There's a folktale that tells of a time when black people could actually sprout wings and fly.

Though it may be a myth, this young pilot actually took those words too hard.

This is two-minute black history, what you didn't learn in school.

In the 1930s, the chief of the US Army Air Corps made it clear he thought black people didn't have what it took to be pilots.

There are no black units in the Army Air Corps and none are contemplated, he said.

But one black woman wouldn't take no foreign answer, as she knew black people could fly.

Willa Brown, passionate about aviation, met and later married Cornelius Coffee, who was accepted, then rejected, from the Curtis Wright School of Aeronautics in Chicago because of race.

But they knew black aviators had power and potential and had to find a way to expand opportunities.

So they created their own school.

Together, they formed the Coffee School of Aeronautics, one of the first black-owned flight schools in the country.

Brown was a natural publicity whiz and got great coverage in the Chicago Defender.

Soon, they had thousands of students.

Brown relentlessly petitioned the government to admit black pilots into the Air Force and was widely successful.

Over 200 of her students eventually became Tuskegee Airmen.

Her passion for aviation, and especially her relentless determination to achieve her dream and support opportunities for our people, despite racist and sexist barriers in her path,

transformed aviation and empowered thousands of black people.

In order to move towards the future, you've got to look to the past.

This has been Two Minute Black History, a podcast by Push Black.

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