The Flight of Jesse Leroy Brown

Jesse was raised in a poor but loving family and instilled with values of dignity, education, and perseverance even in the midst of deeply entrenched segregation. A star athlete and an outstanding student, Jesse turned a deaf ear to everyone who told him that he should attend a black college, or that he didn't stand a chance of becoming a Navy pilot. Undeterred, he made his way from the deep South to the campus of Ohio State University. Then, defying the wishes of his family and an unwritten rule of racial exclusion, he qualified for the Navy reserve and was accepted into the Naval Air Training School at Glenview, Illinois-the first black man to enter the program. On March 18, 1947, late morning, like a bird, like a kite, like an impossible dream, Jesse Leroy Brown was flying.

While other applicants-many from upper-class backgrounds-were weeded out of the rigorous qualifying process, Jesse forged ahead, often directly in the face of shameful racism and hostile superior officers. When he arrived at the cradle of Naval aviation in Pensacola, Florida, in 1947, he knew the washout rate was high and the odds were stacked against a man openly referred to as "nigger." But Jesse Leroy Brown had lots of practice beating the odds, and now he was on his way to becoming the first black man to fly a Navy fighter and make a carrier landing. He was also on his way to becoming an American hero over the battlefields of Korea.

The Flight of Jesse Leroy Brown is both a stirring story ofa man breaking historic racial barriers and a thrilling tale ofNaval carrier aviation. Award-winning author TheodoreTaylor, a master of adventure on land and sea, has written abiography that will speak to boththose who love the excite-ment of combat in the air ... and to anyone who has everdreamed the impossible dream.Jesse Leroy Brown was raised in the segregated South by a hard-working, loving family who instilled values of dignity, education, and perseverance. A star athlete and an outstanding student, he was determined to become a Navy pilot, although such a thing was unheard of for a black man in the 1940s. Undettered, he entered Ohio State University, rather than a black college, and was able to qualify for the Navy reserve and was accepted into the Naval Air Training School at Glenview, Illinois. Despite racism, and open hostility by many of his superior officers, he finally reached his goal, flying a Navy fighter plane and landing it on a carrier--the first African American ever to do so.