Search This Blog

Monday, February 2, 2009

Main Character: Eugene Bullard

Born in October 9th 1894 as a Creek Indian. His dad known as "Big Chief Ox" and his mom together had ten children. When he was young he had been stowed away on a ship headed towards Scotland to escape racial discrimination. While in the UK he worked as a boxer and he also worked in a music hall. On a trip to Paris he decided to stay and join the French Foreign Legion. Injured in 1916, two years after he joined the legion, near Verdun was awarded Croix de Guerre. Eugene then transferred over to the Lafayette Flying Corps and was finally assigned to 93rd Spad Squadron on August 17 1917. Their he flew some 20 missions and shot down 2 enemy aircraft. In 1917 when the US joined the war the US Army Air Service convened a medical board in August 1917 for the purpose of recruiting Americans serving in the Lafayette Flying Corps. Although he passed the medical examination, Eugene was not accepted into American service because blacks were banned from flying in US service at that time. He was discharged from the French Air Force after fighting with another officer while off-duty and was transferred back to the French infantry in January 1918, where he served until the Armistice. At the end of the war he went back to Paris and started working in nightclubs and eventually owned his own nightclub. He soon married the daughter of a French countess but the marriage soon ended in divorce, with Bullard taking custody of their two daughters. His work in nightclubs brought him many famous friends, among them Josephine Baker, Louis Armstrong, and Langston Hughes. When his town got invaded by the Germans he and his daughters fled south towards Spain. He was injured protecting his town and went to New York to heal. He spent the rest of his life in poverty and died of stomach cancer.

(Picture from http://www.af.mil/shared/media/photodb/photos/020925-O-9999G-020.jpg Information from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Bullard)

2 comments:

  1. Very interesting historical fact.
    Thanks for blogging this info!

    ReplyDelete
  2. There instead of their on the line, it should read “There he flew many missions...” Otherwise very good.

    ReplyDelete