Janet Harmon Bragg - WAI Pioneer Hall of Fame 2025 inductee

A true pioneer in every sense - Janet Harmon Bragg - paved the way for both female and Black aviators. Throughout the 1930s and 40s, Janet dedicated her life - learning to fly, building an airfield, and working to pay her success forward. Janet was the first African American woman in the country to earn a commercial pilot license in 1942.

Born and raised in Georgia, Janet pursued a nursing degree at Spellman College in Atlanta. She moved to Chicago in 1932 to work as a registered nurse and pursue her interest in learning to fly.

Janet met two young Black men, Cornelius Coffey and John C. Robinson, who announced a new course in aviation mechanics for Chicago’s Curtiss Wright Aeronautical University. Janet was the only woman and graduated in the first class.

She and a group of Black aviation enthusiasts formed the Challengers Air Pilots Association and opened the nation’s first Black-owned airport in Robbins, Illinois, giving other African Americans a chance to learn to fly.

Throughout the 1930s Janet championed aviation for Black men, women, and youth, writing weekly newspaper series for the nationally distributed Chicago Defender. She organized the Chicago Girls’ Flight Club, and in 1939 became a charter member of the National Airmen’s Association of America, which lobbied for the inclusion of Black students in the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP). This victory directly paved the way for the Tuskegee Airmen and for the integration of the US military in 1948.

Janet continued to fly through the 1970s, and at age 86 took her final flight on April 11, 1993.

In honor of her tireless dedication to encourage and expand more Black aviators during a critical time in history, we welcome Janet Harmon Bragg as one of the 2025 Pioneer Hall of Fame inductees.

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