Cornelius Coffey - Aviator, Educator.

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Cornelius Coffey

As a young black man born in the early 20th Century, Cornelius Coffey wanted more than anything to fulfill his dream of flying. Sadly, the Jim Crow era was in full force during that time. The prevailing racial discrimination at the time represented a seemingly unsurmountable obstacle.  Coffey, already a skilled mechanic, would have to find a way – MAKE a way on his own.

Cornelius’ passion for flying was rooted in his fascination for machines, having grown up as the son of a locomotive mechanic. It was solidified one day when, as a teenager, Coffey went up with a barnstormer offering airplane rides in Coffey’s hometown ow Newport, Arkansas.

The pilot, himself a veteran of the first world war, noted Coffey’s enthusiasm and encouraged him to take up flying. Not everyone in the up-and-coming world of aviation would be so accommodating as the veteran pilot. Coffey could not find anyone willing to teach him.

Coffey took it upon himself to make a difference.  This was notably demonstrated while employed as a mechanic at a Chevrolet dealership, he, along with his friend John Robinson built a one-seat airplane and taught themselves how to fly.

Robinson and Coffey were accepted into the Curtiss-Wright School of Aviation in Chicago’s aviation mechanics program in 1929, only to have their admission rescinded once it became known that they were Black.

Fortunately, Emil Mack, the white owner of the automobile dealership where Coffey and Robinson had worked threatened to sue the Curtiss-Wright School of Aviation, and the school allowed the men to attend.

Coffey graduated first in his class in 1931 as an Aircraft Master Mechanic. Robinson was second.

Coffey eventually earned his mechanic’s license and along with Robinson, was invited back to teach all black classes.

But Coffey wasn’t done yet. He went on to graduate from Aeronautical University in 1939 as an Aircraft Engine Mechanic. At the time, Coffey was one of the two first Black Americans at the school. Coffey thus became the first Black American to hold both a pilot’s and mechanic’s license.

Even with such credentials, Coffey was nevertheless still unwelcome at just about every airstrip save one. Akers Airport allowed him to fly. That was short-lived, however, as Akers Airport eventually closed. With that bit of bad news, Coffey was effectively grounded.

Many people would has simply given up. But not Cornelius Coffey. He formed, along with Robinson and several other Black aviators in the area, the Challenger Air Pilots Association. Their group combined with a couple of white pilots from Akers Airport to buy a parcel of land southwest of Chicago in the all-Black town of Robbins.

But there were more challenges to overcome. More hardships to endure. A severe thunderstorm plowed through Robbins and destroyed their facilities. With no other viable alternatives, the Challenger group accepted an offer to rent hangars from Fred Schumacher and his brother William, owners of a new airport being built on Harlem Avenue.  

It wasn’t long before William Schumacher hired Coffey to re-certify overhauled aircraft owned by his white customers. They had a successful yet segregated working relationship, evidenced by the fact that Schumacher’s flight school was located at one end of the airport, Coffey’s at the other.

The Coffey School of Aeronautics trained more than 1,000 students from 1938 to 1945, and several of them would become Tuskegee Airmen.