“Black Wings” documentary sets Black aviation record straight

By Dwight Hobbes

Black Wings (Smithsonian Channel ”“ DVD) brilliantly documents that African American aviation didn”™t begin and end with the legendary Tuskegee Airmen. There were, for that matter, black airwomen. Throughout the 20^th century, from biplanes to barnstorming to finally being allowed into combat to commercial air liners and eventually becoming astronauts. 

Producer-writer Dan Wolf presumably directed (no one”™s credited), delivering a gem of historic footage that had escaped general notice and well informed narration, including interviews, relating a fascinating account. 

Von Hardesty, curator at the National Air and Space Museum, says of the bigotry that kept qualified pilots grounded, “Blacks had the same dreams, the same aspirations, the same love of flight. But they were barred for social reasons.” Regrettably, battling racism has yet to put much of a dent in their being just as sexist as whites. Tuskegee jet fighters who escorted and never lost a bomber are deservedly celebrated, where is a bio pic or, indeed, any widespread championing across African America of the first black aviator, Bessie Coleman? Who brought herself up from abject poverty to work days, teach herself French nights, then go train in France, because no school here would let her earn a license. … Read the rest ““Black Wings” documentary sets Black aviation record straight”