We all know that Bessie Coleman was a pioneering African American aviatrix,
but did you know that she actually wasn’t the first African American woman to
receive her pilot’s license in the U.S.?

Bessie Coleman, in fact,
received her pilot’s license in France, because no U.S. pilots’ program would
accept her. She attained her certification in 1921 after only seven months,
becoming the very first African American woman in the world to be licensed to
fly an aircraft.

But the first African American woman to achieve that
distinction on U.S. soil was Willa Beatrice Brown.

After receiving her BA from Indiana Teachers College in 1927 and MBA from
Northwestern University in 1937, Brown sought the assistance of Chicago
Defender Publisher/Editor Robert Abbott, who had also helped Bessie Coleman
to pursue her aviation goals. Brown enrolled in the Aeronautical University in
Chicago, earning a Master Mechanic certificate in 1935. Under the tutelage of
certified flight instructor and aviation mechanic Cornelius Coffey, she earned
her private pilot’s license in 1938, passing her exam with a near perfect score
of 96 percent.

In 1941, she became the first African American officer in the Civil Air
Patrol (CAP). The U.S. government also named her federal coordinator of the CAP
Chicago unit. Two years later, she became the first woman in the United States
who possessed both a mechanic’s license and a commercial license in aviation.

Willa was a member of several flight organizations, including the
Challenger Air Pilot’s Association, the Chicago Girls Flight Club, and the
Federal Aviation Administration’s Women’s Advisory Board. She also purchased her
own plane.

Her interests didn’t end at aviation, though. Brown became the first
African American woman to run for Congress in 1946. She campaigned again in 1948
and 1950 before pursuing other interests. She married a minister in 1955 and
taught aeronautics at Westinghouse High School until the 1970s. Willa Beatrice
Brown Chappell died in July 1992. She was 86 years old.

Though few African American male aviators cropped up in the background
illustrations of flight-centric comics in the ’40s, let alone African American
female aviators–who were relegated to civilian flight, anyway–Brown’s life
certainly would make for a great period comic today.