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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2     WHEREAS, It has come to the attention of the members of the
3 House of Representatives of the State of Illinois that a
4 celebration has been held in honor of the 100th birthday of the
5 late Colonel John C. Robinson Jr.; and
 
6     WHEREAS, John Charles Robinson Jr. was born on November 26,
7 1903, in Carrabelle, Florida, to John Sr. and Celeste Robinson;
8 he was reared and schooled in Gulfport, Mississippi; he had one
9 sister, Bertha Robinson-Stokes; and
 
10     WHEREAS, Colonel Robinson was excited about airplanes from
11 the time that he saw his first one as a youngster near a port in
12 his hometown of Gulfport, Mississippi; after finishing high
13 school, he graduated with a diploma in Auto Mechanics in 1924
14 from the University at Tuskegee; and
 
15     WHEREAS, Colonel Robinson, through a turn of events,
16 attended Curtiss Wright Aviation University in Chicago with his
17 partner, famed African-American pioneer aviator Cornelius R.
18 Coffey; they were the first African-American men in the U.S. to
19 be trained and certified as pilots and airplane mechanics from
20 a government approved school of aviation; and
 
21     WHEREAS, The two men later cofounded and built the first
22 African-American airport in the United States in Robbins in
23 1931; in 1934, he flew with his partner to Tuskegee Institute
24 in Alabama to introduce a plan to start an aviation program
25 there, which later developed into the famed Tuskegee Airmen;
26 and
 
27     WHEREAS, In 1935, Colonel Robinson went to Ethiopia to
28 become the personal pilot for H.R.H. Haile Selassie, the
29 Emperor of Ethiopia, and was made a full Colonel in charge of
30 flight training and mechanical training of the Ethiopian Air

 

 

HR0651 - 2 - LRB093 14690 HSS 41647 r

1 Force; and
 
2     WHEREAS, In 1936, Colonel Robinson returned to Chicago and
3 became the personal pilot for Annie Turnbo-Malone, the
4 self-made multi-millionaire; Ms. Turnbo-Malone allowed Colonel
5 Robinson to use part of her property to house the private
6 "Robinson Aviation School", where he taught African-American
7 men and women the skills of flying airplanes and the mechanical
8 skills to build and maintain airplanes;
 
9     WHEREAS, In 1939, Colonel Robinson received advanced
10 training in mechanical aviation at Chanute Air Field in
11 Rantoul, where he also instructed some of the first
12 African-American students from Tuskegee in flying airplanes as
13 part of the now famous 99th Pursuit Squadron (Tuskegee Airmen);
14 and
 
15     WHEREAS, In 1941, at the request of Emperor Haile Selassie,
16 Colonel Robinson returned to Ethiopia with more than 30
17 African-American pilots and mechanics to rebuild the country's
18 National Airport and its Air Force; therefore, be it
 
19     RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
20 NINETY-THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we
21 recognize the 100th birthday of the late Colonel John C.
22 Robinson, and we honor his many contributions as a pioneer
23 African-American pilot; and be it further
 
24     RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
25 presented to the Robbins Historical Society and Museum as an
26 expression of our respect and esteem.