American Wings: Chicago’s Pioneering Black Aviators and the Race for Equality in the Sky

In 1903, the Wright brothers made history with the first powered, sustained, and controlled flight. Sixteen years later, a teenage Black boy named Cornelius Coffey’s world changed forever when he was given the opportunity to be a passenger in a barnstormer’s airplane. The white barnstormer did everything in his power to scare Coffey, performing rolls and spins, but this failed. After the flight, Coffey was determined to become a pilot, and he wasn’t alone in his dream. American Wings tells the true story of the Black Chicago aviators who fought for progress both on the ground and in the sky. 

American Wings chronicles the stories of Cornelius Coffey and Johnny Robinson, who first met in 1927 at a Detroit auto mechanic’s shop. Discovering a mutual fascination for aviation, they decide to team up and find a flight school that would accept them, opting for Chicago’s Curtiss-Wright School. Despite acing the application process, they were denied enrollment when they visited the school. Eventually, after the threat of a lawsuit from Coffey’s white boss, the school relented and allowed the two men to attend classes. Despite harassment from their white classmates, Coffey and Robinson excelled in their classes, completing their aviation mechanics course in May 1931. They soon began teaching at the Curtiss-Wright School, where Black enrollment skyrocketed.  

Coffey and Robinson were just getting started. Empowered by their passion for flight, especially as a means of progress, they founded what would become the Challenger Aero Club and constructed their first airfield in nearby Robbins, Illinois. As the Challenger Aero Club expanded, they would be joined by Willa Brown, a former student who would become the first Black woman to earn both a pilot and mechanic’s license in the US, and Janet Harmon Bragg, a nurse who rekindled her childhood fascination with flight after reading an article about Coffey and Robinson’s classes in The Chicago Defender. Together, they built a powerful, resilient, and historic community in Chicago in the tumultuous years between World War I and World War II. 

Authors Sherri L. Smith and Elizabeth Wein tell a compelling true story consisting of twelve chapters, beginning in 1919 with Coffey’s first flight and ending with an exploration of the Challenger pilots’ lives after the war. Smith and Wein weave the perspectives of Coffey, Johnny, Willa, and Janet into the story, which adds valuable historical context. The writers use clear and concise language that is easy to understand. There are also several photographs, documents, and newspaper clippings included that immerse the reader in the era of the Challenger Aero Club; these appear every five to ten pages. Smith and Wein’s research is so extensive that nearly 100 pages are dedicated to sources, citations, and resources, allowing for further exploration and research.  

Their struggles are not sanitized and instances of racism, segregation, and hostility that the pilots faced are far from sugarcoated. Readers will discover that the Challenger pilots were more than just talented aviators — they were teachers, innovators, and leaders. They built the Challenger Aero Club’s Robbins airfield, where Black pilots could train to fly and excel without fear. They were pioneers who helped lay the foundation for integration in the U.S. Air Force, the iconic Tuskegee Airmen of World War II, and for every Black person who dreamed of flying. Overall, American Wings is an exceptionally well-written and thoroughly researched book that tells an important, lesser-told story of the Challenger Aero Club’s fight for equality in the skies. To learn more about the history of flight, take a nose-dive into history by reading The Wright Brothers: Nose-Diving into History. 

Sexual Content 

• None

Violence 

• The opening chapter discusses the history of Black men serving in the United States military before World War II. Segregation and general hostility were the norm. Smith and Wein cite a specific incident in August 1917 in Houston, when the “city erupted in rioting as Black soldiers, white policemen, and local citizens shot and bayoneted one another.”  
• After World War I, eleven Black veterans were targeted by white supremacists and, along with sixty-seven other African Americans, were “lynched by white mobs. Horrifically, some people were even burned alive.”  
• In September 1919, a Black man named William Brown was arrested on trumped-up charges in Coffey’s native Omaha. “A lawless mob set fire to the courthouse where Brown was being held, before dragging him out and hanging him. It took military intervention to disperse the crowd; two white civilians were killed in the riot. No one was ever found guilty.” 
• In 1922, while Johnny was at college, “a Black man was lynched by a white mob in his hometown of Gulfport.” 
• In May 1934, Willa Brown and her boyfriend, John B. McClellan, Jr., got into a tragic car accident, the exact cause of which isn’t stated. “A local boy watched screaming in horror as Willa’s car vaulted and rammed a tree. John was hurled fifteen feet into the air, landing hard and rolling another twenty feet before limping to rest.” John died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Willa suffered a broken arm, broken ribs, and a fractured vertebra, but would ultimately survive. 
• In 1935, Johnny arrived in Ethiopia to train fighter pilots for the nation’s fledgling air force. In October, Johnny was in the town of Adwa when “four large Italian planes flew over the town and started to drop bombs. . . The image of Ethiopian soldiers attacking modern Italian armaments with their traditional weaponry of swords and spears would become symbols of the devastating war that was to follow.” 
• Years later, in May 1954, Johnny took off on a trainer plane with an aircraft engineer. As they lifted off, the engine failed, and the plane crashed. “Johnny’s passenger was killed in the crash that followed, and Johnny himself suffered severe burns . . . two weeks later, Johnny died of his injuries.” 

Drugs and Alcohol 

• During the war, Janet Harmon Bragg made money as an amateur bootlegger, flying alcohol into the dry Macon County, Alabama. 

Language  

• On their way to the Tuskegee Institute, Janet and her flight instructor, Walter Robinson, had to land in a field in Boaz, Alabama. Looking for a place to spend the night, Janet and Walter went to a local gas station and asked a young white man if any Black people were living nearby. The man replied, “Naw, we are pretty tough on [n-words] around here.” Deciding to brave a night flight instead of staying in Boaz any longer, Walter asks Janet, “Are we going to take off?” Janet replies, “Hell, yes!” 

Supernatural Content  

• None

Spiritual Content  

• None 

by Nicholas Paragano