The year is 1895, the place is Columbus, Georgia. It is here that lil baby Eugene Bullard is born to a free Black man named William and a Creek woman named Josephine. William's ancestors had been enslaved in Haiti, so during the Haitian Revolution they fled to America to kick it in Creek country. Anyway, everything was pretty gravy for Eugene until an incident in 1912 where white folks tried to lynch his father, so Eugene said, “eff this” and moved to Norfolk, Virginia.
He knew at this point that America wasn’t gonna treat him right so he hopped on a boat and made tracks to Aberdeen, Scotland. From here, Bullard would travel all over the U.K. doing various jobs including manual labor, vaudeville, and eventually discovering a love and skill for boxing. He ended up taking a fight in Paris and afterward was like, “yeah, this is pretty dope, I’mma stay here” so he made his life in France, away from all the bullshit going on in the post-Civil War South.
So in 1914, World War I pops off after some Archeduke named Franz gets capped. That same year Eugene decides to enlist in the French Foreign Legion. My guy was trained as a machine gunner and saw all types of combat. They put him in the 1st Moroccan Division which is where they put Arab and Black folks, and the division became the most decorated unit in all of WWI. He was wounded at the Battle of Verdun in 1916 and had to chill for a second, but after that, he came back to fight. He trained at the Aerial Gunnery School in Cazaux, Gironde in SW France, and received his pilot's license in 1917. After Flight school Eugene joined up with the Escadrille Americaine, or the American Squad of the French Foreign Legion, and flew as an Air Force pilot for the remainder of his service, even attaining the rank of corporal.
When the war was over and done, Bullard was given the award of Croix de Guerre, or “war cross” and decided to move back to Paris. He married a French woman named Marcelle Straumann, found work as a jazz drummer, and opened up both a gym and a nightclub. Around 1939 He had requests from the French government to spy on German locals who were frequenting his clubs, and wouldn’t ya know it that same year we were onto our next World War! He fought but was wounded defending Orleans, so he took shelter in Spain. In 1940, for the first time in years, Eugene went back to America, settling in New York City.
I'mma be honest, after living a long, fulfilling, and successful life in Europe, life was kinda hard for Eugene in America. He pretty much stayed to himself in his apartment with his 14 French War Medals and didn’t bother with the discrimination of the outside world. He ended up taking a job as an elevator operator until his death from stomach cancer at the age of 66 in New York City.
However, in 1989, he was inducted into the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame and was posthumously made a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force. So yeah, that’s the story of the first Black Military pilot, he went hard in two World Wars and found a way to dodge a lot of the bullshit that was happening in America. It’s upsetting that after his courageous service he ended up running elevators for white folk, but I love the fact that he did what he thought was right during his service and afterward. It’s impressive that he was able to be a pilot, a boxer, and the owner of his own businesses in a time that certainly didn’t want him to. That’s why today I’m saying, “Thank you, Eugene, Thank you!”
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