Airline Pilot Broke Color Barrier

He took advantage of free military training to pursue his dream career – but first there was a racial challenge to overcome. 

EARLY LIFE 

David Harris (DH) got hooked on airplanes as a kid growing up in Columbus, Ohio. He and his brother would visit nearby Lockbourne Air Force Base where, coincidentally, the decorated Tuskegee Airmen (a racially segregated unit of Black military pilots) were stationed after World War II. 

“My brother and I would run around the base and enjoy the facility, never paying any attention to the fact that all the people on the base were Black.

EDUCATION

While DH was greatly interested in piloting planes as a career, he knew of no Black airline pilots (Editor – because there were never any until he would become the first one in his late 20s) so after high school, he enrolled in The Ohio State University, planning to become a schoolteacher.

MILITARY SKILL TRANSFERRED TO A CIVILIAN SKILL

Postponing his planned career in education, DH knew that the Air Force didn’t care about his racial heritage and, assuming he passed their physical and eye exams, would train him – at no cost to DH – to be a pilot. In exchange for free pilot training, DH was committed to a certain number of years serving on active duty within the Air Force. (Editor’s note – the amount of the time commitment varies among the military branches, also affected by the M.O.S. – military occupation specialty – involved.)

Following graduation from the Air Force’s basic flight school, DH was assigned to fly ‘bombers’ – military aircraft loaded with bombs to be dropped from the sky upon enemy targets on the ground, to which the pilots are guided by Air Force navigators aboard each plane. 

DH would never forget facing racial discrimination in areas surrounding Air Force bases in Florida and Texas. 

After six and a half years in the military, DH applied to be a pilot at several commercial airlines, believing a pilot opportunity would be available after passage of the federal Civil Rights Act in 1964. Only American Airlines responded. He was rejected by some airlines. Other airlines just didn’t get back to him. One airline wouldn’t even accept his application. So, by the time he got to American, DH was about out of options to pursue his dream career.

CHALLENGE – RACIAL DISCRIMINATION

A light-skinned African American with green eyes, DH was often mistaken for White. During his interview for a pilot position with American Airlines, DH went out of his way to set the record straight, “He stopped them and just said, ‘Hey, look, I just want you to know before we proceed, that I’m Black.” An interviewer later noted that DH wanted to be clear about who he was “because he was so proud of his heritage that he didn’t want to pass as someone who he wasn’t.” 

Fortunately for DH and others who would follow his path to piloting commercial aircraft, the chief American Airlines pilot told him at the outset of their interview, “We don’t care if you’re Black, White or chartreuse. We only want to know: Can you fly the plane?”

AN ACTIVIST WHO KNEW WHEN TO SPEAK UP AND WHEN TO STAY QUIET

On the job, DH occasionally encountered tense moments. He recalled a time when flying with a White copilot into Washington a few days after the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, smoke was rising from fires that broke out during riots in the nation’s capital.

The copilot “was making all kinds of nasty comments about King, and I sat quiet in the other seat” to avoid an argument while the two of them landed a plane full of passengers.

DH flew as a pilot for American Airlines for thirty years. He eventually became an instructor at American’s flight academy and helped create the Organization of Black Airline pilots. (Editor’s note – As of 2024, Black employees remain underrepresented in aviation. While people identified as Black by the U.S. Census make up 12.8% of the U.S. population, only 3.6% of the industry-wide total of pilots are Black.)

CAREER SATISFACTION

The life of DH was the subject of a book aimed for middle-grade readers, “Segregated Skies: David Harris’s Trailblazing Journey to Rise Above Racial Barriers” by Michael Cottman.

“It’s the greatest job in the world. I flew and flew and flew and was ready to fly more in my life,” Harris told a radio interviewer for NPR. “I would have done it another 30 years had I not grown old.”

“Captain Harris opened the doors and inspired countless other Black pilots to pursue their dreams to fly,” said the CEO of American Airlines.

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This career story was based on multiple sources including an obituary prepared by an unknown writer employed by the Associated Press, published by the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper on March 17, 2024, plus internet research, including an obituary prepared by Elizabeth Blair for ‘npr’ – the online site of National Public Radio.