When Henry Ford’s Detroit Assembly lines made the latest available to the public in automotive technology, traffic was also growing in a similar way.
The industry was growing for more than 20 years after 20 years of the flight conducted by Orville and Willaber Wright. The bookies were bulldoons in airplanes, somewhere they felt that they could produce enough businesses, and manufacturers produced kit aircraft that could also buy minor means. Schools opened to provide training and license to anyone, which was interested in flight. Except, perhaps, if there was no white man.
Piloting pilot Basi Kolman, who went to France for flight training, dreamed of opening a flight school for potential black pilots in Chicago and raising money to do so by putting it on flying exhibitions. But before the 1926 show, an in-air accident dumped him from his plane, and he and another pilot were killed.
The news of his death made national headlines, and inspired two auto mechanic friends to follow in Kolman’s Wake in Detroit.
Cornelius coffee and John Robinson ended making history in the south suburbs of Chicago.
But it was not easy. According to Tyron Hemore, Executive Director of Robins Historical Society and Museum, he was initially denied entry into Curtis-Right Aeronautical University in Chicago, as he was black.
Cornelius R. Coffee trained many men who would become the first black pilot in the US Army, Tuskegi Airmen. (Robins Historical Society and Museum)
Instead, Robinson got a job as a watchman at the school on Dakshin Michigan Avenue, and gave time to his tasks so that he could destrop him in classes. He also installed a motor vehicle garage, where new Rousnavard Court apartments were being built.
The garage gave friends space and equipment to make their small Heath Parsol aircraft from a kit. They could not tolerate the recommended motor, hemore said, so they used one from a coffee motorcycle. The aircraft worked, and they convinced the Curtis-Right Instructor to come out and give it a test flight.
“I am sure he was nervous, but the aircraft went into the sky just like another simple aircraft,” Hemore said. The test flight turned into an invitation to take classes in the school which had earlier removed them. “They came to know that they can learn something from these two black people, first black students at Curtis-Right Aeronautical School.”
Coffee and Robinson learned fast and became a certified pilot. Their next step will be to open their school.
“He heard about this all-black town called Robins, and said,” We will not have any problem there, “Hamor said.
In fact, he was welcomed heartily. Mayor Samuel Nicholls, whose daughter Nikale Nicholes, was a trailbiles icon, especially on the USS Enterprise of another aircraft, Star Trek, helped them find land and labor to clean it for the hangar.
And the residents of Robins were also happy about Vikas.
“When people came to know that two black people were building an airport in Robins, they were like superheroes,” said Hemore. “People will feed them – Restaurant used to give free food to anyone construction of that airport. And if they wanted to spend the night, they always had a place to stay. People were welcoming a lot.”
Working in the name of Challenger Air Pilot Association, he opened the country’s first black -owned airport in Robins in 1931 with 139th Street. Robins Historical Museum is now part of the site.
The Robins History Museum is part of the site of Robins History Museum in West 139th Street. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
At the same time, brothers Fred and William Schumacar were developing a new airport in the 87th Street and Harlem Avenue, which was then an unirrigated oak lawn.
“They had money, but they did not have a lot of aviation skills,” said Hemore. “As far as I know, neither were there a pilot of them. They were looking for a way to make money, and then the airport was a moneymaker.”
Shumachers had money to make several hangers, Hemore said, while Challenger Air Pilot Association was raising money on fly and volunteer trusted labor and donated wood to Robins Airport’s single hangar, with two aircraft will be given homes.
Among his investors, Janet Harmon Brag was the owner of a business that financed the association’s aircraft. She will later become the first African American woman to have a commercial pilot license. Black pilot Wilt Brown was also involved, which helped the association get government grants to fund the operation.
Things were going well until the disaster occurred.
“Three years later he built the airport, he built the hangar, but did not place the front door on it,” Hemore said. “In 1933, a violent wind storm hit the region and completely tore that hangar and destroyed two airplanes.”
Coffee and Robinson planned to rebuild in Robins, but in the success of their training program for black pilots along with repairing the aircraft, his skills caught the sight of Brothers in the Oak lawn.
“Shumachers spoke to Coffee and Robinson to reconstruction in Robins,” Hemore said. “He said,” Just come here. We need you here. “
The Hemore will present a program on the South Suburban Pioneers of Black Aviation on 6 February on 6 February in the Oak Lawn Public Library.
It was not easy for white pilots to integrate Harlem Airport training programs and Challenger program for black students.
“They knew that the race would be a problem, and they thought they could manage it,” Hemore said. “But he had real problems.”
Schumachers initially separated the two programs into separate hangers, but it was not enough. The hanger where coffee and Robinson operated were burnt.
“They didn’t want the blacks to get out of there,” Hemore said. “But Shumakars were not going to take the whites out of there.”
They moved the operation to another hanger at the south end of the airport, but not long later, coffee began teaching white and black students together in convenience.
“Coffee kept saying that black trainers could teach everyone, and white students and black students can learn together,” Hemore said. “Finally, Shumakars agreed with it and this happened.”
The flight school trained hundreds of pilots at the airport at rural oak lawn, many who were associated with Tuskegi Airmen and some who fought as part of the Red Tels squadron in World War II.
John Robinson of Chicago, who became an Ethiopian army pilot, is named “Brown Condor”, depicted on 27 September 1935. (The Associated Press)
Robinson left the program after being admitted by Ethiopia in the mid -1930s to help develop a air defense of that country as an attack by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
“They have near the monuments there,” Hamore said.
Coffee Harlem Avenue and the 87th Street stayed at the airport, which in 1956 closed for good after losing his lease.
He later taught in several schools in Chicago, including a long term in Dunbar High School.
The historic airstrip where the border busting trailblazer and the flying heroes of World War II learned to fly, which fell victim to the latest trend in the use of the Manimating Land. The site became a shopping center and was attacked by the Brijvyu village.
Heymore said he went there and asked about the old airport, but some recalled it, “Even old people.”
But the memory of its pre -use, and the residents initially reached their remote, along with the name of the plaza, it also reaches the road that accesses it: Southfield.
Coffee, Robinson and Challenger Air Pilot Association in Robins remain strong, although the airport there lasted only for a few years. Heymore said that this is a point of pride as it was now done.
“The airport brought great enthusiasm in the region,” he said. “The neighboring communities were jealous.”
A story coffee told him about the days that still gives a spark of civil pride in Robins.
“At that time, the Mayor of Midlothian lived right next to the airport,” said Hemore. “He used to send police to coffee and Robinson to be jailed, as he did not like them that they were flying at their home.
“They always exit, and he voted and later he left. It is still a lot for sale.”
Landmark is a weekly column by Paul Eisenberg, searching for people, places and things that have left an indelible impression on Southland. Can be reached on it [email protected],