The Education of Jesse Leroy Brown

Pioneer of the Skies: Jesse Leroy Brown 
Born in Hattiesburg in 1926, Jesse Leroy Brown set his eyes on becoming a pilot when he was a young boy. Early experiences such as his father taking him to his first air show to his brother paying for him to see the motion picture “Hell’s Angels” fueled his fascination with aviation. Persevering through formidable racial barriers, he achieved his lifelong dream and became the first African American to complete the U.S. Navy’s basic flight training program. How did this young man achieve such remarkable success in the face of stifling adversity? Jesse Leroy Brown's education—both his formal and informal schooling—offers some answers. 

Growing Up in the Brown Family
Jesse grew up in Lux, a hamlet twelve miles outside of Hattiesburg. His father was a sharecropper and a Baptist deacon, and his mother was a former schoolteacher. His parents and six siblings lived in a tin house where they worked in the fields from “can’t see to can’t see” (pre-dawn to sundown). One day, their grueling labor was interrupted by a plane passing overhead. Jesse predicted, “I’m sure gonna fly one of those things.” Good-natured sibling laughter followed this bold declaration, but it was a conviction Jesse had held since he was about eight years old – one he never relinquished despite numerous obstacles, especially racism. 
 

Blooming Love for the Skies
During the Jim Crow Era, racism clung to Jesse’s childhood experiences like the oppressive humidity of a Mississippi summer afternoon.  Jesse frequently visited an airfield near his home in Palmers Crossing (before he moved to Lux). He was mesmerized by the antique red biplane, which was pushed out of a corrugated tin hangar toward the 500-yard runway. Corby Yates, the boss of the airfield, held African Americans in contempt. Whenever the mechanic caught sight of the boy, he chased him from the airfield, often hurling vile epithets, profanity, and the occasional wrench. Jesse realized that there would be opposition to achieving his goal because of the color of his skin. Nevertheless, he remained undeterred. 
When Jesse sold and delivered newspapers for the Pittsburgh Courier, one of the few African American newspapers distributed in that part of the country, he became inspired. He noticed a front-page photograph of C. Alfred Anderson, an African American who successfully navigated racism’s headwinds to buy and maintain an airplane and obtain a pilot’s license. There was a widely held belief that Black men didn’t have the capacity to fly military planes. Jesse knew this was untrue; he clipped the Anderson article and nailed it to the wooden wall by his bed. 
 

Achieving Academic Excellence
Because of his parents, Jesse and his siblings understood the importance of getting an education and maintaining self-respect as Black people. Jesse’s mother, Julia Lindsey Brown, remained the educational force in the Brown household. She often stressed the importance of correct English usage as both a survival skill and a marker of dignity. For Jesse Brown and his siblings, attending school involved a three-mile walk. The school building was jarringly primitive, but typical of rural, segregated Mississippi: one room (600 square feet), tin roof and open (glassless) windows, heated by a kerosene stove, and furnished with eight roughhewn benches, each occupied by students of a single grade level. The school had thirty students, eight grades, and one teacher, who only had a high school education.
In October of 1942, Jesse transferred to the Eureka School, a modern two-story brick building in Hattiesburg, for his junior year. In this era, Forrest County, which includes Hattiesburg, provided some of the state’s best educational facilities for African Americans. Jesse’s parents arranged for him to stay in the city with an aunt and uncle so he could attend Eureka. Jesse performed admirably in and outside of the classroom; he had a facility for mathematics and excelled in football and track.
Later, Jesse longed to attend Ohio State University, the school of his idol, “another Jesse”, Jesse Owens. His principal, Dr. Nathaniel Burger, tutored Brown in mathematics and helped him gain admission to his preferred school. For two years, Jesse studied architectural engineering at Ohio State. He paid his way by working as a janitor and unloading boxcars. While back in Mississippi, he also worked at the Holmes Club, serving beverages to boisterous soldiers from nearby Camp Shelby.                                            

The Beginning of Something Beautiful
While at Ohio State, Jesse saw a naval recruiting poster. He had completed two years of college, which met the naval aviation requirements. Jesse applied and was accepted! In Navy flight school, other instructors refused to work with him because of his race, but not flight instructor Roland Christensen. Both men were from rural backgrounds. Christensen was a farm boy from the Midwest. He volunteered to teach Jesse. Before their first flight, Christensen challenged him, “‘Convince me you have what it takes.’ He saw Jesse as a man, not as a black man.” In that moment, Jesse Leroy Brown’s years of schooling fortified him as he took flight at the end of the runway. 
 

Conclusion
Despite many obstacles, Jesse became the first African American to complete the U.S. Navy’s basic flight training. In the closing months of 1950, Ensign Jesse Brown participated in twenty “strike missions” in enemy territory in the Korean War. On the fourth of December, Brown’s Corsair was shot down en route to the Chosin Reservoir. The twenty-four-year-old naval officer succumbed to his injuries after crash-landing his aircraft, making him the first African American U.S. Navy officer killed in the Korean War. Posthumously, he was awarded the Purple Heart, the Air Medal, and the Distinguished Flying Cross. Native Mississippian Jesse Leroy Brown paved the way for other African Americans to enter and thrive in the aviation field despite racial obstacles.