Written by Jaden Parker

So far, we have taken a look at the black pioneers of architecture throughout the years and explored the life of Jessica Nabongo, a black woman who has visited every country in the world. But what about other black pioneers in travel? Let’s take a look at some of the first, lesser-known African Americans to pave the way in the travel industry.

James Pierson Beckwourth

In 1850, James Beckworth discovered a safe route through the Sierra Nevadas he called the “Beckwourth Pass.” Born to a slave woman and a slaveowner, who freed him at the age of 12, Beckwourth became a chieftain called “Bull’s Robe” by the Crow Indians in 1825 after he left working for General William Henry Ashley’s Mountain Fur Company. Beckwourth dictated his autobiography to Thomas D. Bonner, a Justice of Peace. The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth, Mountaineer, Scout, and Pioneer, and Chief of the Crow Nation of Indians was published in 1856.

Nancy Gardner Prince

Nancy Gardner Prince, a member of William Lloyd Garrison’s New England Non-Resistance Society and the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society, was the first African American woman to document her travels. Her story, A Narrative of the Life and Travels of Mrs. Nancy Prince,” was about her life and journeys through Jamaica. She was married to Nero Prince, a footman of the czar in St. Petersburg, and she established an orphanage in St. Petersburg in the 1820s. In 1854, she spoke at a women’s rights convention organized by Lucretia Mott.

Charles and Laura Douglass 

Because they’d been denied entry to The Ridge Resort on the Chesapeake bay because of their race, Charles and Laura Douglass bought up properties on the beachfront of Bay Ridge to create a safe haven for Black people to go to the beach. Charles, son of the abolitionist Frederick Douglass, created the Highland Beach resort in 1893 with his wife, and together the couple made the first black town in Maryland. 

James Herman Banning

After studying electrical engineering at Iowa State College, James Herman Banning learned to fly from a WWI U.S. Army aviator in Des Moines through private lessons. In 1929, he was the chief pilot at the Bessie Coleman Aero Club in LA. In 1932, he and Thomas Cox Allen, a mechanic to fix their plane’s engine, became the first African Americans to complete a transcontinental flight. They raised money along the way at every stop to finish the journey and had donors sign the wing of their plane. They called it the “Gold Book.”

Willa Brown Chappell

The first African American woman to be a licensed pilot in the United States (1937), Willa Brown Chappell was also the first African American officer in the Civil Air Patrol. With her husband Cornelius Coffey—the first African American to have a pilot and aircraft mechanic license—she started the first Black-owned flight school. Their school taught over 200 pilots of the Tuskegee Airmen. As of 1943, she was also the first African American woman in the United States to have both a mechanic’s license and a commercial pilot’s license.

George Washington Gibbs, Jr.

Out of 2,000+ Navy applicants, George Washington Gibbs, Jr. was chosen to join Admiral Richard Byrd’s expedition on the USS Bear in 1940. As a mess attendant, Gibbs became the first African American to ever visit Antarctica and was reportedly the first one off the ship on the day of their arrival. Gibbs retired from the Navy in 1959 as a Chief Petty Officer. He was honored by the Minnesota branch of the NAACP with a humanitarianism award.

Perry H. Young, Jr.

An instructor at the Coffey School of Aeronautics in Chicago in 1940, Perry Young taught many pilots of the Tuskegee Airmen. In 1957, he beecame the first African American pilot of a U.S. airline after he flew a 12-passenger helicopter from La Guardia to Idlewild. Following this feat, he became a captain at New York Airways.

Ruth Carol Taylor

Paving the way for Margaret Grant to be hired at Trans World Airline (TWA)—a major U.S. airline—Ruth Carol Taylor was the first U.S. black flight attendant hired in 1958 by Mohawk Airlines after being rejected from TWA. She was forced to resign from Mohawk a few months later because she got married. (At the time, there were policies barring flight attendants from being married or pregnant.)

Charles Madison Crenchaw

Crenchaw was the first African American to summit Denali, formerly known as Mount McKinley, in 1964. Throughout his life, he was a flight engineer for the planes flown by the Tuskegee Airmen and worked for the Boeing Aircraft Company in Seattle.

Jill Elaine Brown

One of the best decisions Jill E. Brown made was to leave the Navy. In 1974, she was honorably discharged to pursue alternate flight careers. Four years later, she became the first African American woman to become a commercial pilot after being hired at Texas International Airlines.

Guion Stewart Bluford, Jr.

Guion Bluford, Jr. was the first African American to be awarded United States Air Force Command Pilot Astronaut Wings. His first mission into outer space was in 1983 for the STS-8 mission on the Challenger. Prior to this, he trained as a fighter pilot for the Vietnam War and got his doctorate in aerospace engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology.

William “Bill” Pinkney

In 1990, Bill Pinkney was the first African American to travel solo around the world by boat. With his boat named “The Commitment,” the compiled footage of his journey called “The Incredible Voyage of Bill Pinkney” won the George Foster Peabody Award. In the year 2000, Pinkney was the captain of the “La Amistad” replica in Montauk, New York for two years.

Lieutenant Jeanine McIntosh-Menze

As of 2005, Lieutenant McIntosh-Menze is the first black woman to complete flight training and be a pilot in the U.S. Coast Guard. She currently serves in Oahu, Hawaii flying a C-130 Hercules aircraft.

Barrington Irving

Last but not least, Barrington Irving turned down a full-ride football scholarship to University of Florida to pursue aviation. He is the first—and currently only—African American to fly around the world solo. He also holds the title as the youngest to make the trip. On a plane he built, no less! Five years after his flight in 2007, Irving was named a National Geographic Emerging Explorer.