eyes.”’”

– quoted from the AFAR article “Where Are All the Black Women Pilots? – Nearly a century after Bessie Coleman first took to the skies, Black women remain a rarity in the cockpit.” by Syreeta McFadden (February 20, 2020) 

This year, just before the Super Bowl kick-off, the annual flyover was piloted by an all-women team of pilots (who had a maintenance crew that was mostly women). This was a historic occasion that marked 50 years of women flying in the United States Navy. This was not the first time, however, that a ceremonial Navy aircraft squadron had been flown by all women. In 2019, a team of women flew in the diamond formation during the funeral of (retired) Captain Rosemary Mariner, who was the Navy’s first female jet pilot. With regard to the Super Bowl flyover, the pilots made a point noting that they were honoring “every man and woman in the service” – which includes Lieutenant junior grade (Lt. j.g.) Madeline Swegle, the US Navy’s first Black woman to serve as fighter pilot.

All of those aforementioned Navy pilots fly in the proverbial footsteps of Jesse Leroy Brown, the first Black man to be accepted into Navy flight school, the first Black pilot to earn Wings of Gold, and the first Black Navy officer killed during the Korean War; Lt. Commander Brenda E. Robinson, one of only 10 women to attend the Navy’s Aviation Officer Candidate School in 1977, the first Black woman to serve as a Navy pilot, and the first Black woman to earn Wings of Gold; and Shawna Rochelle Kimbrell, the first Black woman to serve as a fighter pilot in the United States Air Force.

“…fill the air with ‘Black Wings’.”

– quoted from “Chapter XIV – A Plan” in Black Wings by Lieut. William J. Powell 

NOTE: Lieutenant Powell served in the the 370^th Illinois Infantry Regiment during World War I and was able to obtain train to be a pilot in the United States in (at the Los Angeles School of Flight, 1928 – 1932). He dedicated his book to Bessie Coleman and founded the Bessie Coleman Aero Club, which welcomed people of all races and genders.

Practice Notes: Two or three times a year, I lead flight-inspired practices where we explore physical terms like “pitch,” “yaw,” and “roll” – all movements that are already in our practice. This is also an opportunity to cultivate awareness around core engagement and different parts of the body (usually, feet or hips) that serve as our “landing gear.” A practice specifically related to flight attendants could include some extra lateral extension and some “funky” poses, where one elbow is flexed and one is extended (similar to the way one might lift a suitcase into an overhead bin). Naturally, “Airplane Pose” would be a peak pose.

### “And he still gives his love, he just gives it away / The love he receives is the love that is saved / And sometimes is seen a strange spot in the sky / A human being that was given to fly / Flying” ~ Pearl Jam ###