All Stories

Donated by Ahmed A. “Sammy” Rayner, Jr,  these images, paired with his remembrances of his time as a Tuskegee Airman, provide vivid examples of the daily lives of the 477th Bombardment Group and experiences as a Black officer.

Brig. Gen. Charles E. McGee, the eldest of the surviving Tuskegee Airmen, passed away on January 16, 2022. His life of dedicated service included flying combat aircraft in three major wars—a feat that was unthinkable before his career began, when the US military banned African Americans from combat flying roles.

Flight attendants were some of the people at the forefront of the fight for equality in the 20th century. Meet some of these remarkable people in this article. 

Willa Brown’s work in the air and on land promoted awareness of African American pilots, made the way for them to join the military, and set an example for others.. Discover her story.

This is your captain, making history. Meet the first women to fly as captain for commercial airlines and discover their stories.  

Join us to discover the stories of two women whose work and achievement were hidden and untold for years—but who also played a key role in the success of the space program in the United States. 

When World War II broke out, hundreds of women took to the skies in support of the war effort. Many contributed as Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). However, women like Willa Brown who were barred from becoming a military pilot by both her race and gender, found other ways to contribute. These are the stories of five women who contributed to the war effort by flying. 

What do archivists do when they’re not in the archives? Last summer, in addition to making digital collections available to researchers all over the world, National Air and Space Museum archivists Elizabeth Borja and Melissa Keiser experimented with historical recipes found in the Benjamin O. Davis Jr. Collection.

June 19, 1865, Texas—A Union Army General, Gordon Granger informed the enslaved African Americans of Texas of their freedom. June 19, 1925—A young Black woman climbed into her aircraft and took to the skies in Houston, Texas. White and Black audiences, separated by different seating arrangements, cheered in unison. Reflect on the significance of both of these events and what it means today.

One-hundred years ago, Bessie Coleman became the first African American woman to earn a pilot's license. Her remarkable journey reflects the racist and sexist struggles many faced across the nation, and worldwide, in the 1920s—both in the air and on the ground.