Robbins Airport, located in

Robbins, Illinois Robbins is a village southwest of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 4,629 at the 2020 census. Darren E. Bryant is the current mayor of Robbins. It is the second oldest Black incorporated town in the north follow ...

, was the first airport to be owned and operated by African-Americans. Robbins Airport was built after the closure of the Acres Airport, the only Chicago-area airport that serviced black pilots. It was constructed by the Challenger Air Pilots' Association, a group of 15 to 20 black aviators that included pilots Cornelius Coffey,

John C. Robinson John Cleveland Robinson (April 10, 1817 – February 18, 1897) had a long and distinguished career in the United States Army, fighting in numerous wars and culminating his career as a Union Army brigadier general of volunteers and brevet major ...

Janet Bragg Janet Harmon Waterford Bragg (born Jane Nettie Harmon) (March 24, 1907 — April 11, 1993) was an American amateur aviator. In 1942, she was the first African-American woman to hold a commercial pilot license. She is a 2022 inductee to ...

Earl W. Renfroe Earl Wiley Renfroe (January 9, 1907 – November 14, 2000) was and African-American dentist known as an innovator in the field of orthodontics and for breaking down the barriers of racism. Renfroe taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago ...

, and Harold Hurd, on the site of an abandoned airfield. The site consisted of one hangar and a half-mile-wide dirt airstrip. Construction was completed in January 1933. It was approved as an airfield by the

United States Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce is an executive department of the U.S. federal government concerned with creating the conditions for economic growth and opportunity. Among its tasks are gathering economic and demographic data for bu ...

and was the only accredited black-owned Airport in the country. The airport was managed by Robinson, who began teaching other members of the Challenger club to fly in the spring of 1933. Robbins Airport had the only flight school at the time where African-Americans could be trained as pilots. The surrounding white communities, such as

Blue Island Blue Island is a city in Cook County, Illinois, located approximately south of Chicago's Loop. Blue Island is adjacent to the city of Chicago and shares its northern boundary with that city's Morgan Park neighborhood. The population was 22,558 ...

and

Midlothian Midlothian (; gd, Meadhan Lodainn) is a historic county, registration county, lieutenancy area and one of 32 council areas of Scotland used for local government. Midlothian lies in the east-central Lowlands, bordering the City of Edinburgh, ...

, did not approve of this activity, and their police sometimes arrested black pilots if they were forced to land before reaching the airport. However the pilots had the support of Robbins mayor and police chief, who would get them released. In May 1933, the hangar was destroyed by a storm. The pilots relocated to Harlem Airport in Chicago (southeast corner of West 87th Street and South Harlem Avenue in Oak Lawn now Southfields Shopping Center) at the invitation of the airport's white owners. At Harlem Airport, Coffey opened the Coffey School of Aeronautics, which trained both black and white pilots. Many of the flight school instructors entered the

Tuskegee Airmen The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of primarily African American military pilots (fighter and bomber) and airmen who fought in World War II. They formed the 332d Fighter Group and the 477th Fighter Group, 477th Bombardment Group (Medium) of the ...

Program during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The Harlem Airport closed after 1956.

References

{{reflist Defunct airports in Illinois Airports in Cook County, Illinois Buildings and structures in Cook County, Illinois Airports established in 1933 1933 establishments in Illinois 1933 disestablishments in Illinois