| Janet Bragg (1907-1993) born Griffin, Georgia The granddaughter of a freed slave, Janet Harmon Bragg surmounted racial barriers by using her education and her keen instinct for business. Born in Georgia and trained as a nurse at Spelman Seminary in Atlanta (now Spelman College), Janet moved to Chicago and worked as a nurse until enrolling at Chicago’s Curtiss Aeronautical University ground school in 1933. Janet studied but lacked an important training device – an airplane. She then purchased her own airplane to fly and to rent to others. However, she found no airport where black pilots were allowed to fly. Bragg and her classmates purchased land and built an airfield in the all- black town of Robbins, Illinois. Janet earned her private pilot’s license and wrote a weekly column called “Negro Aviation” for the Chicago Defender newspaper. During World War II, she and other black women applied to the Women’s Auxiliary Service Pilots (WASPs) but were rejected. Janet persisted, and eventually earned her commercial pilot’s license. Janet launched her own nursing-home business and became a successful entrepreneur and speaker at aviation events across the country. She traveled in Africa where, while overlooked in American history books, she was welcomed by royalty and ordinary people alike. |
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