Black History Month
–by Liz Booker
Black women in aviation: it’s time to write your story.
As I brainstormed content for social media and the Aviatrix Book Review website leading up to our grand opening this spring, I thought ahead to February and March—Black History Month and Women’s History Month. What great opportunities to highlight our role in aviation history while simultaneously promoting books and authors. There are thirty-one days in March. I can easily fill the calendar with a book a day and have hundreds of books to spare. But February? If my goal were to post books featuring individual women in history each day, I’d still have days to spare.
Much like Amelia Earhart, Bessie Coleman always rises to the top when looking for Aviatrix icons—both incredible heroines for women in aviation, but neither story ended well. Their pioneering stories should be presented in the context of the many women in aviation whose flying careers flourished and escaped tragedy. There are some wonderful books that feature other prominent Black women in aviation. Janet Harmon Bragg, the first commercially licensed African American pilot, wrote her memoir, Soaring above Setbacks. Vernice Armour drew on her experience as the first Black woman Marine Corps pilot in her motivational book, Zero to Breakthrough: The 7-Step Battle-Tested Method for Accomplishing Goals that Matter. There’s astronaut and scientist, Dr. Mae Jamison’s memoir, Find Where the Wind Goes: Moments from My Life, along with several children’s biographies about her accomplishments. The Aviatrix Book Club is reading Flygirl, by Young Adult author, Sherri Smith, for the month of September 2021. This fiction novel features a young Black woman who passes as white to join the Women Air Service Pilots in WWII. And there’s Elizabeth Wein’s book, Black Dove, White Raven, which features a Black woman pilot as a minor character. Maybe there are a handful of others I’ve overlooked, but we still haven’t filled the 28 days of February yet.
This speaks not only to the dearth of books featuring Black women in aviation, but also to our lack of diversity in aviation itself. Children’s rights activist, Marian Wright Edelman, said, “You can’t be what you can’t see.” We want to offer our young women positive examples to follow: your examples.
Black women in aviation: this is your moment. There has never been a time in publishing history when there was so much attention being given to diversity and inclusion through the ‘Own Voices’ movement. The world needs your stories. If you’re already writing, or are curious about writing and the path to publication, please log into the Writers’ Room, and join us in the Aviatrix Writers’ Facebook group. Even if you’re not ready yet, join and start thinking about what that journey might look like for you when you are. If you have a story for young people in mind, be sure to check out the ‘We Need Diverse Books’ non-profit initiative at www.weneeddiversebooks.org.
Just like learning to fly, learning to write takes time, hard work, and dedication. The path to publication is not an easy or quick one. The other women writers in aviation want to help you on that journey. We’re here to mentor and support you, to share resources and the secrets we’ve learned along the way. And don’t worry that you’ll have missed your moment–I think this is one that’s going to last.