AFRICAN & BLACK HISTORY Profile picture
Apr 26, 2023 12 tweets 5 min read Read on X
Today on #WorldPilotsDay, i’ll highlight black pilots who broke barriers 👨🏿‍✈️👩🏿‍✈️

—A THREAD—

In 1921, Bessie Coleman became the first black licensed pilot.

When she developed an interest in flying, women and people of color had no flight training opportunities in the… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… Image
Willa Brown was the first black woman to earn both a pilot's license and a commercial license. (Bessie got hers in France) Image
Marlon D. Green, was an Air Force Pilot who fought to desegregate the Airline Industry. He became the 1st black pilot hired by a major airline. ImageImage
Jill E. Brown became the first female African-American pilot for a major US airline in 1978 when she joined Texas International Airlines as a pilot. Image
Ahmet Ali Celikten was the world's first black fighter pilot.

He served in the air forces of the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey. He was a veteran of World War 1 and the Turkish War of Independence. Image
Jesse L. Brown was the first black US Navy pilot. He flew 20 combat missions before being shot down in 1950 during the Korean War. Image
Eugene Jacques Bullard was the first African American military combat pilot. Often referred to as the “Black Swallow of Death” for his courage during missions, he faced incredible obstacles to become the only African-American pilot in World War 1. Image
He grew up in Georgia, flew for France in BOTH world wars, ran a Paris nightclub, spoke 3 languages and unironically owned a pet monkey. Image
Special mention to the Tuskegee Airmen became the first African American flying unit in the U.S. military and fought in World War II.

The Tuskegee Airmen epitomized courage and heroism. ImageImageImage
Lt. Col. Harry Stewart Jr. is one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen of World War II.

He survived 43 combat missions during World War II and is one of only a dozen remaining Tuskegee Airmen from the famed “Red Tails” fighter group still alive. Image
In 2001, Shawna Rochelle Kimbrell became the first Black woman to serve as a fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force. Image
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More from @AfricanArchives

Dec 27
Did you know Singer, dancer and activist Josephine Baker was also a spy in World War 2 for the French Air Force!

She found fame and freedom after fleeing racism in America and led a double life informing on the Nazis.

A THREAD Image
A talented dancer and singer, in 1927, Baker caused a sensation by performing at the Folies Bergère in Paris in a skirt made from bananas. Image
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Dec 25
The Baptist War: The Christmas Rebellion.

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So who was the Baptist preacher, Samuel Sharpe?

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Dec 23
The Banyole of the ancient kingdom Of Uganda practiced and perfected C-Section long before the Europeans.

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Dec 18
In 1781, over 100 enslaved Africans were thrown overboard and drowned so that the slavers could cash in on the insurance of those enslaved.

The Zong Massacre,

THREAD Image
On September 6, 1781, the slave ship Zong sailed from Africa with around 442 enslaved Africans. Back then, slaves were a valuable ‘commodity’ so they often captured more than the ship could handle to maximize profits.
Ten weeks later, around November 1781, the Zong arrived at Tobago, then proceeded toward St. Elizabeth, but deviated from its route near Haiti. At that stage, water shortages, illness, and fatalities among the crew, combined with poor leadership decisions, caused chaos.
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Dec 6
On this day in 1865, the 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution is ratified, abolishing slavery.

This picture is 25 years after the end of slavery.

How Slavery continued after the 13th amendment ‘abolished slavery’

A THREAD Image
In 1866, a year after the amendment was ratified, Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, Tennessee, and South Carolina began to lease out convicts for labor.
This made the business of arresting black people very lucrative, thus hundreds of white men were hired by these states as police officers.

Their primary responsibility being to search out and arrest black peoples who were in violation of ‘Black Codes’
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Nov 29
Did you know that the Oompa-Loompas In Roald Dahl's 1964 Charlie and the Chocolate were originally Black pygmies from "deepest, darkest part of the African jungle where no white man had been before" but was Revised in 1973 after the NAACP complained?

A THREAD Image
Dahl described Oompa-Loompas as a tribe of 3,000 "amiable Black pygmies" starving on green caterpillars in Africa. Wonka lured them with cocoa beans, smuggled them in crates, and housed them in his factory. The text framed them as enslaved.
Joseph Schindelman’s 1964 illustrations showed Oompa-Loompas as African pygmies in grass skirts, reinforcing racist imagery. Wonka treated them as property, even experimenting on them. This mirrored pro-slavery "positive good" narratives. Image
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