Perry Young Jr. (1919-1998)
Perry Young Jr. was born March 12, 1919 in Orangeburg, South Carolina, but his family moved to Oberlin, Ohio when he was only 10 years old. Young graduated from Oberlin High School in the spring of 1937, and spent the following summer learning about aviation. He quickly decided that his career goal was to be a pilot, and soon he began taking aviation lessons, for which he paid for by washing cars and other odd jobs. Young was so passionate about becoming a pilot that the year after graduating high school, he turned down a full four year scholarship to the prestigious Oberlin Conservatory of Music in order to complete his pilot training. Sure enough, Perry earned his flight license a year later in 1939, and was officially ready to become a commercial pilot.
So he thought, at least. From 1939 to 1942, Perry Young Jr. could not find a job as a pilot in America due to racial discrimination. He was eventually granted employment during WWII, but not as a pilot. Instead, Young was hired by the military to train pilots. Pearl Harbor made the US realize they had a real shortage of pilots who were skilled enough to teach, so instructors like Perry were forbidden from going into battle. Even though it wasn’t exactly what he wanted, he was called upon by the Armed Forces, so Young left his teaching gig in Chicago and began to train airmen from the 99th Pursuit Squadron. Young trained about 150 of the 900+ African American Airmen in the 99th Pursuit Squadron. These airmen would go on to be more famously known as The Tuskegee Airmen. Young was praised for his training of such a well disciplined group of pilots, many of whom had great success overseas, despite knowing little to nothing about aviation prior to their training.
Despite serving the military and proving his competence, Perry could still not find employment as a pilot in America. Commercial airlines still refused to hire any candidate of color, regardless of experience and qualifications. This forced Young to seek employment outside of the US. His first stop was in Haiti, where he would eventually meet his wife and start a family. He flew for Haiti’s national airline, and tried to start his own airline company in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, but failed after about two years. He continued to travel the world as a pilot, finding his way all across North America, from Puerto Rico to The US Virgin Islands.
It was not until 1956 that Young would finally be hired by an American Airline Company, New York Airways, which only flew helicopters. He would originally be denied a job because he only had 200 logged helicopter hours out of his 7,000 flight hours, much lower than the company minimum of 500 helicopter hours. But, when New York Airlines shifted from single piloted to co-piloted flights due to a more advanced type of helicopter being available, more pilots were needed, and Young was hired as a co-pilot. On February 5th, 1957, Perry Young Jr. became the first African-American to to fly regularly scheduled flights for a commercial airline. Other pilots refused to co-pilot with him because of his race, but NYA was so short on pilots, the racists were forced to get over it, or quit. We should note how difficult it must have been to sit in a cockpit for hours a day with someone who would rather not work with you because they view your entire race as inferior. Despite this unfortunate reality, Young earned his spot as a flight captain nearly a month into the job, after logging the additional helicopter hours required.
Young remained with New York Airlines until it’s bankruptcy in 1979. Flying for over 20 years, Young faced racism well throughout his career, both within NYA and outside of it, recalls a friend and co-pilot of Mr. Young. He spent over fifteen years searching for employment in America, just to be denied time after time again. Even after he was granted a piloting job in the states, he faced discrimination from numerous angles that could have derailed any emotionally aware human being from their goals in life. Still, his deep passion for aviation drove him to accomplish his goals.
Young did not singlehandedly take down discrimination within commercial aviation, but he was an early catalyst to the process. His face was tied to African-American Aviation in the late 50’s and 60’s, and he stood up to that burden. He understood that an opportunity for him meant more opportunities for young Black pilots to come. For that, we must all be grateful. Thank you, Mr. Young!
Read my sources on Perry Young Jr. here, here, here, and here.