Willa Brown: Impact on the Aviation Industry

NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.

NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.

Table of Contents

Abstract
Introduction
Brief history of Willa Brown (legacy, impact and achievements)
Historical period lived by Willa Brown
Challenges faced by Willa Brown
How Willa Brown overcame these challenges
Conclusion
References

Abstract

The aviation industry has grown significantly since its inception. This successful growth can be attributed to many aspects, among which is the human factor. Through out history, both men and women have played pivotal roles in the achievements and developments being enjoyed today.

This study aims at exploring the life, legacy and achievements of an individual who had a significant impact in the aviation sector. Through the analysis and perusal of relevant literatures, the study will in detail provide an informative and well thought out discussion as regarding to the various aspects of life as experienced by Willa Brown. The main themes covered in this study will evolve around her achievements, motivators, challenges and how she overcame them. The historical periods experienced by this aviation icon will also be discussed.

Introduction

Throughout the history of human civilization, mankind has been engaged in various activities that aim at improving their lifestyle in political social economical and technological terms. In many instances, the achievement of related dreams, hopes and ambitions has been challenging. This can be attributed to the most prevalent social vice that eats away our full potential up to date. Discrimination as regarding to the sex, race, religion and political orientation has been documented as the most predominant threat to success. Worst of all, discrimination has sipped in through all the sectors leading to unwanted results such as social conflicts, disharmony in societies and the nurturing of hate within the diverse populations across the globe.

The aviation industry is one such sector that has experienced the impacts of discrimination through out its history. From the late 1800 to half of the 1900s, mankind engaged in warfare against each other. The United States was not exempted from this phenomenon and as a matter of fact, America has had a long standing history of wars waged both within and without her borders. The reasons for these wars ranged from protecting America’s territorial integrity to assisting her allies.

Invariably, war had far-reaching effects on the countries that were involved in the operations. As such, pilots and other aeronautical personnel played a pivotal role in the facilitation of these wars because in most cases, airplanes provided an added advantage against the enemies.

The focus of this paper shall be to evaluate the life of an individual who beat all odds and became a pilot during a time that discrimination was rife. The various events that led to the success of this individual shall be discussed and the challenges faced highlighted. This shall be done by analyzing the environment through which pilots operated from and the culture that was prevalent during the aforementioned period.

Brief history of Willa Brown (legacy, impact and achievements)

According to Smith (1996) Willa Brown was born on the 22nd day of January 1906 in Kentucky. The author states that Willa was an ambitious woman who sought out challenges wherever she could. She began her career as a humble high school teacher in Indiana and later on took a position as a social worker in Chicago. Despite all these achievements, Willa Brown felt that her talents were not fully utilized. She needed more challenges and adventures in her life.

However, the opportunities to venture into more competitive or challenging fields of practice were very limited. This was mostly because; these jobs were for the upper class members of the society. Unfortunately, Willa Brown did not fall under this category. She was an African- American woman thereby making her a member of the underrepresented class (Vermeulen et al, 2007). The jobs offered to people in this class were limited in terms of payment and the positions held. This was a move by the white supremacies to ensure that they remained relevant and superior to all races. As mentioned earlier, discrimination was rife.

Despite all these hurdles, Willa Brown decided that she should learn how to fly. With the help of Cornelius R. Coffey (a certified flight instructor) she became the first licensed African American woman to fly in the US in 1937. Two years later (1939), she earned her commercial pilot license which undoubtedly made her the first black woman in the whole world to pursue a career in aviation (Smith, 1996). Some documented literature proposes that Willa played a pivotal role in preparing black pilots for the Second World War.

According to Smith (1996), Willa was inspired take flying lessons by aviatrix Bessie Coleman (another female pilot). She took her flying lessons at the Chicago Aeronautic University in 1934. Being an ambitious and focused woman, she later bought her own plane. All this while, she had joined the Challenger Air Pilot’s Association as well as the Chicago Girls Flight Club and was an active member. She also studied at the Northwestern University where she later received a master’s degree (Smith, 1996).

Due to the sad state of affairs as regarding to the enrollment of blacks into the USAir force, Willa Brown and Cornelius R. Coffey joined hands and helped in the establishment of the National Airmen’s Association of America in 1937. The aim of this association was to help qualified African Americans into the United States Air Force. Years later, they started the Coffey School of Aeronautics. In a span of seven years, the school managed to train approximately 200 pilots. Some of the pilots from this school joined the 99th Pursuit Squadron, which was legendary known as the “Tuskegee Airmen (Cooper et al, 2001).” The creation of this squadron and its subsequent integration to military was significantly attributed to Willa’s efforts (Cooper et al, 2001).

According to Douglas et al (2004), Willa joined the CAP and became the first African-American officer. She represented the government as the federal coordinator at the Chicago CAP unit. In 1941, she added her mechanical license into her already impressive resume.

This saw her become the first woman to both the commercial pilot and mechanical license in America. Having successfully qualified as a pilot, instructor and an ardent activist, she was appointed to the “Federal Aviation Administration Women’s Advisory Board in 1972” in recognition of her tireless efforts to promote equality in the aviation sector (Gubert et al, 2002). Her contribution came to an end on the 18th day of July 1992 when she died at the age of 86 years. However, she left an eternal legacy as being the pioneer of African-American aerospace profession.

Historical period lived by Willa Brown

Willa was born in an era whereby African-Americans were regarded to as servants who were entitled to freedom after serving for a number of years as the indentured laborers. While racism was never the original cause of slavery, it came about as a result of slavery. Vermeulen et al (2007), suggest that racism sprung from an irrational hatred for those who were different because of their skin color. In the mind of the American population, black was associated with negative connotations such as evil. This notion of evilness and barbarism by Africans was further reinforced by the perceived savagery and heathenism of Africans in the African continent.

It was also easier on the conscience to lord over a race of people who were perceived to be inferior and therefore not deserving to be treated as equals. Christianity also played a part in advancing racism in the early 1900s as the clergy used the bible to legitimize belief in black inferiority. The settlers, who were by the large a religious people therefore believed that perpetuation of slavery was of sound biblical standing. As such, the African Americans belonged to the lowest social class and their sole purpose was to serve their white counterparts for life (Rudolph, 2005).

Racism during this period was the platform from which acts of discrimination were perpetrated against the African-American population (Rudolph, 2005). One of the avenues in which discrimination was exercised was in the fields where forced labor was rife.

Blacks where obligated to work from dawn to dusk and if they did not achieve the set quota for the day, they would be punishment. Rudolph (2005) states that discrimination did not only come from the slave owners but also from groups of white workers who often petitioned state and local governments to eliminate competition from black workers. For this reason, black members of the society were viewed as a threat and their influx into the market would have unfavorable effects such as flooding the labor market and depressing wages for the white worker. This led to a situation whereby African-Americans such as Willa could not secure better jobs despite their qualifications.

Another significant period experienced by the aviator was the Great War of 1914 which became known as the “First World War”. At the onset of this war, the Unite States under the presidency of Wilson proclaimed its neutrality in the war. However, this neutrality did not last indefinitely owing to America’s close cultural ties with England and France as well as economic considerations made by American politicians.

As such, America’s official policy of neutrality in the war lasted for only 3 years and in 1917, America joined the war on the side of the allies. While the First World War had little impact on American soil and the causality rates were low, the Second World War led to the drafting and deployment of servicemen on a previously unprecedented scale (Grigg, 2008). This laid precedence to the military build up that was to later characterize the U.S. leading to billions of dollars being used in military efforts. In addition, the war led to a trampling of citizen’s constitutional rights as intolerance of dissent become prevalent due to government propaganda which encouraged conformity to the war efforts.

The Second World War is without doubt the biggest war to ever have been waged by nations against nations up to date. Unlike the First World War in which America was only a minor player, the U.S. played a significant role in this war from the very onset. The Second World War was caused by the aggression of Nazi Germany in Europe. During this war, the American government enrolled African-Americans into the military with the promise of freedom from servitude once the war was over.

The war was bigger and costly than expected. As such, the inclusion of African-Americans into the military not only bridged the man power deficiency but also reduced the cost of maintaining the fighters. Willa’s efforts in the aviation sector saw to it that some African-Americans got a chance to fight as members of the United States Air Force as well as the military (Grigg, 2008).

In addition to this, Willa played a pivotal role in the promotion of equality in the U.S. during her era, there existed different social groups which were characterized by many features among them race (Grigg, 2008). These different social groupings were further characterized by the existence of imbalance in opportunity available to them; this status quo necessitated the creation of special programs for the disadvantaged groups.

Affirmative Action consisted of a set of antidiscrimination measures put in place which were intended to ensure access to some positions by society members who would otherwise by under-represented or entirely excluded. This implied the adoption of practices to provide preferential treatment to individuals based on their belonging to groups which were a minority or disadvantaged or as redress for past wrongs experienced by the group (Grigg, 2008).

These groupings were predominantly based on race. The phrase “affirmative action” can trace its birth to the year 1961 when U.S. president Kennedy sought to address the issues of inequality in employment opportunities for the African-American population. It should be noted that from the onset, Affirmative action was not a platform for compensation for past discrimination, oppression or injustices perpetrated against some societal group but rather was a present day compensatory practice or means set in place to offset effects that came about as a result of racism and other discriminatory practices.

This Action was especially welcome by the minority communities in the USA since it gave them leverage over the elite by offering a means of desegregation. Justification of Affirmative Action programs in the US is that they seek to correct harm caused to individuals by cognitive bias. This refers to the harm that is motivated by the perpetrator’s awareness of the people’s race, sex or national origin. Willa’s efforts to promote equality were rewarded by the induction of the affirmative action in United State’s social, economic and political systems (Ciment et al, 2007).

Challenges faced by Willa Brown

The past century is viewed by many a historian as the cradle from which modern day civilization was born. From the revolutions in this period concepts such as large scale production, specialization and the working class were born (Ciment, 2007). This period also resulted in a change in both the social structure and the live of the workers. However, not all the changes were rosy as there were multiple challenges involved mostly as a result of the changing gender roles and the plight of the workers. The aviation sector was dominated by males. As such, no African-American ever dreamed to venture into this sector because it was preserved for the white males. Being a woman with aspirations of becoming an aviator was therefore not an easy quest.

To begin with, racism was rife and no African-American ever got the chance to work at the same level as whites (Rudolph, 2005). In addition, women were perceived as the “weaker sex” and could therefore not handle tasks designed for their male counterparts. With these facts in mind, women gunning for aviation positions faced many challenges. Most men were willing to train a woman to become a pilot. If by any chance there was a willing party, getting the pilot license was equally difficult Smith, 1996).

Gubert et al (2002), state that women were also faced with limitations if ever they managed to acquire their license. They could not be allowed to fly commercial planes or cover long distances. There were also instances of sabotage whereby male pilots and instructors interfered with the learning or flying processes of the women. The most common challenge faced was difficulty in getting into an aviation school (Gubert et al, 2002).

This was mainly due to high levels of discrimination against women and African-Americans in these institutions and the high fees that were required to join these schools. This only reduced during the war when the United States government realized that they needed more pilots in order to meet human resource requirements needed to ensure that it has a fighting chance against its adversaries (Ciment et al, 2002). As such, the fees were drastically and significantly reduced so as to accommodate more trainees and exceptions were made for women students who would have otherwise not enrolled in the schools.

How Willa Brown overcame these challenges

Aggression and perseverance were the keys to her success. As Cooper et al (2001) state, Willa charged on through the challenges presented by racism and sexism which were prevalent in those days and got what she needed to succeed in this male dominated sector. She knew that most of the archaic laws such as the Jim Crow laws were not applicable in the air. The fight for equality was made easier by her tireless efforts geared towards educating fellow African-Americans about aviation (Gubert et al, 2002). This invaluably encouraged many people among the minority groups to pursue a career in aviation. Their subsequent excellence in the field reduced the criticisms that were directed at her during her indoctrination into the sector.

Another strategy that she used to overcome the challenges was her involvement and working ethics with men. Through out her career, Willa associated mainly with men who had established themselves in different sectors in the aviation industry. Through these associations, she was able to learn different aspects as regarding to management and coping mechanisms in the aviation industry. Evidence of this is when she co-founded the Coffey School of Aeronautics with lieutenant Coffey. Despite the name, Willa was actively involved in the running of the school. Over time, the criticisms slowly turned into admiration from the men and other critics (Smith, 1996).

Her participation as an activist for equality was also instrumental in her quest to overcome the challenges of being a female African-American pilot in a male dominated sector. Despite the many challenges, Willa pushed on knowing that she was fighting for a just cause. This motivated her even when things got out of hand.

Conclusion

Through out the century of aviation history, women have been seen as major players in the revolution of this sector as regarding to development and advancement of gender based equality. Willa’s contribution to the promotion of equality was monumental in nature and came at a cost both in terms of lives lost, monetary expenditures, and effects on family that stretched on long after the dust in the discriminated societies had settled.

An examination of her impact on the aviation sector on the context of equal opportunities for the less represented classes in society reveals that discrimination greatly destabilized the economy and community set up that existed in the United States. This reality can somehow be accommodated bearing in mind the numerous gains that the society made due to her contributions in the fight against discrimination. In relation to peaceful coexistence between disparate members of society, steps were made which led to the strengthening of the social and economic structures.

From the above discussions, it can be convincingly stated that Willa was a source of inspiration and hope to many African-Americans who wished to share the American dream. From this study, her life’s achievements and contributions have been discussed. The various challenges that she faced have also been highlighted and strategies used to overcome the same mentioned. In as much as women have been excluded from recognition in the aviation sector, Willa’s efforts and contributions are evidence that women have and always will remain relevant in the development of a civilized global community.

References

Ciment, J., & Russell, T. (2007). The home front encyclopedia: United States, Britain, and Canada in World Wars I and II. NY: ABC-CLIO.

Cooper, C., & La Grone, R. (2001). Tuskegee’s Heroes. USA: Zenith Imprint.

Douglas, D. G., & Foster, A. E. (2004). American women and flight since 1940. KY: University Press of Kentucky.

Grigg, J. (2008). British Colonial America: People and Perspectives. CA: ABC-CLIO.

Gubert, B. K., Sawyer, M., & Fannin, C. M. (2002). Distinguished African Americans in aviation and space science. CA: Greenwood Publishing Group.

Rudolph, A. (2005). Racism, African Americans, and social justice. CA: Rowman & Littlefield.

Smith, J. C. (1996). Notable Black American women. USA: VNR AG.

Vermeulen, L. P., & Mitchell, J. I. (2007). Development and Validation of a Measure to Assess Perceptions Regarding Gender-Related Pilot Behavior. The International Journal of Aviation Psychology, 17(2), 197 – 218.

Click Here To Order Now!