Crossing the Country with James H. Banning

When James Herman Banning and Thomas Cox Allen landed their plane in Long Island, New York on October 9, 1932, Mayor Jimmy Walker greeted them with a key to the city. In Harlem, the Cotton Club  celebrated with performances by Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway. Why the celebration? Banning and Allen were the first African Americans to complete a transcontinental (coast-to-coast) flight. (The first transcontinental flight was completed more than 20 years earlier by Calbraith Perry Rodgers in 1911.) 

Banning is perhaps best known for this record-setting transcontinental flight, but his story and accomplishments started years earlier. Banning was born November 5, 1900, in Canton, Oklahoma Territory, where his father became owner of 160 acres through the Homestead Act. Banning grew up on the property, attending a small school his parents had built there, before going on to Faver High School, and ultimately enrolling in Iowa State College in Ames, Iowa. In Ames, Banning studied electrical engineering for over a year and operated the J.H. Banning Auto Repair Shop from 1922 to 1928.  

In 1920, everything changed for Banning. He took his first airplane ride when an air circus came to town, offering attendees rides. This encounter sparked Banning’s interest in flying. When flying schools rejected him because of his race, Banning learned to fly by taking private lessons from a World War I U.S. Army aviator at Raymond Fisher’s Flying Field in Des Moines, Iowa. Banning would go on to earn a mechanic’s certificate and, in 1926, a pilot’s license. Later, he would earn a transport pilot’s license as well, allowing a pilot to fly for hire or commercially.  

In 1929, trailblazing Black pilot William J. Powell established the Bessie Coleman Aero Club in Los Angeles, named in the memory of the first African American woman to earn a pilot’s license. The Club promoted aviation awareness in the Black community. Both men and women were welcome to apply. Banning left Ames to move to Los Angeles to become the club’s chief pilot. In Los Angeles, in addition to teaching with the club, Banning performed in air circuses as a barnstormer and flew politicians, all in a plane which he named Miss Ames. (A local businessman lent Banning the aircraft which Banning kept in airworthy condition.) This is what we find Banning doing in 1932, when he joins forces with Thomas Allen to attempt to become the first African American pilots to complete a transcontinental flight.  

Banning and Allen would attempt their flight in an Alexander Eaglerock—a two seat biplane—which Banning described as “put together [with] various cracked-up airplane parts.” When they took off on September 18, 1932, only four people came to see them off. The aviators hadn’t alerted the press, lest they fail.  

Notably, the aviators took off with only $25 dollars between them for the journey. Their plan was to raise the money they needed for the next leg of the journey at each stop, offering their benefactors the opportunity to sign the lower left wingtip of the aircraft which they called the “Gold Book.” They dubbed themselves the “Flying Hobos,” a tongue in cheek name, because of this plan to raise money as they went along. They intended to stop in towns where they knew someone—in part to have a head start on arranging lodging and fundraising. This plan was also one of personal safety. Not every place would be welcoming to Black pilots.

In practice, things went differently than planned. Early in their journey they were forced to land in Lordsburg, New Mexico, where they didn’t know anyone. Allen pawned his flying suit to a community member for $10 to fund the next leg of the journey.  

Ultimately, their fundraise-as-you-go plan paid off, in which community members gave lodging, food, money—some farmers even siphoned gas out of their tractors for the plane. Some of the arrangements were very creative. For instance, landing in Pittsburgh, the editor of the Pittsburgh Courier (a Black newspaper) arranged for the men to meet with the Democratic party with Election Day fast approaching. The editor and Democratic party officials offered to cover remaining expenses, handle publicity, and help repair the Eaglerock for a return flight, if the men would write some first-person stories about their adventure and drop leaflets supporting the Democratic candidate, Franklin D. Roosevelt from the sky. The duo left Pittsburgh with 15,000 leaflets. “We were more than happy to throw them out of the plane to save weight,” Allen recalled in an oral history interview. 

Banning and Allen finally landed in Long Island, 3,330 miles away from Los Angeles on October 9, 1932. The entire journey took 21 days, only 41 hours and 27 minutes of which were spent aloft. The rest was spent on the ground, raising money, and repairing the plane between legs of the journey. However long the flight took, a record had been set. Banning and Allen were the first African American pilots to complete a coast-to-coast flight.

Long-distance flying offered a dramatic way for African American pilots to showcase their flying skills. Banning and other long-distance pilots used their flying exploits to promote airmindedness in the African American community. Each successful flight demonstrated the expanding skills of black pilots and promoted the idea that aviation should be open to all, regardless of race. 

Tragically, Banning was killed only four months later, on February 5, 1933, during an air show at Camp Kearney military base in San Diego while flying as a passenger. Today, Banning’s memory lives on in various projects to remember him, including in 2022 the Ames City Council voted to rename their local airport the James Herman Banning Ames Municipal Airport.

James Banning's story and the story of other African Americans in aviation and space can be found in Black Wings by Von Hardesty.