- Hubert Julian
Hubert Fauntleroy Julian (
21 September ,1897 –19 February ,1983 ) was aTrinidad bornAfrican American aviation pioneer. He was nicknamed The Black Eagle.Hubert Julian was a promoter of aviation and succeeded in generating publicity. Some say that he was the first person of color to get a pilot's licence in the
United States , for which there are other claimants, though he was certainly one of the first.He was a supporter ofMarcus Garvey and in 1922 flew his plane over parades in support of Garvey.In 1924 Julian raised funds for an attempt at a TransAtlantic flight from New York to Africa. Julian took off in his airplane "The Ethiopia I", but crashed into the
Atlantic Ocean . He survived, spending weeks inhospital from his injuries.Julian's successful 1929
Transatlantic flight , 2 years after that ofCharles Lindbergh , was commemorated byCalypso music singer Sam Manning in the record "Lieutenant Julian", and made Julian a well known figure in the African-American and Afro-Caribbean community, and he sometimes thereafter billed himself as "The Black Lindbergh".Julian flew to
Ethiopia in 1930, where his flying exploits impressed EmperorHaile Selassie , who awarded Julian Abyssinian citizenship and the rank of Colonel.In 1931 he was the first flyer of African descent to fly coast to coast in the
United States . Julian was one of several aviators in the 1920s and 1930s who competed in outdoing each other and briefly holding records for longest non-stop flights. In 1931, for example, Julian held the non-stop non-refueling aviation endurance record with a flight of 84 hours and 33 minutes. Julian flew a number of flights in and between the Americas, Europe, and Africa, surviving several crashes. In between major flights, he toured with a small all Black flying circus which he headed, called The Five Blackbirds.During the Italian invasion of
Ethiopia in 1935, Julian flew to Ethiopia to aid in the defense of Selassie's government. He was put in command of the Imperial Ethiopian Air Force, which at the time consisted of 3 planes. Upon his return to the United States, he was temporarily detained atEllis Island , over the question of his nationality (was he a British or an Ethiopian subject?). Later, after getting into a public fist-fight with fellow African-American aviator John C. Robinson, Julian was ordered to leave the country.Julian also invented some safety devices used in airplanes.
In 1939, Julian was the producer for the motion picture "Lying Lips", directed by Oscar Micheaux.
After the United States entered
World War II , Julian volunteered to train for combat with the 789th, the famousTuskegee Airmen . He was remembered as a colorful character who wore a non-regulation Colonel's uniform, despite not holding that rank with theUnited States Armed Forces , and was discharged before graduation.From the 1920s through the 1940s Julian lived in Harlem and continued receiving press as a local celebrity.
A series of articles entitled "Black Eagle" was serialized in the African-American "New York Amsterdam News" newspaper c. 1937 -1938.
In 1965 a biography of Julian entitled Black Eagle was published by The Adventurers Club in
London ; another biography of the aviator with the same title was written by John Peer Nugent was published in 1971 by Stein and Day in New York.The
14 November 1974 issue ofJet Magazine briefly mentions Julian, saying he was then 77 years of age, and was making plans to rescue Haile Selassie, then believed to be held prisoner by the new government of Ethiopia.Hubert Fauntleroy Julian died in the borough of the Bronx, New York City, in February 1983. He is buried at the Calverton National Cemetery in Suffolk County, New York. His passing went largely unnoticed.
ee also
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Second Italo-Abyssinian War
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