Throwback Thursday
Lieutenant Willa Brown
(January 22, 1906 - July 18, 1992)
Butterfly Dreamz #TBT presentations introduce students to historic women leaders.
3 L i f e H i g h l i g h t s
Educator
Lieutenant Willa Beatrice Brown co-founded the Coffey School of Aeronautics, the first Black-owned and operated private flight training academy in the United States of its sort. She was also named federal coordinator for the Civilian Pilot Training Program, a role that led to her training over 200 future Tuskegee Airmen and instructors
Activist
Lieutenant Brown advocated tirelessly for desegregation in the military and encouraged participation in aeronautics within the African American community. She became a founding member of the National Airmen’s Association of America (NAAA), the first Black aviators’ group. She was also the first African American woman to run for congress.
Trailblazer
Lieutenant Brown is a woman of many firsts. She was the first African American woman to hold a commercial pilot’s license in the United States, the first woman commissioned as a lieutenant in the Civil Air Patrol, the first American woman to have both a mechanic’s and commercial pilot’s license, along with many other achievements.
