ELEANOR ROOSEVELT, AMELIA EARHART, AND C. ALFRED “CHIEF” ANDERSON—SOARING ENCOUNTERS

WHAT SOARING PERSONALITIES! Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, U.S. Delegate to the United Nations General Assembly 1945 to 1952, whom President Harry S Truman called “First Lady of the World” in tribute to her human rights achievements. Amelia Earhart, aviation pioneer and writer, first female to fly solo across the Atlantic, among the first aviators to promote commercial air travel, an early supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment. C. Alfred “Chief” Anderson, aviation pioneer, initially self-taught because of racial discrimination, eventually chief flight instructor of the Tuskegee Airmen.

The amazing thing is that Earhart and Anderson each touched the life of Eleanor Roosevelt in profound ways. Here are tidbits collected from a variety of Internet sources. 

A White House Dinner. It was just a little more than a month after Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s first inauguration that “Eleanor Roosevelt Took to the Skies,” as described in A Mighty Girl, April 20, 2023: “Eleanor Roosevelt was one of America’s most beloved First Ladies; Amelia Earhart was called the ‘First Lady of the Air.’ These two groundbreaking and unconventional women met and became close friends in 1932, the same year that Earhart made history with her record-breaking nonstop trans-Atlantic flight. Their individualism and sense of cheeky fun famously culminated in an escapade during a White House dinner on April 20, 1933.”

A Mighty Girl website continues, “The two stereotype-smashing women shared a passion for women’s rights and world peace, so when Roosevelt planned the White House dinner, it wasn’t a surprise that she invited Earhart and her husband, George Putnam, to join her. Roosevelt’s husband, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was away, so her brother Hall Roosevelt joined her instead; other guests included Thomas Wardwell Doe, the president of Eastern Air Transport, and Eugene Luther Vidal, the head of the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Air Commerce.”

See “The Hammond Airplane—and Gore Vidal’s Father” for another encounter with this last fellow. 

Amelia and Eleanor’s Night Flight, April 20, 1933. A Mighty Girl recounts, “During the dinner, Earhart grew impatient with the formalities and suggested to Roosevelt that they take a short flight to Baltimore and back. To Roosevelt, it sounded like the perfect adventure to pass the time before dessert! The group traveled to Hoover Field airport and boarded one of Eastern Air Transport’s twin-engine Curtiss Condor planes. By protocol, two company pilots were supposed to operate the airplane; however, for much of the flight, Earhart took the captain’s chair and Roosevelt sat next to her as co-pilot, all the while wearing a white silk gown and white kid gloves.” 

Roosevelt told The Baltimore Sun, “It does mark an epoch, doesn’t it, when a girl in an evening dress and slippers can pilot a plane at night.” Later, the First Lady got her own student pilot’s license.  

There’s a charming children’s book on this epochal flight.

An Epochal Career. Charles Alfred Anderson Sr. knew as a kid he wanted to fly. Quite the ambition for an African-American in the late 1920s, even though he had saved enough money for flying lessons: Wikipedia notes, “…however, no one would teach a young black man to fly. Not deterred, Anderson attended aviation ground school, learned airplane mechanics, and hung around airports, picking up information from white pilots wherever he could.”

Undaunted, Anderson bought a Velie Monocoupe with savings and loans from friends and family. Wikipedia recounts, “Taxiing his airplane around the field, Anderson would periodically gun the engine, eventually finding himself aloft. With growing confidence, it was not long before the fledgling pilot taught himself to take off—and land—safely.” 

Anderson earned his pilot’s license in August 1929. In February 1932, he became the first African-American to receive an air transport pilot’s license. In 1941, as Wikipedia notes, “Anderson was recruited by the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama, to serve as the Chief Civilian Flight Instructor for the new ARMY Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP).”

Another Encounter, April 11, 1941. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was touring the institute’s children’s hospital when she noticed airplanes flying around and asked to meet the chief instructor. Wikipedia recounts, “The First Lady told Anderson she had always heard that ‘colored people couldn’t fly,’ but it appeared that he could. ‘I’m just going to have to take a flight with you,’ she said.”

Wikipedia says, “Anderson was not about to turn down the First Lady, despite the protests of her security detail. Upon returning 40 minutes later, Anderson’s delighted passenger exclaimed, ‘Well I see you can fly, all right!’ ” And, indeed, Anderson went on to train pilots for the now famed Tuskegee Airmen. ds 

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2023