This Black Social History is design for the education of all races about Black People Contribution to world history over the past centuries, even though its well hidden from the masses so that our children dont even know the relationship between Black People and the wealth of their history in terms of what we have contributed to make this world a better place for all.
Saturday 16 May 2015
BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : AFRICAN AMERICAN " JANET BRAGG " WAS AN AMERICAN AMATEUR AVIATOR AND THE FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMAN TO HOLD A COMMERCIAL PILOT LICENCE : GOES INTO THE " HALL OF BLACK HEROES "
Janet Harmon Waterford Bragg (born Jane Nettie Harmon) [1] (March 24, 1907 — April 11, 1993) was an American amateur aviator.[2] She was the first African American woman to hold a Commercial Pilot Licence.[3]
Janet Harmon was born on March 24, 1907 in Griffin, Georgia.[1] She was the seventh child in a family with African and Cherokeeancestry.[1] Harmon attended Episcopal schools and Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, and qualified as a registered nurse in 1929.[4] Shortly after graduation she left Georgia for Illinois and was hired as a nurse by Wilson Hospital in Chicago.[4] She married Evans Waterford; this first marriage fell apart in two years. After the divorce Harmon continued to work as nurse, this time for practicing doctors, and attended the Loyola University.[4] In 1941–1951 she worked as a health inspector for an insurance company. In 1953 she married Sumner Bragg; together the Braggs managed nursing homes for the elderly in Chicago until their own retirement in 1972.[5]
Aviation
In 1928, Bragg became the first black woman to enroll in the Curtiss Wright School of Aeronautics in Chicago.[6] In 1933[7] Janet (then Waterford) enrolled at Aeronautical University, a segregated black aviation school managed by John C. Robinson and Cornelius Coffey.[4] She was the only woman in a class with 24 black men.[7] In 1934 she provided $600[8] of her own money to buy the school's first airplane, and helped in building the school's own airfield in Robbins, Illinois. In the summer she learnt flying and obtained her private pilot's license.[4] In 1943 she applied to join the Women Airforce Service Pilots program. When she went in for an interview, Ethel Sheehy, assistant to the head of WASP, denied her an interview because she was black. A few weeks later, she received a rejection letter from Jacqueline Cochran, head of WASP, for the same reason.[5] Her application to the military nurse corps was rejected, also on racial grounds.[5] She then travelled to a flight school in Tuskegee, Alabama and completed the Civilian Pilot Training Program. She was denied a pilot's license in Alabama, for being a "colored girl", but managed to receive a license at Pal-Waukee Field, Illinois.[5][7]
Janet Waterford Bragg was a pioneer female African American pilot whose leadership in black pilot organziations in the 1930s created opportunities for others. After graduating from high school in 1927, she enrolled in Spellman College in Atlanta and earned a degree in nursing from MacBicar Hospital on Spellman's campus. Eventually she moved to Chicago and began her nursing career. In 1933, she enrolled in the Curtiss Wright Aeronautical School where she was the only female in an aircraft mechanics class of 24 black males. Although her race and gender provided constant challenges, she continued to pursue her passion for flying. While doing postgraduate work at Loyola University and the University of Chicago, she worked as a registered nurse at several hospitals and saved enough money to buy her first of three planes. For $500 she purchased a plane, which she shared with other flying enthusiasts. This group, inspired by Bessie Coleman, formed the Challenger Air Pilots Association, which later evolved into the Coffey School of Aeronautics. The Association built its first airstrip in the township of Robbins, Illinois, in 1933. Bragg encountered discrimination against women at the Tuskegee black pilot training school when she passed the flight test for her commercial license and was denied the license. She received her commercial license in 1943 at the Pal-Waukee Airport near Chicago. During World War II Bragg tried to join the WASPs but was turned down because of her skin color. In 1946, she purchased a Super Cruiser, in which she logged many hours of cross-country flying. Bragg continued to fly for pleasure into the 1970s. Her autobiography, Soaring Above Setbacks, with Marjorie Kriz, was published in 1996.
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