William J. Powell
| William J. Powell | |
|---|---|
Lt. William J. Powell in France, 1917
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| Born |
July 27, 1897 Henderson, Kentucky |
| Died | July 12, 1942 (aged 44) Los Angeles, California |
| Known for | Aviator, engineer, author |
William Jenifer Powell (July 27, 1897 – July 12, 1942) was an American engineer, soldier, civil aviator and author who is credited with promoting aviation among the African American community. Along with Bessie Coleman and James Banning, he is recognized as a pioneer aviator and a civil rights activist. Powell was optimistic about the prospects of African-Americans in aviation, and believed that their involvement in the industry would help end racial prejudice at a time of widespread segregation under the Jim Crow laws.
Powell was born in Henderson, Kentucky and moved with his family to Chicago, where he was accepted to the University of Illinois electrical engineering program. His studies were cut short when he volunteered to the 370th Illinois Infantry Regiment and was shipped off to fight in World War I. He was wounded in a gas attack, and subsequently returned to the United States to finish his college degree.
He was fascinated by flight and applied to the Army Air Corps and several other flight schools without success, until he was accepted at the Los Angeles School of Flight in 1928. Powell then founded the Bessie Coleman Aero Club, in honor of the first female black aviator who had died three years before. In 1929, Chicago Congressman Oscar De Priest, then the nation's only black representative, visited Los Angeles. Powell took De Priest on a flight over the city, and subsequently asked Susan Hancock, Booker T. Washington's mother-in-law, to christen the plane with the congressman's name. Other personalities that visited Powell's club included Duke Ellington and Joe Louis.
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