Throughout her life, Janet Bragg experienced prejudice as a black woman.
But nothing deterred her from the lofty goals she set for herself. Lofty as up in the sky, becoming the first black woman to obtain a pilot’s license in the United States.
Many know Bessie Coleman as the first American black woman to obtain a pilot’s license in 1921, but she had to go to France to do so. Janet Bragg was determined to get her wings on U.S. soil.
The youngest of seven children, Janet Harmon was born March 24, 1907, in the little town of Griffin, Georgia, about 40 miles south of Atlanta. Her parents were of African American and Cherokee descent.
Working as a nurse in Chicago, Illinois, Janet spent her off hours taking courses in airplane mechanics at Chicago’s Aeronautical University (formerly Curtiss Wright School), one of the few schools that admitted black students. “Aviation was not considered to be a suitable pursuit for blacks, who were deemed unable, both mentally and physically, to fly safely,” she said.
She and the other students (all men) proved them wrong. Janet earned her private pilot’s license in 1934 and bought her first airplane that same year.
Black pilots were not allowed to fly out of most airports, which encouraged Janet and the other students to establish their own airfield in Robbins, Illinois, a black community about 20 miles from Chicago.
At the beginning of World War II, Janet applied to join the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs), women who ferried planes across the country to wherever they were needed for the war effort. She had no trouble obtaining an interview for the job but as soon as the examiner saw her, she was turned down because of her race.
Undeterred, she applied to join the Army Nurse Corps but was told the quota for black nurses was filled.
She tried to obtain her commercial pilot’s license and easily passed the exam, but the flight examiner refused to give her the certificate. “I’ve never given a colored girl a commercial pilot’s license,” he said. “I don’t intend to now.”
Janet’s next step was to enroll in the Civilian Pilot Training Program at Tuskegee (Alabama) Institute. The examiner again refused to issue her license because of her race and her gender so she headed back to Illinois and finally obtained her commercial license in 1943.
During this time, Janet went into the nursing home business to care for black elders who had nowhere to go. She brought in musicians to play for her patients and invited clergymen to visit. She said she had seen people “living on pads on the floor, with insufficient care . . . often with inadequate food and medical attention. Here they could live in dignity, in pleasant surroundings, eat well, and have good care.”
She married Sumner Bragg in 1951 and the couple expanded Janet’s nursing home business. “We worked hard and were successful,” Janet said, “but most of all it was enriching.”
After the war Janet became involved with Ethiopian students who were sent to the U.S. by the Emperor of Ethiopia, Haille Selassie. She helped them with financial aid as well as immigration issues. She made sure the students were housed in decent homes and stayed on track with their studies. “She was our American mother,” one of her students said.
When Selassie visited the U.S. in 1954, Janet met him in Chicago and he graciously invited her to Ethiopia as his guest. Janet made three trips to visit Selassie and her student friends in Ethiopia. Selassie bestowed upon her the title of Honorary Counsel for Ethiopia in Chicago.
In 1972, Janet and Sumner sold their nursing home business and moved to Tucson. She had given up her pilot’s license in 1965, but she was not yet ready to retire.
She served on the board of a celebrity tennis tournament in 1978 with proceeds benefitting the United Negro College Fund. Media personalities who came to Tucson to compete in the week-long event included comedian Redd Foxx as well as actors Sidney Portier and Rita Moreno.
She lectured across the state, detailing her attempts to obtain a pilot’s license. At a Black Heritage Conference in 1982, she described the indignities she had endured as a black woman.
“It’s sad,” she said, “but back then people did not believe blacks had the mental capacity to fly an aircraft. And for a woman to be a pilot then, why that was even more unheard of.”
She became involved with the Urban League, served on the Arizona board of Habitat for Humanity, and worked with the Adopt a Scholar Program at Pima Community College.
She was instrumental in establishing an exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. and was honored at the opening of the exhibit. “Black Wings,” toured the country and made its way to Phoenix in 1990 with Janet its keynote speaker.
“According to recognized aerotechnical principles,” she once said, “the bumblebee cannot fly, because of the shape and weight of its body in relation to its total wing area. But the bumblebee doesn’t know this, so it goes ahead and flies anyway! Surely our bodies were not designed to fly, but our brains were, and we flew, too.”
In 1982, Tucson Mayor Lewis Murphy proclaimed her Outstanding Citizen of Tucson. Two years later, the University of Arizona honored her as the first black woman to receive a commercial pilot’s license in the U.S.
In 1985, she received the Bishop Wright Air Industry Award for her outstanding contribution to aviation. The award is named for the father of Wilbur and Orville Wright.
Janet volunteered at the Pima Air and Space Museum for many years, encouraging students interested in aeronautics to focus their studies on math and science, regardless of their race or their gender. In 1991, she and other black aviators were honored at the museum’s Black Aviators exhibit.
Janet died in 1993 and in 2000, she was inducted into Arizona’s Aviation Hall of Fame.
“There were so many things they said women couldn’t do and blacks couldn’t do,” she once said. “Every defeat to me was a challenge. I always am ready to prove that this bumblebee can fly!”
This is the third of our history quizzes. How much do you know?
