Harold Hurd
first saw a black man fly an airplane at an airshow in
1929. Three years later, he was one of the first class
of all black graduates from Aeronautical University in
Chicago. After graduation Hurd helped organize the Challenger
Air Pilots Association and its 1937 successor organization,
the National Airmen's Association of America, in efforts
to expand black interest in flying. He underwrote his
aviation interests by working at the Chicago Defender
newspaper. He later worked for several local papers on
Chicago's Southside. |