Eugene Bullard (1895-1961) was one of the few Black pilots active in World War I.
One of ten children born in Columbus, Georgia, Bullard grew up in a fiercely and violently racist post-Civil War South. He ran away from home to Europe, first to the UK where he boxed and performed slapstick comedy, and then to Paris, where he became a jazz musician.
When World War I broke out, Bullard enlisted and joined the Foreign Legion, serving as a gunner in several important battles over half a year until he was severely wounded at the Battle of Verdun. While recuperating, he learned to fly on a bet and afterward became an air gunner. In the French Air Force, he flew in over 20 combat missions and was promoted to corporal. When the United States entered the war, they had all White men flying in French forces join America's air force, but Bullard was left behind due to his race.
After the war, Bullard was awarded several French military medals, owned several popular nightclubs in Montmartre, and traveled to Egypt. When World War II started, Bullard spied for the French government on his nightclub patrons, because he spoke German as well as English and French. He also fought in World War II, defending Orléans from Nazi invasion, but was wounded again and escaped to America.
Back in America, Bullard was once again the victim of racist state-sanctioned violence and did not have the same fame and success he had enjoyed in the more progressive Paris.
33 years after his death, Eugene Bullard was posthumously commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force, making right the segregation that had kept him from serving his own country his whole life.
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