Colonel John C. Robinson: The Condor of Ethiopia

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Periodical article

Title:	Colonel John C. Robinson: The Condor of Ethiopia
Author:	Scott, William R.
Year:	1972
Periodical:	Pan-African Journal
Volume:	5
Issue:	1
Period:	Spring
Pages:	59-69
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Ethiopia
Subjects:	air force History and Exploration colonialism
Abstract:	John Robinson was born in Florida in 1906. He was raised, however, in Gulfport, Mississippi, where his parents had moved during his early childhood. Robinson exhibited considerable aptitude in the field of mechanics. He became a skilled automobile mechanic and began tinkering with automobile motors, trying to convert them into airplane engines. Initially denied admission to numerous aviation schools in the Chicago area, he at last was accepted at the Curtiss-Wright Aeronautical School, where in 1931 he became the first Afro-American graduate. Robinson was much interested in the uplift and welfare of the black race, inside the U.S.A. and also outside as is demonstrated by his reaction to the Ethiopian-Italian clash at Wal Wal in 1934. In 1933 Robinson got a commission in the Ethiopian army. After Hubert Julian's demotion in 1935, Robinson became the nominal commander of the Ethiopian Air Force. Back in the U.S.A. in 1936 he started a campaign to liberate Ethiopia from Fascist control. In 1944 Robinson returned to Ethiopia, where he died in 1954 by a fatal air accident. Ref.