Soaring Over Setbacks: The Autobiography of Janet Harmon Bragg, African American Aviator (Smithsonian History of Aviation & Spaceflight S.)

The first African American woman pilot chronicles her struggles to overcome dual discrimination

Janet Harmon Bragg was the first black woman to earn a full commercial pilot's license, a feat remarkable in itself, but all the more so when considered in the context of her times. Bragg learned to fly in the 1930s, a time when many whites believed blacks lacked the intelligence to learn how to fly. In fact, as her friend relates in an appendix to this book, when Bragg first tried to get her commercial license, the Federal Aviation Administration examiner passed her, but refused to issue her a license, claiming that he was not going to be the first to license a black woman. Bragg persevered, however, and established a path that future generations of black aviators would follow.