The President of France comes to America and says to the FBI~ ‘Find me the world’s greatest hero!’ Do you know where that hero was found? Riding an elevator in a New York building!"
This is the story of Eugene Bullard. A name forgotten by history, but his exploits will send shivers down your spine.
Born in Georgia in 1895, Eugene was an American citizen whose grandfather was a slave. At the age of 11, when he witnessed a white mob attempt to kill his father, he fled home, fed up with American racism. He wandered for the next few years, then stowed away on a German ship to Europe. He first learned boxing in London and then came to Paris to become a professional fighter. France gave him the respect and equality that his own country, America, never offered. This is why Eugene began to consider France his second home.
That's why, when World War I broke out in 1914, Eugene, as an American citizen, had no legal restrictions on fighting for France. But he owed a debt to the France that had given him the right to live as a human being. To repay his debt, he voluntarily went to the recruitment office and joined the French Foreign Legion.
He fought for France for 18 months, facing death, where he was seriously wounded three times. The doctors said, "Now your leg is damaged, you can't fight on the ground." But Eugene didn't give up and said, "Okay, now I'll fly!" When he talked about joining the French Air Service, an American friend laughed and said, "Eugene, do you know there are no Black pilots in aviation?" Eugene replied: "Of course I do. That's why I want to go." Everything has a beginning, and I'll be the first!" After betting with a friend, Eugene obtained his pilot's license in 1917 and became history's first Black combat pilot!
He had the words "All blood that flows is red" inscribed on his French fighter plane and flew with a small monkey in his jacket. The French media began calling him "The Black Swallow." But the limit was reached when, when America entered the war, the US Army rejected Eugene simply because he was Black. All the white American pilots flying for France were accepted into the US Air Force, except for Eugene.
After the war, he opened a posh nightclub in Paris. He spoke fluent French, English, and German. When Germany occupied France during World War II in 1939, his loyalty to France led him to become a secret spy for the French Resistance! He would eavesdrop on German officers in his own bar, whom he would then listen to. They had no idea that this Black man understood their language.
When the situation worsened, he somehow escaped and returned to America after 28 years. But no one knew him in the country he was a citizen of. To make ends meet, he took a job operating an elevator at Rockefeller Center.
In 1960, French President Charles de Gaulle visited the United States. He publicly awarded Eugene France's highest honor (Knight of the Légion d'honneur) and called him a "true French hero." When the FBI tracked him down at the president's behest, he was quietly operating an elevator in the same building above NBC's studio, unnoticed!
France had considered him a national hero since 1917... and it took America (his own country) until 1994 to honor him, when, 33 years after his death, the US Air Force posthumously awarded him the rank of Second Lieutenant.
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