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Author Archives: Terry Lee Marzell
Willa Brown Chappell: Teacher to Tuskegee Airmen
Teacher Willa Brown Chappell taught Tuskegeww Airmen to fly airplanes during WWII. She is pictured here at age 31. Photo credit: US National Archives and Records Administration
Many exceptional teachers can boast achievements outside of their classroom. One of these is Willa Brown Chappell, the first African American woman licensed to fly in the United States.
Willa was born on Jan. 22, 1906, in Glasgow, Kentucky. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Education from Indiana State Teachers College in 1927. She also completed the requirements for an MBA from Northwestern University in 1937. Following her college graduation, Willa was employed first as a high school teacher at Roosevelt High School in Gary, Indiana, and later as a social worker in Chicago.
Willa was always seeking challenges and adventures in her life, especially if they could be found outside the limited career fields normally open to African American women at that time. She decided to learn to fly airplanes. She studied with Cornelius R. Coffey, a certified flight instructor and expert aviation mechanic at a racially segregated airport in Chicago. Willa earned her private pilot’s license in 1938. Later, Willa and Cornelius married and founded the Coffey School of Aeronautics at Harlem Airport in Chicago, where together they trained Black pilots and aviation mechanics. Willa conducted the classroom instruction and Cornelius conducted the in-flight practice.
In 1939, Willa, Cornelius, and their friend Enoch P. Waters founded the National Airmen’s Association of America. Their goal was to secure admission for Black aviation cadets into the US military. As the organization’s national secretary and the president of the Chicago branch, Willa became an activist for racial equality. She persistently lobbied the US Government for integration of Black pilots into the segregated Army Air Corps and the federal Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP), a system established by the Civil Aeronautics Authority just before the outbreak of World War II. The CPTP’s purpose was to provide civilian pilots for service during national emergencies. Willa was given the rank of an officer in this first integrated unit.
In 1948, when Congress finally voted to allow African Americans to participate in civilian flight training programs, the Coffey School of Aeronautics was one of the few private aviation schools selected to provide training. Later, her flight school was selected by the US Army to provide Black trainees for the Air Corps pilot training program at the Tuskegee Institute. Willa was instrumental in training more than 200 students who went on to become Tuskegee pilots. Eventually, Willa Brown became the coordinator of war-training service for the Civil Aeronautics Authority and a member of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Women’s Advisory Board. She was the first Black female officer in the Civil Air Patrol and the first Black woman to hold a commercial pilot’s license in the United States.
This remarkable educator and pioneer aviatrix passed away on July 18, 1992. In 2010, Willa was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award by the Indiana State University Alumni Association. She was inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame in her native Kentucky in 2003.
To find out more about this remarkable Chalkboard Champion, you can read a chapter about her in my book, Chalkboard Heroes, which is available on amazon.com and the website for Barnes and Noble.
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Welcome, Earth Day!
Welcome, Earth Day! Today marks the 56th anniversary of the first observance of this popular non-secular holiday. This year’s Earth Day theme is Our Power, Our Planet. The theme emphasizes the collective action we can take to drive sustainable innovation and community-led environmental progress.
As an educator, you have the opportunity to spark a passion in students that will drive them to do their part. Young people can, and do, make a big difference in helping to protect the earth’s environment, such as local cleanup efforts, tree planting initiatives, and recycling drives.
Whatever Earth Day activities you have decided to organize for your students, know that your hard work researching and planning is appreciated!
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Iowa’s Carrie Chapman Catt: Teacher, activist, and suffragist
Suffragette and Iowa schoolteacher Carrie Chapman Catt. Photo Credit: thought.com
Many times throughout American history, talented teachers earn national recognition for achievements outside of the classroom. Such is certainly the case for Carrie Chapman Catt, a school teacher and activist from Iowa who labored tirelessly to earn the vote for women.
Carrie was originally born Carrie Clinton Lane in Ripon, Wisconsin, to parents Lucius and Maria Louisa Lane. She was raised in Charles City, Iowa, where her family had moved when she was seven.
After high school, Carrie graduated from Iowa State Agricultural College, having worked her way through school as a teacher in the summer months. Her father, a subsistence farmer, contributed only $25 a year to her education, partly because he didn’t have a lot of financial resources, but mostly because he didn’t believe in advanced education for girls. But the young woman was determined to get a college degree. After her graduation, she continued to teach, earning a stellar reputation as an educator. In time, she was promoted to the position of Superintendent of Schools.
Carrie could have remained in that comfortable job until retirement, but she was determined to improve the lives of the women of her day. The right to vote for women became her life’s passion. The intrepid teacher became one of the leading forces for the Suffragist movement, which lobbied state by state, and eventually descended upon Washington, DC, to pressure Congress into passing a constitutional amendment that would grant women the right to vote. Once that goal was accomplished, Carrie spent the rest of her life advocating for peace and human rights.
You can read more about the life of this remarkable educator in my second book, Chalkboard Heroes: Twelve Courageous Teachers and Their Deeds of Valor, available on amazon.
