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Speaker 1: This is an iHeart.

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Speaker 2: Original orders came into the airfield from headquarters. The biplanes

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Speaker 2: were readied. They're engines primed, their machine guns loaded. Now

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Speaker 2: the sky machine's idle. They wait only for their pilots.

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Speaker 2: The date September eighth, nineteen seventeen. The time a few

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Speaker 2: minutes before eight a m. The World War the first one.

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Speaker 2: A young corporal climbs up onto the lower wing of

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Speaker 2: his biplane, a single engine French plane. The aircraft is

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Speaker 2: constructed of the lightest possible materials, canvas and wood. The

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Speaker 2: skin of the plane's fuselage is a delicate, lacquered canvas.

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Speaker 2: There are support struts that hold the two biplane wings

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Speaker 2: in balance. It's a controlled tension of metal wires and

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Speaker 2: wooden struts. Up front, there's the propeller. The giant wooden

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Speaker 2: screw works the same as it would for a boat,

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Speaker 2: but rather than push as it would for the boat,

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Speaker 2: the propeller pulls the plane forward into the sky. The

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Speaker 2: heaviest part of the plane is the one hundred and

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Speaker 2: eighty horse power eight cylinder Hispanio Sueeze, a radial engine

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Speaker 2: made of steel and aluminum. It isn't much different than

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Speaker 2: the sort of car motor that powers a forward model

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Speaker 2: t Its eight radial cylinders are cooled with oil just

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Speaker 2: the same, but as the biplane shimmys and shakes, its

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Speaker 2: oil splatters out of the engine. It sprays against a

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Speaker 2: pilot's face. Ah With a swing of his leg, the

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Speaker 2: corporal lowers himself into the open cockpit. His co pilot, Jimmy,

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Speaker 2: settles into his spot down at the feet of the pilot.

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Speaker 2: You see, Jimmy is a capuchin monkey. He even has

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Speaker 2: his own little flight suit. The pilot he checks his

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Speaker 2: Vickers machine gun. He wants to guarantee it's loaded before

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Speaker 2: he's up there the sky. The guns are indeed ready

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Speaker 2: for action, fully loaded with four hundred rounds of seven

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Speaker 2: point seven millimeter ammunition. The pilot waits for the signal

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Speaker 2: to take off. He and his capuchin monkey copilot braved

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Speaker 2: the tense moments of anticipation. Jimmy, the monkey at his feet,

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Speaker 2: senses the pilot's nerves.

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Speaker 3: It's as obvious as.

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Speaker 2: His shaking feet, or maybe that shaking is due to

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Speaker 2: the engine. This is the pilot's first combat flight. It's

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Speaker 2: also the first flight in history by an African American

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Speaker 2: military pilot of course, this did not happen in America.

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Speaker 2: The pilot was not flying for America because check the year.

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Speaker 2: This was nineteen seventeen, and America was still deep in

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Speaker 2: its institutional racism. Thus, for a black man, he had

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Speaker 2: to travel to France to become a pilot. And there

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Speaker 2: in the land of Liberte Egalite for Tonite, he earned

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Speaker 2: his wings and so on that fateful September eighth, nineteen seventeen,

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Speaker 2: the pilot sits in his Spad seven biplane waiting for

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Speaker 2: the future to become the present. Located just past the cockpit,

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Speaker 2: painted there on the fuselage of the plane, there's a

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Speaker 2: bright red heart and it's pierced by a dagger. The

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Speaker 2: heart bleeds in French are painted the words.

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Speaker 3: Du song kikuile erouge.

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Speaker 2: In English, this means all blood that flows runs red.

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Speaker 2: The pilot is Eugene Bullard, and those six words are

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Speaker 2: his life's creed. Just after eight am, the signal is given,

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Speaker 2: it's time to take to the sky. Eugene Bullard recalls

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Speaker 2: later in his unpublished autobiography that fateful moment in aviation history.

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Speaker 4: The order was given party, meaning go. The chalks were

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Speaker 4: pulled away and so we did fast. I sincerely believe

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Speaker 4: that there's never been a pilot aviator who did not

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Speaker 4: have a funny feeling on his first combat patrol and

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Speaker 4: who wasn't really scared the first time that he faced

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Speaker 4: the enemy in the air. I am not ashamed to

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Speaker 4: himIt these fans about myself, why should I be? I

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Speaker 4: am not an angel, nor am I hero. Anyhow, I

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Speaker 4: was determined to do all that was in my power

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Speaker 4: to make good as I knew that the eyes of

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Speaker 4: the world were watching me as the first Negro military

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Speaker 4: pilot in the world. I felt the same way Limbert

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Speaker 4: felt when he was the first to fly from New

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Speaker 4: York to Paris, France. I had to do it or die,

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Speaker 4: and I didn't want to die.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to very special episodes and iHeart original podcast. I'm

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Speaker 2: your host, Zarn Burnette, and this is Eugene Bullard. A

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Speaker 2: man finds freedom in the skies.

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Speaker 5: So I have a light spoiler. The next voice you're

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Speaker 5: gonna hear after we're done talking is Zaren's dad. So

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Speaker 5: good to have Zaren Jr. Back on this podcast with

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Speaker 5: Zarin the third YEP. We did a show a few

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Speaker 5: years ago, Black Cowboys, which was an large part Jaron

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Speaker 5: and his father talking about these stories that his dad

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Speaker 5: had told him when he was a kid.

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Speaker 2: He's quite a character and he loves being there, so

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Speaker 2: he's always happy to do it, always happy to be

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Speaker 2: on the mic. And I got to say, it was

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Speaker 2: so much fun for me to be the one getting

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Speaker 2: to tell him the story this time, instead of him

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Speaker 2: always telling me the stories. Because he had not known

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Speaker 2: about Eugene Bowart. He knew the name, he was familiar

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Speaker 2: a little with the legend, but I sent him the

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Speaker 2: books and I was like, let's read these together and

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Speaker 2: then we'll talk about this. So that was like a

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Speaker 2: total fun inversion.

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Speaker 6: I had never heard of this character before, which was

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Speaker 6: always thrilling for me. I feel like I immediately go down

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Speaker 6: a Wikipedia rabbit hole after everything.

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Speaker 1: I read about the Tusky Yearman in the Negro Digest,

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Speaker 1: which was a monthly magazine like Reader's Digest, only it

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Speaker 1: was much much, much better and much more directed. They

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Speaker 1: carved Black American life in the country almost from a

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Speaker 1: literary standpoint as opposed to a journalistic you know. So

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Speaker 1: they had Richard Wright writing for them in Chester Hines

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Speaker 1: people like that. So the Tuskegee Airmen were a big

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Speaker 1: favorite in the Negro Digest because there's black pilots. You know,

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Speaker 1: I understand it's Tuskegee, it's Booker t you know, so

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Speaker 1: it was easy for people to remember the Tuskegee Airmen.

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Speaker 2: That's my pops. His name is Zaren Burnett, Junr. Which

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Speaker 2: is why I'm the third. But more than just his name,

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Speaker 2: my pops also gave me a wealth of stories back

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Speaker 2: when I was a child. If you've listened to the

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Speaker 2: podcast we made together Black Cowboys, then you already know this.

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Speaker 2: If not, just know he did. My pops told me

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Speaker 2: all kinds of stories.

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Speaker 3: You see, my father is.

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Speaker 2: A writer, a cultural historian, the kind of man who

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Speaker 2: can wax poetic about nearly anything. So he told me

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Speaker 2: about black cowboys for bedtime stories. But also as we drove,

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Speaker 2: he told me about civil rights leaders watching the game.

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Speaker 2: He told me of his old sports heroes discussing the news.

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Speaker 2: He told me of cultural warriors, freedom fighters on road trips.

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Speaker 2: It was tales of outlaw folk heroes, labor leaders, anarchists, communists, entrepreneurs, philosophers, writers, artists,

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Speaker 2: opera singers, and of course one of my favorites, the

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Speaker 2: Tuskegee Airmen. Those were proud black men he'd first learned

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Speaker 2: about when he was a boy. The Tuskegee Airmen made

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Speaker 2: their name famous in World War Two, but in the

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Speaker 2: First World War, Eugene Bullard was the sole black pilot

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Speaker 2: from the United States and he was flying for France

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Speaker 2: as a volunteer. America would eventually join the Triple en

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Speaker 2: tant aka the Allies. That's France, the UK, and Russia.

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Speaker 2: Also Japan joined in as well as their colonial possessions

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Speaker 2: aka the people living under the various imperial rules. Together

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Speaker 2: they all fought against the central Powers Germany, Austria, Hungary,

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Speaker 2: the Ottoman Empire, along with other many smaller nations on

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Speaker 2: both sides. Now, during World War One, air combat.

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Speaker 3: Was in its infancy.

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Speaker 2: Nearly everything was a first. It also introduced a new

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Speaker 2: battlefield up in the sky. Air combat forever changed the

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Speaker 2: nature of war. But when Eugene Bullard was a pilot,

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Speaker 2: it was all brand, spank and new. It still had

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Speaker 2: that new plane smell. That first day Eugene Bullard ever

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Speaker 2: flew in combat, there were a dozen or so Newport

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Speaker 2: and Spad biplanes in the sky with him. The biplanes

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Speaker 2: they flew in a V formation, high above the bloody

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Speaker 2: trench warfare below. They flew east across the German lines,

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Speaker 2: and no anti aircraft guns sighted them, no enemy planes

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Speaker 2: engaged them. The squadron tempted fate all the way to

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Speaker 2: a town called Mets. There they turned and made the

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Speaker 2: return trip back to their airfield. Before they crossed back

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Speaker 2: over from the German side. This time, a few anti

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Speaker 2: aircraft guns did spot them, and they fired. Shells rocketed

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Speaker 2: into the sky, singing past the biplanes like angry, murderous fireworks,

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Speaker 2: but no artillery shell struck its target. The squadron flew back,

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Speaker 2: passing over the battlefield or Verdun, that seething mud pit

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Speaker 2: was claiming lives from both sides by the thousands that morning.

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Speaker 2: Fighting was not yet underway, fresh slaughter in carnage was

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Speaker 2: not yet wetting the earth with blood and lost lives.

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Speaker 2: But when Eugene Bullard soared over Verdun, what he experienced

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Speaker 2: was a rare exhilaration. He'd fought in those same trenches,

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Speaker 2: manned a man slogging through the mud toting a machine gun,

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Speaker 2: But now his first day behind the stick of a plane,

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Speaker 2: it was more than just history. It was a personal revelation.

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Speaker 2: Eugene Bullard touched the heavens and then he returned to

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Speaker 2: earth the first black American combat pilot. Reading his story,

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Speaker 2: I wondered about some things I knew. I could ask

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Speaker 2: my pops, why does it matter that he was black

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Speaker 2: and that he was the first? I mean, like, do

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Speaker 2: not think a black person can fly a plane? Is

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Speaker 2: he another further example that we are indeed equals of

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Speaker 2: white folks. I mean, come on more evidence in an

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Speaker 2: argument we've been making for centuries, Like why does it

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Speaker 2: matter that he was the first black American combat pilot?

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Speaker 2: I mean, ultimately, now, being a generation older, I wanted

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Speaker 2: to hear my pops take on all of this.

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Speaker 1: You know, no, but nobody told me he should learn

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Speaker 1: how to be a boxer, but learned horsemanship, then learn

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Speaker 1: how to be a boxer, then learn how to play

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Speaker 1: the drums, then open then open the club, then the

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Speaker 1: end stage shows, then become a fighter pilot. You know,

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Speaker 1: it's like that's a that's the hell of a person.

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Speaker 1: That doesn't translate into other people. You know that that's

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Speaker 1: like Michael L'Angelo, Like that's that's a different kind of person.

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Speaker 1: Leonardo da Vinci. There are no other tags like Leonardo

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Speaker 1: da Vinci. So that wasn't an Italian thing, that was

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Speaker 1: a da Vinci thing. This is like this is a bullet,

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Speaker 1: you know. That's He's just an amazing guy. I think

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Speaker 1: the tendency to look at black people as a race

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Speaker 1: kind of compromises the individual achievements and the ciation for them.

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Speaker 1: Because if you just look at him as an individual,

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Speaker 1: not as the first black pilot, but look just look

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Speaker 1: at what he did. Don't look at it as compared

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Speaker 1: to other black people, look at it as compared to

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Speaker 1: other people.

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Speaker 2: What you're left with is a hero, a man who

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Speaker 2: demanded he was a citizen of the world, his soul

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Speaker 2: too big for the smallness that America insisted and legally demanded.

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Speaker 2: Eugene Bullard was a black man who would not let

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Speaker 2: America diminish him, and thus he had to leave to

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Speaker 2: find a land that would let him live freely, and

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Speaker 2: like many true patriots, he was willing to die for

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Speaker 2: that privilege.

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Speaker 1: The thing that resonates for me with him is he

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Speaker 1: lived in life exactly as I believe a free person

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Speaker 1: should live. What he wanted to do was live as

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Speaker 1: a free person, not as a free black man, not

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Speaker 1: as a free American. He wanted to be a free person,

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Speaker 1: and then he set about doing that without asking anybody

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Speaker 1: for permission, without having anybody defined it for him. And

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Speaker 1: that's what being free me. You walk through your life

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Speaker 1: making your own the choices at every point. And he

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Speaker 1: did that, and I think that's the highest level of

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Speaker 1: human achievement, to be a freeman, to be a free woman.

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Speaker 1: Once you're free, then everything is open to you. Then

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Speaker 1: the whole world is open to you.

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Speaker 2: Eugene Bullard was born in Columbus, Georgia on October ninth,

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Speaker 2: eighteen ninety five. He's the seventh of ten children born

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Speaker 2: to Josephine Joklee Thomas, a woman of mixed Creek Muskogee heritage.

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Speaker 2: His father was William big Ox Bullard, a black man

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Speaker 2: born into slavery two enslaved parents, and like them, he

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Speaker 2: also worked the plantation fields. Later, after the enslaved reliberated,

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Speaker 2: he labored on the docks down in the riverfront of Columbus,

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Speaker 2: Georgia now Yokale and big Ox's seventh child, Eugene, he

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Speaker 2: gets raised into that same life. He started elementary school,

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Speaker 2: but dropped out to work the family farm with his father.

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Speaker 2: His mother, Yokule, passed away when he was young.

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Speaker 1: So this is a single father with uh with seven kids,

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Speaker 1: and he wasn't home a lot of the time because

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Speaker 1: he was working, so that he had to trust those

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Speaker 1: seven kids to recognize and avoid danger.

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Speaker 2: For one very good reason, they were living in deeply

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Speaker 2: racist Georgia at the turn of the century, which is

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Speaker 2: the same state where my pops lives now. Thus he

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Speaker 2: knows well that even today, avoiding the dangers of racism in.

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Speaker 1: Georgia, they'll drive you crazy.

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Speaker 2: The threat of bigotry was a daily consideration. His father,

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Speaker 2: Big Ox, became highly protective of his kids, rarely letting

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Speaker 2: them stray from the family farm, limiting their freedom for

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Speaker 2: their benefit.

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Speaker 1: I recognize exactly why Big Ox acted the way he did,

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Speaker 1: because he knew better than his sons what the danger

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Speaker 1: actually was. So you keep them close until they are

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Speaker 1: old enough to understand the danger they're going to encounter

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Speaker 1: in yours and in Georgia, the danger was always death.

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Speaker 1: There was always death, dismemberment and death, and they were

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Speaker 1: going to get away with it. So Big Ox, and

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna keep you the.

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Speaker 2: Threat was so immediate. When Eugene Bullard was a boy,

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Speaker 2: a lynch mob came to his home with the express

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Speaker 2: intent to lynch his father, Big Ox. There'd been a

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Speaker 2: workplace disagreement between his father and a white guy named Stevens,

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Speaker 2: the foreman at the job site. His father tried mightily

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Speaker 2: to resist the showdown he saw coming. As Eugene Bullard

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Speaker 2: recorded in his autobiography, Eugene never forgot what Big Ox

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Speaker 2: told his seven children shortly before the fight.

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Speaker 4: If I have to hit Stevens, I want you all

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Speaker 4: to be good children. Always show respect to each other

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Speaker 4: and everyone white and black, and make them respect. You

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Speaker 4: go to school as long as you can. Never look

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Speaker 4: for a fight, I mean never. But if you are attacked, well,

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Speaker 4: your honor is attacked unjustly. Fight, fight, keep on fighting,

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Speaker 4: even if you definite right, it will be a glorious death.

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Speaker 2: He sounds like a Viking, not just a black laborer

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Speaker 2: in the Jim Crow South. He also sounds like my pop,

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Speaker 2: who told me nearly the same thing, because that's what

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Speaker 2: his father, the first xerend told him.

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Speaker 1: Well said. Look, don't ever start a fight, but don't

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Speaker 1: ever run from one, which means in Georgia, you're gonna

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Speaker 1: have to ignore meaningless insults that if somebody hits you,

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Speaker 1: you have to do it. So I when I read it,

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Speaker 1: it was just very familiar.

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Speaker 2: Eventually, Big Ox could no longer avoid the foreman, and

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Speaker 2: thus he could no longer avoid the fight. Finally, the

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Speaker 2: inevitable occurs. One day, the foreman comes at Big Ox

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Speaker 2: with a huge iron hook. It's the sort of hook

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Speaker 2: used to load bales of cotton. He swings it and

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Speaker 2: strikes Big Ox in the head. The iron hook splits

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Speaker 2: open a deep headwound, but the blow does not kill

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Speaker 2: Big Ox. Enraged, he picks up the four dorman and

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Speaker 2: throws him down into a cargo hole.

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Speaker 1: He was ignoring all of the provocations and then the

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Speaker 1: guy hit him an nessie, I can't take that.

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Speaker 2: Big Ox had to know his active self defense could

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Speaker 2: mean his life. Thankfully, the owner of the job site,

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Speaker 2: also white, is on Big Ox's side. He tells them

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Speaker 2: go home, lay low until the anger blows over.

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Speaker 3: That didn't happen.

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Speaker 2: The anger gets drunk that night, The anger gets bigger,

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Speaker 2: It recruits some white friends. The anger becomes a lynch party,

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Speaker 2: and then the anger rides out under torchlight to find

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Speaker 2: Big Ox inside the family home. Big Ox and his

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Speaker 2: kids huddle in the darkness, staying silent as a cemetery crypt.

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Speaker 2: The lynch party, drunk as they are, eventually gives up.

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Speaker 2: The men ride off, but lying there silent in the dark,

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Speaker 2: young Eugene Bullard makes a decision. He decides.

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Speaker 1: The sun decided, I got to get out of Georgia.

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Speaker 1: This is going to be the way to live. And

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Speaker 1: that's as much as his dad wouldn't want him to

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Speaker 1: have reached that conclusion about getting out of Georgia, he

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Speaker 1: did want him to understand the dangers, and he saw

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Speaker 1: it said night. He saw the actual danger that they

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Speaker 1: were living among every second of every day.

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Speaker 2: Ironically, it was his father who'd first planted the seed

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Speaker 2: of a dream of a life in a better land.

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Speaker 2: That was why, sometime after his eleventh birthday, Eugene Bullard

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Speaker 2: ran away from home and would keep running until he

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Speaker 2: could get himself to France. His father had told him

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Speaker 2: about Paris and France and how black people were legally

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Speaker 2: equal to anyone else there thanks to the French Revolution.

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Speaker 2: You see, unlike the Revolution in America after Theirs, the

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Speaker 2: French legally made all their citizens equal, or rather relative equals.

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Speaker 2: To young Eugene Bullard, age eleven, that was good enough.

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Speaker 2: It seemed like a place where someone like him could

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Speaker 2: enjoy a decent life. So Eugene Bullard runs away from home,

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Speaker 2: and he stays away, even though Big Ox hunts after

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Speaker 2: him in order to bring him back to the family home.

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Speaker 2: His father, though, doesn't catch up with his son, and

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Speaker 2: so for their first time in his life, now Eugene

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Speaker 2: Bullard feels truly free, free but alone.

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Speaker 1: One of the things about his whole story is it

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Speaker 1: almost doesn't have borders. He's just loose in the world.

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Speaker 2: In time, he finds a new family camping on the

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Speaker 2: edges of Atlanta. They are a roma family of wanderers

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Speaker 2: from England. They call themselves the Stanleys, and they take

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Speaker 2: in the boy out there alone in the world. They

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Speaker 2: see he's good with the horses, and they decide he

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Speaker 2: can camp with them. So in nineteen eleven, at age fifteen,

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Speaker 2: After he camps with the Stanleys for a number of

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Speaker 2: years and he learns that they have no plans to

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Speaker 2: return to Europe, Eugene Bullard decides it's time he finally

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Speaker 2: head on to France.

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Speaker 3: On his own.

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Speaker 2: He first makes his way alone to Norfolk, Virginia. He

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Speaker 2: goes down to the harbor, hangs out, gets to know

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Speaker 2: some sailors, men who speak strange languages. After some study

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Speaker 2: of the sailors, he decides he'd stow away on a

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Speaker 2: German freighter. He's finally on his way now to the

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Speaker 2: promised land of France, or so he hopes. I asked

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Speaker 2: my pops what he'd heard about France from older black

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Speaker 2: folks when he was young.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't a promised land, but it was a place

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Speaker 1: that did not have legal segregation. It did not have

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Speaker 1: legal designations by race, So the problem you would have

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Speaker 1: in France would be individuals, and usually Americans.

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Speaker 2: Next stop, Europe. Now truly loose in the world, Eugene

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Speaker 2: Bullard trusts in good luck to protect him. A teenage stowaway,

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Speaker 2: all he knows is that he's headed to a land

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Speaker 2: of which he's only dreamed. But he doesn't make it

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Speaker 2: to France.

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Speaker 1: Instead, he gets off of Scotland because it's the first

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Speaker 1: port of call. So in Scotland, all the people he

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Speaker 1: meets there he gets along with fied he already has

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Speaker 1: experienced in their life that he went there.

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Speaker 2: To have He ends up staying in Aberdeen and later Glasgow,

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Speaker 2: Scotland for a year, and Liverpool, England for several months.

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Speaker 1: And then he goes to London and London is even

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Speaker 1: more impressive to him and more welcoming. And then he

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Speaker 1: becomes a fighter in England.

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Speaker 2: Eugene Bullard becomes a professional boxer and he's good. His

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Speaker 2: father's words take on new meaning every time he steps

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Speaker 2: into the ring. Now he's fighting for respect, but as

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Speaker 2: a professional, as someone that folks cheer on as he

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Speaker 2: wallops his opponents, often white men. The black American heavyweight

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Speaker 2: champion of the world at the time, Jack Johnson, has

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Speaker 2: let an international fever for crowds eager to see black boxers.

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Speaker 2: That's how boxing earns Eugene Bullard. His first trip across

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Speaker 2: the Channel to France, he's finally made it. He walks

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Speaker 2: the streets of Paris and finds it's everything he'd hope

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Speaker 2: for and far far more.

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Speaker 1: And then he goes to Paris and he's like, this

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Speaker 1: is just what I want, this is what I came

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Speaker 1: here for.

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Speaker 2: A year later, when the timing's right, Eugene Bullard moves

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Speaker 2: to Paris. He works as a professional boxer, and Paris

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Speaker 2: wraps its arms around him and welcomes him into the

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Speaker 2: city's bosom. He's home. He makes his name and fame

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Speaker 2: in the boxing ring. He's now very good at punching

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Speaker 2: men in the face. His life in Paris is even better.

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Speaker 2: And he's not alone. There are many other black expats, writers, artists, musicians,

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Speaker 2: folks from America who came and made a life for

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Speaker 2: themselves too. They found that they could create and just be.

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Speaker 2: They tasted, savored, and enjoyed what life could be for

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Speaker 2: someone free of American racism.

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Speaker 1: It was a very pleasant existence. You could pursue your interest.

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Speaker 1: You didn't have to cuff the sidewalk when a white

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Speaker 1: person came towards you. Like in North Carolina, a white

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Speaker 1: person walks towards you on the sidewalk, you got to

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Speaker 1: step off the sidewalk until they passed. None of that,

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Speaker 1: none of that, None of that stuff was happening. There's

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Speaker 1: nothing you could not buy, there's no place you could

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Speaker 1: not live. You know, there was nothing to fine for

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Speaker 1: you just because of your skin color. So now what's

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Speaker 1: defined for you is based on your ability to manage

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Speaker 1: your opportunities. I wanted to live in Paris. I wanted

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Speaker 1: to finish, finish college and move to Paris. That's what

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Speaker 1: I wanted to do.

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Speaker 2: I'd never known this about my pop, that he'd also

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Speaker 2: dreamed of running off to Paris to go and taste

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Speaker 2: that good life for himself.

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Speaker 1: I could see myself strolling down to Chance Leys with

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Speaker 1: my beret arm and I was in France. I could

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Speaker 1: see me at the sidewall cafe with my cane, you know,

401
00:22:43,802 --> 00:22:47,922
Speaker 1: drinking my prienew geting people, and then leaving there and

402
00:22:47,962 --> 00:22:51,322
Speaker 1: going back to my studio and spending the afternoon riding,

403
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Speaker 1: and then come back in the evening to the cafes,

404
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Speaker 1: have a drinks, and then go to the club. So

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Speaker 1: I could be there forever.

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Speaker 2: In nineteen fourteen, just as Eugene Bullard is fully enjoying

407
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Speaker 2: the life he's always craved, the life he crossed a

408
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Speaker 2: sea for and abandon all that he knew. He hears

409
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Speaker 2: the drums of war sound in the distance. The beating

410
00:23:10,402 --> 00:23:14,522
Speaker 2: grows louder and louder, until the war everyone fears would

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Speaker 2: come finally arrives.

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Speaker 1: I've always believed that war is the ultimate failure of humanity.

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Speaker 1: I don't think anything, anything justifies war. I don't think

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Speaker 1: anything can make it right. I don't think any kind

415
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Speaker 1: of war ever makes sense. I only think the only

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Speaker 1: war I would ever fight in would be to put

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Speaker 1: off an invasion. If I'm at home, in my home,

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Speaker 1: our country, and they pull up to the shore with

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Speaker 1: ships and they're gonna fight, then yeah, that's that's self defense.

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Speaker 2: Despite the obvious insanity, obscenity, and cruelty of war, when

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Speaker 2: it arrives, there is nothing to be done but to fight,

422
00:23:52,402 --> 00:23:55,082
Speaker 2: because when the fight comes to your borders, you must

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Speaker 2: defend your home. And that is what France is now

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Speaker 2: to Eugene Bullard, a homeland worth dying for, and Bullard

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Speaker 2: is a fighter with his fists or now with machine guns.

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Speaker 2: World War One begins in August of nineteen fourteen, and

427
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Speaker 2: it will last for four years. When the war starts,

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00:24:13,002 --> 00:24:16,962
Speaker 2: America is reluctant to join and remains isolated out of

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00:24:17,002 --> 00:24:20,202
Speaker 2: the war for its early years. But Eugene Bullard he

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00:24:20,362 --> 00:24:23,802
Speaker 2: fights the entire time. Since he's a foreigner, he cannot

431
00:24:23,882 --> 00:24:27,042
Speaker 2: serve in the regular French Army. Instead, he volunteers for

432
00:24:27,082 --> 00:24:30,482
Speaker 2: the French Foreign Legion. My pops had apparently dreamed of

433
00:24:30,522 --> 00:24:31,282
Speaker 2: this too.

434
00:24:31,682 --> 00:24:34,802
Speaker 1: The French Foreign Legion was always attractive because it had

435
00:24:34,842 --> 00:24:37,842
Speaker 1: no borders. The people he fought with were from every

436
00:24:37,842 --> 00:24:41,042
Speaker 1: walk of life in the many countries I mean Peple.

437
00:24:41,082 --> 00:24:44,722
Speaker 1: Harvey graduates people he could not associate with in America,

438
00:24:44,962 --> 00:24:47,322
Speaker 1: people who would never have been in the same company

439
00:24:47,362 --> 00:24:49,362
Speaker 1: with him, and they out there fighting back to back,

440
00:24:50,082 --> 00:24:51,722
Speaker 1: side by side.

441
00:24:51,762 --> 00:24:54,642
Speaker 2: One year into the war. Eugene Bullard is an experienced

442
00:24:54,722 --> 00:24:57,922
Speaker 2: combat veteran, a machine gunner who's fought in trench warfare

443
00:24:58,042 --> 00:25:01,162
Speaker 2: along the Psalm Front, one of the bloodiest fronts in

444
00:25:01,202 --> 00:25:04,122
Speaker 2: the war. He's also at the Second Battle of Champagne.

445
00:25:04,322 --> 00:25:06,362
Speaker 2: All the fighting is horrific night marrish.

446
00:25:06,602 --> 00:25:07,482
Speaker 3: By the the end of.

447
00:25:07,442 --> 00:25:10,042
Speaker 2: The year, the French Foreign Legion loses nearly half the

448
00:25:10,082 --> 00:25:14,602
Speaker 2: soldiers under its command, yet Bullard somehow stays out of

449
00:25:14,642 --> 00:25:19,402
Speaker 2: harm's way. However, in March of nineteen sixteen, Bullard's luck

450
00:25:19,562 --> 00:25:24,722
Speaker 2: finally runs out. He's severely wounded taken off the battlefield.

451
00:25:25,162 --> 00:25:27,762
Speaker 2: Over time, he heals up and eventually returns with a

452
00:25:27,802 --> 00:25:31,322
Speaker 2: new unit, the one hundred and seventieth French Infantry Regiment

453
00:25:31,482 --> 00:25:35,042
Speaker 2: known as Les Hrondez de la mort in English. The

454
00:25:35,082 --> 00:25:37,842
Speaker 2: swallows of death with the one hundred and seventieth He

455
00:25:37,882 --> 00:25:40,922
Speaker 2: fights in Verdun, one of the most gruesome battles of

456
00:25:41,002 --> 00:25:45,842
Speaker 2: World War One. At Verdun, artillery shells shriek above the

457
00:25:45,922 --> 00:25:49,802
Speaker 2: heads of mud and blood covered soldiers and Bullard. He

458
00:25:49,882 --> 00:25:52,962
Speaker 2: gets injured multiple times. At one point his mouth is

459
00:25:53,042 --> 00:25:56,322
Speaker 2: sewn back together, the wound a result of an exploding

460
00:25:56,442 --> 00:26:00,202
Speaker 2: artillery shell. But Bullard, he just drinks strong French wine

461
00:26:00,202 --> 00:26:03,482
Speaker 2: and he fights on. Eugene Bullard kills Germans and their

462
00:26:03,522 --> 00:26:07,282
Speaker 2: allies with a pitiless efficiency. His machine gun in hand,

463
00:26:07,482 --> 00:26:13,362
Speaker 2: he stays busy putting enemy bodies down relentlessly, continuously, battle

464
00:26:13,602 --> 00:26:17,402
Speaker 2: after battle. His bravery is astounding, Yet he does not

465
00:26:17,642 --> 00:26:21,802
Speaker 2: relish killing the bosche that's French slang for the German soldiers,

466
00:26:22,282 --> 00:26:23,442
Speaker 2: As he says.

467
00:26:23,482 --> 00:26:25,802
Speaker 4: If anyone had seen me come out of that shell hole,

468
00:26:26,562 --> 00:26:29,402
Speaker 4: he would have not recognized me because I was white.

469
00:26:30,562 --> 00:26:32,722
Speaker 4: As soon as I was out of the hole, I

470
00:26:32,762 --> 00:26:34,802
Speaker 4: began to feel kind of bad about having to kill

471
00:26:34,842 --> 00:26:38,122
Speaker 4: even a bouche. You see, in spite of all the

472
00:26:38,162 --> 00:26:41,362
Speaker 4: things I've been credited with doing war in the medals

473
00:26:41,362 --> 00:26:45,282
Speaker 4: I received for them, I mustn'tmit sincerely that I love people.

474
00:26:46,202 --> 00:26:49,242
Speaker 4: I never in my life wanted to kill anyone. I

475
00:26:49,282 --> 00:26:51,002
Speaker 4: only wanted to keep someone from killing me.

476
00:26:55,162 --> 00:26:58,482
Speaker 2: That's the same philosophy my pops advocated to me and

477
00:26:58,562 --> 00:27:02,802
Speaker 2: the Big Ox told Eugene Bollard. Now, those medals that

478
00:27:02,842 --> 00:27:06,322
Speaker 2: Bullard mentions so casually, two of them were the Quais

479
00:27:06,362 --> 00:27:10,002
Speaker 2: de Guerre and the metayi Miltea, two of the highest

480
00:27:10,002 --> 00:27:12,522
Speaker 2: honors France can bestow on a soldier for acts of

481
00:27:12,602 --> 00:27:17,922
Speaker 2: valor and bravery. Eugene Bullard is just twenty years old. Meanwhile,

482
00:27:18,002 --> 00:27:21,682
Speaker 2: Bullard now must also recover from the multiple serious injuries

483
00:27:21,722 --> 00:27:24,762
Speaker 2: he receives in Verdunt for three months at a military

484
00:27:24,802 --> 00:27:28,162
Speaker 2: clinic and three more at a private clinic. Bullard recuperates

485
00:27:28,562 --> 00:27:30,922
Speaker 2: at the private clinic. This is where he meets a man,

486
00:27:31,082 --> 00:27:33,642
Speaker 2: a fellow war hero who will change the course of

487
00:27:33,642 --> 00:27:38,642
Speaker 2: his life, a man named Comandant Ferrillino. While recovering from

488
00:27:38,642 --> 00:27:42,002
Speaker 2: their injuries, the two veterans get to talking Comandant Ferrolino.

489
00:27:42,122 --> 00:27:44,242
Speaker 2: He mentions that the Air Service is looking for new

490
00:27:44,322 --> 00:27:47,842
Speaker 2: skilled soldiers to become machine gunners for the biplane pilots

491
00:27:48,162 --> 00:27:52,202
Speaker 2: aerial machine gunners. Bullard wants his chance on that new

492
00:27:52,242 --> 00:27:55,402
Speaker 2: battlefield in the sky. Bullard tells Ferrolino he'd like to

493
00:27:55,442 --> 00:27:58,722
Speaker 2: seek a transfer to the Air Service, and Ferrolino promises

494
00:27:58,962 --> 00:28:01,642
Speaker 2: he'll put in a good word for him. Eugene Bullard

495
00:28:01,802 --> 00:28:04,802
Speaker 2: desperately wants to fly. He even goes and makes a

496
00:28:04,842 --> 00:28:07,082
Speaker 2: wager with a friend that he'll be the first black

497
00:28:07,082 --> 00:28:10,202
Speaker 2: fighter pilot. This is in September of nineteen sixteen.

498
00:28:10,242 --> 00:28:10,602
Speaker 3: Bouldard.

499
00:28:10,642 --> 00:28:13,122
Speaker 2: He goes out drinking with three friends. One friend asks

500
00:28:13,162 --> 00:28:15,642
Speaker 2: Bullard what's next for him. He mentions his plans to

501
00:28:15,682 --> 00:28:18,842
Speaker 2: become a pilot. His friend laughs and then says, you

502
00:28:18,922 --> 00:28:23,722
Speaker 2: know there ain't any negroes in aviation. Bullard responds, sure,

503
00:28:23,762 --> 00:28:25,402
Speaker 2: I do. That's why I want to get into it.

504
00:28:26,202 --> 00:28:29,002
Speaker 2: Another friend he takes Bullard's side. He says he believes

505
00:28:29,082 --> 00:28:32,402
Speaker 2: Bullard can do it. Their bet now takes shape the

506
00:28:32,442 --> 00:28:35,122
Speaker 2: American who reminded him that he was a Negro. He

507
00:28:35,282 --> 00:28:38,602
Speaker 2: wagers two thousand dollars that Bullard will wash out before

508
00:28:38,602 --> 00:28:41,922
Speaker 2: he ever gets a chance to fly. Now, it should

509
00:28:41,962 --> 00:28:43,562
Speaker 2: be no surprise that.

510
00:28:43,762 --> 00:28:46,682
Speaker 1: The Americans who are in France took their bigotry with it.

511
00:28:47,602 --> 00:28:50,242
Speaker 2: Two grand was a lot of money in nineteen sixteen.

512
00:28:50,322 --> 00:28:53,722
Speaker 2: It's the equivalent of fifty seven thousand dollars today. It's

513
00:28:53,762 --> 00:28:57,042
Speaker 2: an insane bet. The white American friend is so duly

514
00:28:57,082 --> 00:28:59,962
Speaker 2: blinded by his own casual bigotry he thinks it's a

515
00:29:00,042 --> 00:29:04,162
Speaker 2: sure bet, a safe bet in America anyway, Eugene Bullard,

516
00:29:04,322 --> 00:29:06,402
Speaker 2: he takes the wager, even if he doesn't have that

517
00:29:06,482 --> 00:29:09,362
Speaker 2: kind of the Next day, though, he puts the money

518
00:29:09,402 --> 00:29:12,602
Speaker 2: down on the table, fronted by the friends who'd believed

519
00:29:12,602 --> 00:29:15,202
Speaker 2: in him. The wager now said it's up to Bullard

520
00:29:15,322 --> 00:29:19,362
Speaker 2: to learn to fly. He bids farewell to his friends,

521
00:29:19,442 --> 00:29:22,802
Speaker 2: and Commandant Ferlino does indeed put in a good word

522
00:29:22,842 --> 00:29:26,682
Speaker 2: for Bullard with the Inspector General of all French flight schools.

523
00:29:28,002 --> 00:29:31,602
Speaker 2: So at the start of October nineteen sixteen, Eugene bowlerd

524
00:29:31,602 --> 00:29:36,082
Speaker 2: reports to flight training at Casalach Airfield. For seven months,

525
00:29:36,122 --> 00:29:38,962
Speaker 2: he trains to be a pilot, and finally, on May fifth,

526
00:29:39,082 --> 00:29:44,042
Speaker 2: nineteen seventeen, he's awarded his military's pilot license number sixty

527
00:29:44,162 --> 00:29:44,962
Speaker 2: nine fifty.

528
00:29:45,482 --> 00:29:46,562
Speaker 3: He can't wait to.

529
00:29:46,522 --> 00:29:48,922
Speaker 2: Tell his friends he's given a six day pass to

530
00:29:48,962 --> 00:29:52,882
Speaker 2: go and visit Paris. Bullard proudly wears his Horizon blue

531
00:29:52,922 --> 00:29:57,482
Speaker 2: French pilot's tunic, his squadroned uniform adorned by his gold

532
00:29:57,602 --> 00:30:02,482
Speaker 2: aviator wings proof he's a true airman, a pilot. While

533
00:30:02,522 --> 00:30:05,242
Speaker 2: home in Paris, he plans to settle up on his bet.

534
00:30:05,482 --> 00:30:07,282
Speaker 2: He meets up with his friends at a bar where

535
00:30:07,282 --> 00:30:09,962
Speaker 2: they're waiting for him. The American friend who'd bet against

536
00:30:10,042 --> 00:30:13,842
Speaker 2: him sees Bullard's stroll in wearing his new uniform.

537
00:30:14,042 --> 00:30:15,162
Speaker 3: He knows he's lost.

538
00:30:15,402 --> 00:30:17,722
Speaker 2: He doesn't even try to argue, he doesn't ask whose

539
00:30:17,802 --> 00:30:18,882
Speaker 2: uniform it really is.

540
00:30:19,442 --> 00:30:20,842
Speaker 3: Nope, he just pays up.

541
00:30:21,202 --> 00:30:23,842
Speaker 2: Now, Bullard's winnings will fund a night to remember for

542
00:30:23,962 --> 00:30:29,442
Speaker 2: him and his friends, and interestingly, the losing better A

543
00:30:29,602 --> 00:30:33,202
Speaker 2: Southern man from America, he says, and I quote, I

544
00:30:33,242 --> 00:30:35,362
Speaker 2: don't like to lose that kind of money to anyone,

545
00:30:35,522 --> 00:30:38,482
Speaker 2: but I am glad that the first Negro military pilot

546
00:30:38,602 --> 00:30:42,322
Speaker 2: came from Dixie. Now, there was an American journalist who

547
00:30:42,362 --> 00:30:45,922
Speaker 2: hears about the first black combat pilot, and he interviews

548
00:30:45,962 --> 00:30:48,882
Speaker 2: Eugene Bullard for a story for the New York Herald Tribune.

549
00:30:49,082 --> 00:30:52,562
Speaker 2: But it's only published in the French language version. The

550
00:30:52,642 --> 00:30:55,722
Speaker 2: story doesn't run in the American edition. It's not a

551
00:30:55,762 --> 00:30:58,522
Speaker 2: story us newspapers want to publish, whether that's in the

552
00:30:58,602 --> 00:31:04,922
Speaker 2: Jim Crow South or not. Sadly, American racism is about

553
00:31:04,962 --> 00:31:07,802
Speaker 2: to reach across the Atlantic to one again limit the

554
00:31:07,802 --> 00:31:12,202
Speaker 2: potential of Eugene Bullard's life, because on April sixth, nineteen seventeen,

555
00:31:12,242 --> 00:31:17,082
Speaker 2: the US joins World War One, and that changes everything

556
00:31:17,562 --> 00:31:20,762
Speaker 2: for Bullard. American racism has already arrived in the person

557
00:31:20,802 --> 00:31:26,802
Speaker 2: of one doctor Edmund L. Gross, an unrepentant racist. Doctor

558
00:31:26,842 --> 00:31:29,762
Speaker 2: Gross was a key figure behind getting American pilots to

559
00:31:29,842 --> 00:31:32,402
Speaker 2: fly for France early in the war, and as a

560
00:31:32,442 --> 00:31:35,842
Speaker 2: part of his advocacy, he's vice president of this committee

561
00:31:35,882 --> 00:31:38,762
Speaker 2: that's designed to handle these recruits, which puts him in

562
00:31:38,802 --> 00:31:41,402
Speaker 2: a position of power over Eugene Bullard.

563
00:31:41,682 --> 00:31:45,122
Speaker 1: That's why he went to France to get away from Americans.

564
00:31:45,602 --> 00:31:47,042
Speaker 1: And then he gets over there and then they have

565
00:31:47,082 --> 00:31:51,282
Speaker 1: an American and he's doing over there exactly the thing

566
00:31:51,882 --> 00:31:56,082
Speaker 1: that may bullet lead America. You know, said the French

567
00:31:56,122 --> 00:31:58,682
Speaker 1: weren't doing it, The French weren't doing it. The American

568
00:31:58,762 --> 00:31:59,562
Speaker 1: came there and did it.

569
00:31:59,962 --> 00:32:02,762
Speaker 2: Yes, it's like, of course, but it's worse than just

570
00:32:02,882 --> 00:32:06,522
Speaker 2: doctor Gross. When the American expeditionary forces arrive in the

571
00:32:06,522 --> 00:32:10,242
Speaker 2: European theater, its officers bring the full force of their

572
00:32:10,242 --> 00:32:14,562
Speaker 2: prejudice and bigotry with them. For instance, the white American

573
00:32:14,682 --> 00:32:17,642
Speaker 2: Army officers formed this all Black Army Division and they

574
00:32:17,762 --> 00:32:21,682
Speaker 2: loan these US soldiers to the French Army for trench warfare.

575
00:32:21,882 --> 00:32:25,002
Speaker 2: The black soldiers are intended to be used as cannon fodder,

576
00:32:25,162 --> 00:32:28,002
Speaker 2: but they turn out to be excellent fighters. The Germans

577
00:32:28,042 --> 00:32:31,522
Speaker 2: their enemy. They nickname them the Harlem hell fighters for

578
00:32:31,802 --> 00:32:35,362
Speaker 2: their ferocity. They earn metal after metal, as well as

579
00:32:35,402 --> 00:32:38,402
Speaker 2: the respect of their French commanders. So now members of

580
00:32:38,442 --> 00:32:40,922
Speaker 2: the US Army reach out to say, that's all well

581
00:32:40,962 --> 00:32:43,722
Speaker 2: and good, but don't let those black boys get big heads.

582
00:32:43,922 --> 00:32:47,282
Speaker 1: The Americans wrote a letter to the other French authorities

583
00:32:47,442 --> 00:32:49,522
Speaker 1: saying that you know, y'all treating these black people too good.

584
00:32:50,122 --> 00:32:52,402
Speaker 1: You know, that's that's not how we treat them in America.

585
00:32:52,482 --> 00:32:54,722
Speaker 1: You know, they're gonna mess around and go home thinking

586
00:32:54,762 --> 00:32:57,362
Speaker 1: that they got rights that we're not going to give them.

587
00:32:57,402 --> 00:33:00,082
Speaker 1: So y'all need to just stop fucking themund with our

588
00:33:00,162 --> 00:33:03,482
Speaker 1: black people. They feed their regular people now now because

589
00:33:03,522 --> 00:33:07,362
Speaker 1: of you all freed them like that, And this is

590
00:33:07,362 --> 00:33:09,242
Speaker 1: how We're going to do it because there's all over

591
00:33:09,242 --> 00:33:11,122
Speaker 1: it and go back home with us. We don't want

592
00:33:11,162 --> 00:33:12,362
Speaker 1: them going home acting like this.

593
00:33:13,682 --> 00:33:16,242
Speaker 2: On August seventh, nineteen eighteen, a memo gets sent to

594
00:33:16,282 --> 00:33:20,162
Speaker 2: officers by someone from the French military authorities. It's been

595
00:33:20,202 --> 00:33:24,402
Speaker 2: alleged doctor Gross was responsible for the memo. Its title

596
00:33:24,802 --> 00:33:29,122
Speaker 2: secret Information concerning Black American troops. Now Here are a

597
00:33:29,162 --> 00:33:33,442
Speaker 2: few highlights. The French public has been accustomed to treating

598
00:33:33,482 --> 00:33:37,122
Speaker 2: the Negro with familiarity and indulgence. This indulgence and this

599
00:33:37,282 --> 00:33:41,282
Speaker 2: familiarity are matters of grievous concern to the Americans. They

600
00:33:41,282 --> 00:33:44,282
Speaker 2: are afraid that contact with the French will inspire in

601
00:33:44,402 --> 00:33:49,242
Speaker 2: Black Americans aspirations which to them, the whites appear intolerable.

602
00:33:50,162 --> 00:33:52,602
Speaker 2: Although a citizen of the United States, the black man

603
00:33:52,642 --> 00:33:57,002
Speaker 2: is regarded by the white American as an inferior being. Now,

604
00:33:57,082 --> 00:34:00,922
Speaker 2: this letter had also cautions against and I quote, the

605
00:34:01,042 --> 00:34:04,402
Speaker 2: rise of any pronounced degree of intimacy between French officers

606
00:34:04,402 --> 00:34:08,282
Speaker 2: and Black officers. So what that means is no shaking hands,

607
00:34:08,282 --> 00:34:11,642
Speaker 2: no fraternizing, no jokes. Now, as far as the native

608
00:34:11,682 --> 00:34:15,882
Speaker 2: French population, that's another stipulation. And the army brass urges

609
00:34:15,922 --> 00:34:19,002
Speaker 2: their commanders to and I quote make a point of

610
00:34:19,122 --> 00:34:23,042
Speaker 2: keeping the native population from quote spoiling the Negroes. White

611
00:34:23,082 --> 00:34:27,522
Speaker 2: Americans become greatly incensed at any public expression of intimacy

612
00:34:27,522 --> 00:34:32,922
Speaker 2: between white women with black men. Undeterred, Bullard takes to

613
00:34:32,962 --> 00:34:36,882
Speaker 2: the sky, the first black combat pilot, soars over the

614
00:34:36,922 --> 00:34:40,682
Speaker 2: French countryside in his Spad seven biplane, and legend has

615
00:34:40,722 --> 00:34:43,802
Speaker 2: it with a heart with a dagger visible from below

616
00:34:44,442 --> 00:34:50,042
Speaker 2: Tutson quiquire erouge or all blood that flows runs red.

617
00:34:51,722 --> 00:34:55,362
Speaker 2: On September eighth, nineteen seventeen, Eugene Bullard climbs back into

618
00:34:55,442 --> 00:34:58,642
Speaker 2: his Spad seven biplane for his second official mission as

619
00:34:58,642 --> 00:35:01,882
Speaker 2: a pilot. His co pilot, Jimmy the capuchin monkey, climbs

620
00:35:01,882 --> 00:35:04,442
Speaker 2: into the cockpit and joins him. The pair are ready

621
00:35:04,442 --> 00:35:08,002
Speaker 2: to be borne back into the skies. About the monkey.

622
00:35:08,602 --> 00:35:10,842
Speaker 2: At the time, in Europe and in the US, there

623
00:35:10,922 --> 00:35:13,642
Speaker 2: was an animal mania, a trend for eccentrics in the

624
00:35:13,722 --> 00:35:16,882
Speaker 2: hip and for avant garde types to keep exotic pets.

625
00:35:17,602 --> 00:35:21,042
Speaker 2: For instance, Langston Hughes he kept a pet monkey. Josephine

626
00:35:21,122 --> 00:35:24,402
Speaker 2: Baker she had a pet cheetah, and Eugene Bullard. He

627
00:35:24,482 --> 00:35:27,842
Speaker 2: has Jimmy the Capution Monkey as his co pilot. Now

628
00:35:28,042 --> 00:35:31,762
Speaker 2: their commander Major Menard, he will be the lead for

629
00:35:31,802 --> 00:35:34,762
Speaker 2: this thirty three plane squadron. He orders the pilots to

630
00:35:34,882 --> 00:35:38,202
Speaker 2: keep a tight formation, just like they have trained. If

631
00:35:38,242 --> 00:35:40,602
Speaker 2: they're engaged by the enemy, there to break up into

632
00:35:40,602 --> 00:35:44,242
Speaker 2: groups of seven or eight planes. Minard pauses at Bullard's

633
00:35:44,242 --> 00:35:47,282
Speaker 2: biplane and he tells him to stick close to his

634
00:35:47,442 --> 00:35:51,082
Speaker 2: side during maneuvers. We must not lose you too soon,

635
00:35:51,162 --> 00:35:54,882
Speaker 2: Bullard or pause. Jimmy will be an often now. Jimmy

636
00:35:54,922 --> 00:35:57,002
Speaker 2: the Monkey he came into Bullard's life while he was

637
00:35:57,042 --> 00:35:59,562
Speaker 2: on leave. He was out drinking in Paris and there

638
00:35:59,602 --> 00:36:03,362
Speaker 2: were card games involved, bets bade wagers one anyway, Bullard

639
00:36:03,442 --> 00:36:06,842
Speaker 2: leaves Paris with Jimmy the Monkey as his new co pilots,

640
00:36:07,002 --> 00:36:13,842
Speaker 2: so Jimmy becomes Bullard's lucky charm. The squadron taxies onto

641
00:36:13,882 --> 00:36:17,202
Speaker 2: the runway. They roar their engines to take off speed.

642
00:36:17,362 --> 00:36:20,282
Speaker 2: When the biplanes catch the wind beneath their wings, they

643
00:36:20,402 --> 00:36:24,162
Speaker 2: lift up into the heavens clouds above and below them.

644
00:36:24,522 --> 00:36:28,962
Speaker 2: The squadron flies in formation. The pilots in their open cockpits,

645
00:36:29,122 --> 00:36:32,202
Speaker 2: their eyes shielded from the wind by goggles which are

646
00:36:32,242 --> 00:36:35,402
Speaker 2: getting coated in that thin patina of droplets of oil

647
00:36:35,442 --> 00:36:39,122
Speaker 2: from the shaking and shuddering engine. They still scan the

648
00:36:39,202 --> 00:36:43,562
Speaker 2: skies for enemy planes. Freezing cold air chaps their bare cheeks.

649
00:36:43,922 --> 00:36:47,002
Speaker 2: It doesn't take the squadron long before the pilots spy

650
00:36:47,162 --> 00:36:51,242
Speaker 2: a group of four German bombers flying low and slow.

651
00:36:51,522 --> 00:36:56,602
Speaker 2: The bombers have sixteen biplanes and triplanes protecting them from attack.

652
00:36:56,922 --> 00:37:00,802
Speaker 2: The French pilots maneuver into an attack formation. Commander Minard,

653
00:37:01,002 --> 00:37:05,762
Speaker 2: he gives the hand signal, and then hell breaks loose

654
00:37:05,802 --> 00:37:08,962
Speaker 2: among the heavens. The quiet of gray skies gives way

655
00:37:09,002 --> 00:37:11,722
Speaker 2: to the ratatat tat of machine guns, the sound of

656
00:37:11,842 --> 00:37:15,322
Speaker 2: hot metal slices through the air, and the canvas of

657
00:37:15,362 --> 00:37:19,602
Speaker 2: the biplanes. Eugene Bullard grips his planes control stick, He

658
00:37:19,682 --> 00:37:22,682
Speaker 2: pushes it, and the plane dives low at the ground.

659
00:37:23,082 --> 00:37:26,122
Speaker 2: When he yanks back on the stick, the biplane climbs

660
00:37:26,162 --> 00:37:29,002
Speaker 2: towards the sun. When he aims his machine guns at

661
00:37:29,042 --> 00:37:32,602
Speaker 2: the tails and fuselages of the German biplanes, his commander's

662
00:37:32,682 --> 00:37:35,562
Speaker 2: words play like a recording in his mind.

663
00:37:35,802 --> 00:37:38,042
Speaker 4: Don't forget that there are always three ways to be

664
00:37:38,042 --> 00:37:40,682
Speaker 4: brought down, or should I say, to lose your life

665
00:37:40,722 --> 00:37:45,042
Speaker 4: in the air. The most dangerous way is by your adversary.

666
00:37:45,162 --> 00:37:48,522
Speaker 4: The second is by artillery from the ground. Then there

667
00:37:48,522 --> 00:37:51,322
Speaker 4: can be a collision. So please watch out for these

668
00:37:51,322 --> 00:37:54,522
Speaker 4: three dangers. If you must collide with someone in the air,

669
00:37:54,642 --> 00:37:56,282
Speaker 4: please let it be a German.

670
00:37:57,082 --> 00:38:00,202
Speaker 2: There are dozens of planes in the skies, some friendly,

671
00:38:00,562 --> 00:38:04,402
Speaker 2: some foe. The biplanes are a violent swirl of motion

672
00:38:04,842 --> 00:38:08,802
Speaker 2: like a flamenco dancers skirt is on fire, only far

673
00:38:08,842 --> 00:38:13,202
Speaker 2: deadlier than any dancer's contortions and spins. Bullard he sees

674
00:38:13,282 --> 00:38:18,962
Speaker 2: black smoke erupt from planes, both friendly and foe. Bullard

675
00:38:19,002 --> 00:38:21,762
Speaker 2: pushes away his fears and any thoughts of failure. He

676
00:38:21,842 --> 00:38:27,002
Speaker 2: grips the trigger and he squeezes, and he squeezes again.

677
00:38:27,122 --> 00:38:30,602
Speaker 2: The cockpit shakes with the ratatat tat of his machine gun.

678
00:38:31,562 --> 00:38:34,082
Speaker 2: Keep in mind, neither Bullard nor any of the other

679
00:38:34,162 --> 00:38:38,162
Speaker 2: pilots have parachutes. They've been invented, but they were cumbersome

680
00:38:38,202 --> 00:38:42,362
Speaker 2: in a tight cockpit, and pilots they're macho figures. So instead,

681
00:38:42,402 --> 00:38:45,682
Speaker 2: a pilot's only hope is to return his plane safely

682
00:38:45,842 --> 00:38:49,242
Speaker 2: to the earth, either with its landing gear or in

683
00:38:49,282 --> 00:38:52,722
Speaker 2: a controlled crash. The trouble with a controlled crash is

684
00:38:52,722 --> 00:38:55,322
Speaker 2: that the plane might flip or roll, and then the

685
00:38:55,322 --> 00:38:57,842
Speaker 2: pilots will be trapped in the wreckage and burned to

686
00:38:57,882 --> 00:39:00,882
Speaker 2: death before they can be saved. Bullard doesn't think of

687
00:39:00,922 --> 00:39:03,842
Speaker 2: any such fiery death, not at the moment, nor does

688
00:39:03,882 --> 00:39:07,882
Speaker 2: he think of the German bullets slicing the air all around. Instead,

689
00:39:07,922 --> 00:39:10,482
Speaker 2: he thinks only of his training and the sound of

690
00:39:10,522 --> 00:39:13,562
Speaker 2: his own machine guns, and the freedom in the heavens

691
00:39:13,562 --> 00:39:16,682
Speaker 2: that he's come to enjoy. As he boldly defies death,

692
00:39:17,362 --> 00:39:20,642
Speaker 2: a French comrade shoots down a German bomber. The plane

693
00:39:20,722 --> 00:39:24,882
Speaker 2: explodes with a terrific boom. The other three German bombers

694
00:39:24,882 --> 00:39:28,802
Speaker 2: have already been down. They crashed behind French battlefield lines.

695
00:39:29,082 --> 00:39:32,882
Speaker 2: Two German Fokker biplanes also spin down to the earth

696
00:39:33,162 --> 00:39:37,362
Speaker 2: and both crash. The German planes send up falls of

697
00:39:37,442 --> 00:39:41,322
Speaker 2: flame and pillars of smoke. Two French pilots are also

698
00:39:41,402 --> 00:39:49,322
Speaker 2: shot down. Bullard, though remains aloft among the clouds. When

699
00:39:49,322 --> 00:39:52,802
Speaker 2: the squadron finally returns to the airfield, a mechanic points

700
00:39:52,802 --> 00:39:56,242
Speaker 2: out to Bullard the seven German bullet holes ripped through

701
00:39:56,322 --> 00:39:59,562
Speaker 2: the tail section of his plane. He's lucky the Germans

702
00:39:59,642 --> 00:40:04,402
Speaker 2: pilot's aim wasn't any better. Bullard has officially been bloodied

703
00:40:04,522 --> 00:40:06,602
Speaker 2: in aerial combat for the first time.

704
00:40:07,002 --> 00:40:08,762
Speaker 3: It will not be his last.

705
00:40:09,482 --> 00:40:14,082
Speaker 2: Five days later, on September thirteenth, nineteen seventeen, Eugene Bullard

706
00:40:14,122 --> 00:40:17,482
Speaker 2: was transferred to a new squadron as a replacement pilot.

707
00:40:17,802 --> 00:40:21,002
Speaker 2: Soon enough, he becomes his new commander's wingman. By the

708
00:40:21,082 --> 00:40:25,362
Speaker 2: end of October, Bullard has flown in twenty successful combat

709
00:40:25,402 --> 00:40:33,482
Speaker 2: missions and he's just twenty two years old. On November seventeenth,

710
00:40:33,522 --> 00:40:37,202
Speaker 2: he downs his first German plane, a try Wing Fokker

711
00:40:37,642 --> 00:40:42,482
Speaker 2: from the famous Red Barren Squadron the Flying Circus. But

712
00:40:42,722 --> 00:40:47,682
Speaker 2: in that same dogfight, Bullard also gets shot down. He

713
00:40:47,922 --> 00:40:51,122
Speaker 2: slams his plane down into a bog. It's a soft

714
00:40:51,122 --> 00:40:54,442
Speaker 2: place to land. It's also wet, so there's less fire risk.

715
00:40:54,882 --> 00:40:57,802
Speaker 2: Bullard survives the crash, but then when he climbs out

716
00:40:57,842 --> 00:41:00,962
Speaker 2: of his half wrecked plane, gun shots ring out from

717
00:41:00,962 --> 00:41:04,522
Speaker 2: an unseen German machine gun, so Bullard drops down and

718
00:41:04,602 --> 00:41:07,482
Speaker 2: hides in the swamp. Then he crawls to a tree

719
00:41:07,522 --> 00:41:13,322
Speaker 2: line and waits for dark. Eventually he hears friendly French voices.

720
00:41:13,642 --> 00:41:16,442
Speaker 2: A fellow pilot must have seen Bullard's plane go down.

721
00:41:16,802 --> 00:41:20,482
Speaker 2: A team of airplane mechanics comes out to save Bullard

722
00:41:20,602 --> 00:41:24,002
Speaker 2: and to save his plane. There are ninety six bullet

723
00:41:24,002 --> 00:41:26,602
Speaker 2: holes in the fuselage, but it's still in good enough

724
00:41:26,602 --> 00:41:29,642
Speaker 2: shape that they toe his biplane back to the airfield,

725
00:41:29,882 --> 00:41:34,242
Speaker 2: and two days later Bullard earns his second aerial combat victory.

726
00:41:35,522 --> 00:41:39,842
Speaker 2: It's November nineteenth, nineteen seventeen. Bullet's flying with a small squadron,

727
00:41:39,922 --> 00:41:43,122
Speaker 2: just seven SPADs and Newport biplanes. The planes are at

728
00:41:43,442 --> 00:41:47,402
Speaker 2: twelve thousand feet high above the horrors of Verdun. The

729
00:41:47,442 --> 00:41:52,642
Speaker 2: clouds are thick and fat, like fluffy, overfed sheep. Bullard's

730
00:41:52,682 --> 00:41:56,482
Speaker 2: propeller slices through one of the fat, fluffy clouds, but

731
00:41:56,562 --> 00:41:59,602
Speaker 2: when he emerges, he's all alone in the sky. His

732
00:41:59,682 --> 00:42:03,642
Speaker 2: squadron is nowhere to be seen. He casts his eyes about,

733
00:42:03,882 --> 00:42:07,602
Speaker 2: scanning the horizon for his comrades. He spies some planes

734
00:42:07,722 --> 00:42:12,162
Speaker 2: flying low about nine thousand feet below him. He wonders

735
00:42:12,162 --> 00:42:15,522
Speaker 2: how his squadron got so low so quickly. Then he

736
00:42:15,642 --> 00:42:19,242
Speaker 2: counts the biplanes. They aren't his comrades. It's a German

737
00:42:19,362 --> 00:42:24,802
Speaker 2: scout patrol. He gauges his speed against theirs. Bullard decides

738
00:42:25,042 --> 00:42:28,482
Speaker 2: he can get the drop on them, descend unseen, engage

739
00:42:28,522 --> 00:42:32,082
Speaker 2: an attack from above, possibly take out one or two

740
00:42:32,122 --> 00:42:35,322
Speaker 2: German planes before they even know he's there. He aims

741
00:42:35,362 --> 00:42:38,082
Speaker 2: his biplane. He pushes hard on the control stick, and

742
00:42:38,122 --> 00:42:42,482
Speaker 2: his plane dives. When he's just about fifty meters away,

743
00:42:42,522 --> 00:42:45,282
Speaker 2: close enough to see the face of the German pilot,

744
00:42:45,962 --> 00:42:51,082
Speaker 2: Bullard squeezes the trigger. His machine gun sprays death. His

745
00:42:51,202 --> 00:42:54,282
Speaker 2: aim is true. The bullets dot the German plane like

746
00:42:54,322 --> 00:42:58,042
Speaker 2: a morbid pointialism. The pilot of the German biplane turns

747
00:42:58,082 --> 00:43:01,162
Speaker 2: to look at his attacker. He catches hot metal right

748
00:43:01,282 --> 00:43:04,922
Speaker 2: in the face. There's a spray of red mist. The

749
00:43:05,002 --> 00:43:07,882
Speaker 2: plane loses control. It twists in the air, turns over,

750
00:43:07,922 --> 00:43:11,522
Speaker 2: and corkscrews down to the ground. Bullard turns his attention

751
00:43:11,602 --> 00:43:14,002
Speaker 2: to a second German plane just as it banks to

752
00:43:14,082 --> 00:43:17,322
Speaker 2: engage him. He fires at the second scout plane. Then

753
00:43:17,362 --> 00:43:20,042
Speaker 2: he yanks back hard on his stick and disappears into

754
00:43:20,082 --> 00:43:23,002
Speaker 2: a cloud bank. The Germans all chase after him, but

755
00:43:23,162 --> 00:43:28,682
Speaker 2: quickly lose him among those fat, fluffy white clouds. Since

756
00:43:28,682 --> 00:43:31,402
Speaker 2: he's alone. He has no one to confirm his down

757
00:43:31,442 --> 00:43:34,682
Speaker 2: to German pilot. Bullard, though, is overjoyed.

758
00:43:34,842 --> 00:43:35,842
Speaker 3: He's done it, just.

759
00:43:35,802 --> 00:43:38,082
Speaker 2: As he was trained to, just as he knew he

760
00:43:38,122 --> 00:43:43,922
Speaker 2: could if tested. When he returns to the airfield, Bullard

761
00:43:43,962 --> 00:43:46,882
Speaker 2: has no evidence of his bravery or his victory other

762
00:43:46,962 --> 00:43:50,082
Speaker 2: than what he carries in his memories. He doesn't know it,

763
00:43:50,122 --> 00:43:52,562
Speaker 2: and there was no way he could know it. But

764
00:43:52,802 --> 00:43:55,962
Speaker 2: Eugene Bullard is about to be grounded, not by a

765
00:43:56,002 --> 00:43:59,962
Speaker 2: German pilot, nor by their anti aircraft guns. Instead, he's

766
00:44:00,002 --> 00:44:13,442
Speaker 2: taken out by his original adversary, old fashioned American racism.

767
00:44:13,642 --> 00:44:16,282
Speaker 1: So he hadn't end up along when the war broke out,

768
00:44:17,202 --> 00:44:20,962
Speaker 1: and instead of leaving, he enlisted. He became a pilot.

769
00:44:21,002 --> 00:44:23,202
Speaker 1: He was a machine gunner. He fighted in the trenches.

770
00:44:23,242 --> 00:44:25,522
Speaker 1: He was law to the idea of the people there.

771
00:44:25,922 --> 00:44:28,482
Speaker 1: He embraced France, but what he embraced was the people

772
00:44:28,482 --> 00:44:32,602
Speaker 1: who embraced him, and that's what he did consistently in

773
00:44:32,642 --> 00:44:33,202
Speaker 1: his life.

774
00:44:34,042 --> 00:44:36,842
Speaker 2: The US enters the First World War on April sixth,

775
00:44:36,962 --> 00:44:40,402
Speaker 2: nineteen seventeen. Part of the war planning includes the creation

776
00:44:40,522 --> 00:44:43,762
Speaker 2: of the US Army Air Service for the expeditionary forces.

777
00:44:44,242 --> 00:44:47,282
Speaker 2: By October of nineteen seventeen, plans start getting put into action.

778
00:44:47,882 --> 00:44:51,282
Speaker 2: American pilots who volunteered to fly for France, now combat

779
00:44:51,282 --> 00:44:55,482
Speaker 2: trained veterans, are considered for selection as America's first fighter pilots.

780
00:44:55,722 --> 00:44:59,402
Speaker 2: Eugene Bullard goes through the required test and medical exams.

781
00:44:59,642 --> 00:45:03,762
Speaker 2: He passes with Flying Colors rated quote fit for duty.

782
00:45:04,202 --> 00:45:07,442
Speaker 2: Bullard's fitness for service also gets tested by any examining

783
00:45:07,482 --> 00:45:11,002
Speaker 2: board that includes doctor Gross, same as all his comrades

784
00:45:11,042 --> 00:45:14,762
Speaker 2: from the Lafayette Flying Corps. When the board recommends pilots

785
00:45:14,762 --> 00:45:18,482
Speaker 2: for service as America's first combat pilots, Bullard is on

786
00:45:18,562 --> 00:45:22,762
Speaker 2: the approved list. But the story doesn't end there because

787
00:45:22,842 --> 00:45:25,522
Speaker 2: to get transferred and to keep flying, a pilot had

788
00:45:25,522 --> 00:45:28,762
Speaker 2: to have an officer's rank, and Bullard wasn't about to

789
00:45:28,802 --> 00:45:32,522
Speaker 2: be given that by the Americans, which means, by way

790
00:45:32,522 --> 00:45:36,362
Speaker 2: of that technicality, he can't fly for the Americans, and

791
00:45:36,522 --> 00:45:39,602
Speaker 2: he's the only pilot to not receive an officer's rank

792
00:45:39,842 --> 00:45:44,442
Speaker 2: from the Americans. He's also the only black pilot, so

793
00:45:44,642 --> 00:45:48,162
Speaker 2: Bullard returns to his old French squadron. He continues to

794
00:45:48,202 --> 00:45:51,482
Speaker 2: try to fly with them. Determined to leave an undeniable

795
00:45:51,522 --> 00:45:55,122
Speaker 2: record as a combat pilot. He doesn't recognize it, not

796
00:45:55,242 --> 00:45:59,282
Speaker 2: at first, but his flying days are nearly done. Bullard's

797
00:45:59,322 --> 00:46:02,442
Speaker 2: duel with the German Scouts was his final mission as

798
00:46:02,482 --> 00:46:06,722
Speaker 2: a pilot. His time in the Skies lasted roughly ninety days.

799
00:46:07,082 --> 00:46:10,362
Speaker 2: He flew twenty five missions. According to his count. In

800
00:46:10,442 --> 00:46:14,042
Speaker 2: that time, he downed two German plains. His official record

801
00:46:14,362 --> 00:46:18,202
Speaker 2: only gives him credit for one combat victory. His legacy

802
00:46:18,322 --> 00:46:22,682
Speaker 2: is cut short thanks to one unfortunate incident. The reason

803
00:46:22,722 --> 00:46:25,962
Speaker 2: why Bullard is permanently grounded is at one level simple.

804
00:46:26,282 --> 00:46:30,082
Speaker 2: It's racism, Yet the telling of it requires some context.

805
00:46:30,762 --> 00:46:33,122
Speaker 2: As the war continues on and the bodies of young

806
00:46:33,162 --> 00:46:36,242
Speaker 2: men from both sides color the fields of France red,

807
00:46:36,282 --> 00:46:39,882
Speaker 2: with their blood dying by the thousands, their lives become

808
00:46:40,002 --> 00:46:42,562
Speaker 2: a sacrifice for the old men who run the war

809
00:46:42,682 --> 00:46:45,962
Speaker 2: and expend their lives in place of diplomacy. Yet there

810
00:46:46,002 --> 00:46:48,722
Speaker 2: are still places where the war feels distant, where people

811
00:46:48,722 --> 00:46:51,282
Speaker 2: get on with their lives best as they can even

812
00:46:51,362 --> 00:46:55,682
Speaker 2: have fun, like this city of lights, Paris on November

813
00:46:55,722 --> 00:46:59,482
Speaker 2: twenty third, nineteen seventeen. Eugene Bullard is in Paris on

814
00:46:59,522 --> 00:47:02,842
Speaker 2: a twenty four hour pass. He and his mechanic are

815
00:47:02,882 --> 00:47:06,162
Speaker 2: free to enjoy the city of Lights, free to enjoy

816
00:47:06,202 --> 00:47:08,602
Speaker 2: a taste of the civilization he and his comrades are

817
00:47:08,682 --> 00:47:11,882
Speaker 2: fighting to protect. After their day in Paris, the two

818
00:47:11,922 --> 00:47:15,002
Speaker 2: men take a train back to the airfield. When the

819
00:47:15,042 --> 00:47:18,162
Speaker 2: train stops in the town of Barladucue, the two men

820
00:47:18,282 --> 00:47:20,802
Speaker 2: get off and they decide to get a hotel room

821
00:47:20,842 --> 00:47:23,802
Speaker 2: for the night. They plan to enjoy a good dinner,

822
00:47:23,882 --> 00:47:27,082
Speaker 2: a night in clean, fresh sheets, then catch the first

823
00:47:27,122 --> 00:47:29,642
Speaker 2: morning train and still make it back to the airfield

824
00:47:29,642 --> 00:47:32,962
Speaker 2: in time for their day's mission. Except in the hotel

825
00:47:33,042 --> 00:47:37,042
Speaker 2: dining room, they run into trouble. After dinner, they're enjoying

826
00:47:37,082 --> 00:47:40,482
Speaker 2: the warm, pleasant burn of a brandy. A French officer

827
00:47:40,522 --> 00:47:44,562
Speaker 2: sees Bullard in his blue pilot's uniform. His gold aviator

828
00:47:44,602 --> 00:47:48,002
Speaker 2: wings catch the light. The officer motions for him to

829
00:47:48,002 --> 00:47:52,762
Speaker 2: come over. Bullard complies, seeing no reason for concern. Bullard

830
00:47:52,882 --> 00:47:55,362
Speaker 2: salutes him when he gets to the table, but the

831
00:47:55,402 --> 00:47:59,162
Speaker 2: French officer demands to know where Bullard stole the uniform

832
00:47:59,242 --> 00:48:04,082
Speaker 2: and his aviator wings. Bullard says nothing. Instead, he waits

833
00:48:04,082 --> 00:48:07,762
Speaker 2: for the French officer to return his salute. Bullard gets

834
00:48:07,842 --> 00:48:11,522
Speaker 2: tired of waiting. He tells the frenchman that no officer

835
00:48:11,602 --> 00:48:14,282
Speaker 2: is worthy of his respect until he learns to return

836
00:48:14,322 --> 00:48:19,562
Speaker 2: a salute. The French officer flies into an embarrassed rage.

837
00:48:19,682 --> 00:48:22,962
Speaker 2: Keep in mind, Bullard is a trained boxer with many

838
00:48:23,002 --> 00:48:26,322
Speaker 2: fights under his belt. He's not about to back down,

839
00:48:26,762 --> 00:48:29,362
Speaker 2: but like his dad told him, he's also not looking

840
00:48:29,442 --> 00:48:32,682
Speaker 2: for a fight either. Luckily, he doesn't have to use

841
00:48:32,802 --> 00:48:37,402
Speaker 2: his fists. A second officer, a major, intervenes. He recognizes Bullard.

842
00:48:37,442 --> 00:48:40,602
Speaker 2: He's heard of the black American volunteer pilot and decorated

843
00:48:40,642 --> 00:48:43,962
Speaker 2: hero of Verdun. He tells the French officer, this man

844
00:48:44,082 --> 00:48:45,362
Speaker 2: is a true hero of France.

845
00:48:45,522 --> 00:48:47,202
Speaker 3: You should be ashamed of yourself.

846
00:48:47,762 --> 00:48:51,002
Speaker 2: The major calms the near fight back down to a

847
00:48:51,082 --> 00:48:55,682
Speaker 2: reasonable temperature. The men all go their separate ways. Four

848
00:48:55,762 --> 00:48:59,082
Speaker 2: days later, Bullard receives a letter from doctor Gross. He

849
00:48:59,162 --> 00:49:02,322
Speaker 2: informs Bullard that his misconduct and quarrel with the superior

850
00:49:02,402 --> 00:49:06,842
Speaker 2: officer will cost him his gold wings. Bullard gets boot

851
00:49:07,082 --> 00:49:11,002
Speaker 2: from the squadron, given an immediate transfer back to the infantry.

852
00:49:11,202 --> 00:49:14,122
Speaker 2: He's ordered back to the front, back to the trenches.

853
00:49:15,842 --> 00:49:19,442
Speaker 2: That's the story Bullard tells in his autobiography, but there's

854
00:49:19,482 --> 00:49:22,002
Speaker 2: a second version of the story, one that his friends

855
00:49:22,042 --> 00:49:25,082
Speaker 2: at the time tell It starts the same Bullard is

856
00:49:25,122 --> 00:49:27,842
Speaker 2: on a twenty four hour pass in Paris. He enjoys

857
00:49:27,922 --> 00:49:31,682
Speaker 2: himself that night, but in this alternate version, the conflict

858
00:49:31,722 --> 00:49:34,642
Speaker 2: happens the next morning. As Bullard is heading back to

859
00:49:34,722 --> 00:49:37,722
Speaker 2: report for duty. He misses the morning train, so he

860
00:49:37,762 --> 00:49:41,322
Speaker 2: starts jogging back to the airfield. He hears a military

861
00:49:41,322 --> 00:49:44,322
Speaker 2: truck rumble up behind him. He hails the driver for

862
00:49:44,402 --> 00:49:48,242
Speaker 2: our ride. The driver pulls over stops the truck. Bullard

863
00:49:48,602 --> 00:49:51,042
Speaker 2: tries to climb aboard with the other soldiers. He pulls

864
00:49:51,122 --> 00:49:55,882
Speaker 2: himself up, but he gets shoved back down. He tries again,

865
00:49:56,002 --> 00:50:00,642
Speaker 2: second time, same result. Third time he tries to climb up,

866
00:50:00,682 --> 00:50:03,962
Speaker 2: he gets a boot. An angry voice says in French,

867
00:50:04,082 --> 00:50:08,042
Speaker 2: we don't want your kind on our truck. Doesn't tolerate

868
00:50:08,322 --> 00:50:11,682
Speaker 2: any prejudice, not here in France. He yanks the soldier

869
00:50:11,762 --> 00:50:15,202
Speaker 2: down off the truck by his boot, and the former

870
00:50:15,242 --> 00:50:20,682
Speaker 2: boxer kicks his ass. Bullard chaoso. He leaves the French

871
00:50:20,722 --> 00:50:23,802
Speaker 2: soldier in the mud, but turns out the French soldier

872
00:50:23,922 --> 00:50:27,482
Speaker 2: in that Ditch is a lieutenant, a rank above Buller's,

873
00:50:29,642 --> 00:50:32,482
Speaker 2: so for a corporal like Bullard to kick his ass,

874
00:50:32,682 --> 00:50:36,242
Speaker 2: he can face a court martial. His commanding officer, Doctor Gross,

875
00:50:36,362 --> 00:50:39,162
Speaker 2: hears about the fight, and he uses this news for

876
00:50:39,242 --> 00:50:43,082
Speaker 2: his own bigoted purposes. He immediately kicks Bullard out of

877
00:50:43,122 --> 00:50:46,482
Speaker 2: the flight program, demotes his rank, and sends him back

878
00:50:46,522 --> 00:50:49,722
Speaker 2: to fight on the front. Both stories end the same.

879
00:50:50,162 --> 00:50:53,762
Speaker 2: Bullard loses his wings get sent to likely die in

880
00:50:53,842 --> 00:50:58,042
Speaker 2: the trenches. We also know this fight in November saves

881
00:50:58,082 --> 00:51:01,482
Speaker 2: doctor Gross from having to justify why Bullard is the

882
00:51:01,522 --> 00:51:05,362
Speaker 2: only veteran pilot from the Flying Corps not approved to

883
00:51:05,402 --> 00:51:09,242
Speaker 2: become an American combat pilot. It seems suspicious, it seems

884
00:51:09,282 --> 00:51:13,202
Speaker 2: obviously prejudicial. But now doctor Gross has a way to

885
00:51:13,242 --> 00:51:16,442
Speaker 2: make all that talk go away, and he can ground

886
00:51:16,522 --> 00:51:20,082
Speaker 2: Bullard from flying with the French too. In one fell swoop,

887
00:51:20,242 --> 00:51:24,082
Speaker 2: he can enact his full racist agenda, no black pilots

888
00:51:24,122 --> 00:51:26,522
Speaker 2: in the sky. And we know this was his goal

889
00:51:26,802 --> 00:51:31,042
Speaker 2: because Doctor Gross said so himself. He writes in a

890
00:51:31,122 --> 00:51:34,922
Speaker 2: letter dated November sixteenth, nineteen seventeen.

891
00:51:35,202 --> 00:51:38,882
Speaker 7: My dear Captain Hoffmann, this bullet dilemma has ended with

892
00:51:38,962 --> 00:51:42,802
Speaker 7: a very graceful solution. Bullard, who is a former prize fighter,

893
00:51:42,962 --> 00:51:45,082
Speaker 7: knocked out a French adjutant, for which he was given

894
00:51:45,082 --> 00:51:48,762
Speaker 7: ten days prison. This leads to his total elimination from

895
00:51:48,762 --> 00:51:51,082
Speaker 7: the aviation section of the French Army and to his

896
00:51:51,202 --> 00:51:55,042
Speaker 7: transfer into the ranks of the French Infantry. Under these conditions,

897
00:51:55,042 --> 00:51:57,602
Speaker 7: you will consider, of course, that he is morally unfit

898
00:51:57,682 --> 00:51:59,962
Speaker 7: to form a part of the United States Army, and

899
00:52:00,002 --> 00:52:02,802
Speaker 7: you can reject him on those grounds. At least one

900
00:52:02,882 --> 00:52:05,242
Speaker 7: doc cloud is dispensed from a horizon.

901
00:52:05,962 --> 00:52:09,202
Speaker 2: And so in January of nineteen eighteen, Eugene Bullard is

902
00:52:09,322 --> 00:52:12,922
Speaker 2: ordered to rejoin the French one hundred and seventieth Infantry regimen.

903
00:52:13,722 --> 00:52:16,762
Speaker 2: Bullard does as a French Army orders, and he continues

904
00:52:16,802 --> 00:52:20,122
Speaker 2: to serve with honor and distinction all the way up

905
00:52:20,202 --> 00:52:25,442
Speaker 2: until the Armistice and even beyond. He's finally discharged in

906
00:52:25,562 --> 00:52:29,162
Speaker 2: nineteen nineteen. He leaves a French foreign legion, an honored

907
00:52:29,202 --> 00:52:32,282
Speaker 2: combat veteran, having earned the highest awards the French have

908
00:52:32,442 --> 00:52:37,082
Speaker 2: for battlefield bravery, the Medaille Militaire and the Quas de Guerre,

909
00:52:37,322 --> 00:52:40,242
Speaker 2: along with many other medals such as the Medaie des Verlan.

910
00:52:40,882 --> 00:52:44,322
Speaker 2: Yet years later, in nineteen twenty eight, when a memorial

911
00:52:44,402 --> 00:52:47,322
Speaker 2: is erected to the pilots in Paris to commemorate the

912
00:52:47,362 --> 00:52:51,522
Speaker 2: Flying Corps, doctor Gross works with his typical bigoted efficiency

913
00:52:51,562 --> 00:52:55,202
Speaker 2: to ensure Bullard's name isn't included on the memorial and

914
00:52:55,202 --> 00:52:58,122
Speaker 2: that his own name is included, despite the fact doctor

915
00:52:58,122 --> 00:53:01,282
Speaker 2: Gross was not a pilot. Plus some of the pilots

916
00:53:01,282 --> 00:53:05,362
Speaker 2: included never flew in combat, others didn't even finish flight school.

917
00:53:05,682 --> 00:53:09,522
Speaker 4: Bullard said, the most pitiful thing I have ever heard.

918
00:53:10,402 --> 00:53:13,722
Speaker 4: The pilots of my time who knew me would.

919
00:53:13,482 --> 00:53:17,882
Speaker 2: Agree, and it was all on purpose orchestrated by doctor Gross.

920
00:53:18,482 --> 00:53:19,882
Speaker 3: But why why.

921
00:53:19,722 --> 00:53:22,642
Speaker 2: Does doctor Gross fixate on Bullard? What does he get

922
00:53:22,682 --> 00:53:26,162
Speaker 2: out of being so petty, so vindictive, so small minded.

923
00:53:27,242 --> 00:53:31,122
Speaker 1: As strongly as I believe that all people are fundamentally

924
00:53:31,202 --> 00:53:35,602
Speaker 1: the same, he strongly believes that white people are superior

925
00:53:36,242 --> 00:53:40,922
Speaker 1: to all other people, and he acts on that. That's

926
00:53:40,962 --> 00:53:44,362
Speaker 1: the whole basis of white supremacy. That they actually believe

927
00:53:45,042 --> 00:53:48,322
Speaker 1: that they are better than the other human beings on earth,

928
00:53:48,682 --> 00:53:52,162
Speaker 1: that they are fundamentally better, They are fundamentally superior and

929
00:53:52,322 --> 00:53:55,122
Speaker 1: different in ways that we can measure, and we can

930
00:53:55,202 --> 00:53:58,562
Speaker 1: show you. I think Gross believes that to as strongly

931
00:53:58,602 --> 00:54:00,842
Speaker 1: as I believe the exact opposite.

932
00:54:01,082 --> 00:54:04,602
Speaker 2: And Gross must make his beliefs real in the world.

933
00:54:04,762 --> 00:54:08,402
Speaker 2: Bullard's success denies the truth that he lives by. He

934
00:54:08,442 --> 00:54:10,962
Speaker 2: can't have Bullard on a memorial or up there in

935
00:54:11,002 --> 00:54:14,682
Speaker 2: the skies. Given the first opportunity, he uses his power

936
00:54:14,722 --> 00:54:17,802
Speaker 2: to ground him. He just wants Bullard beneath him, not

937
00:54:17,922 --> 00:54:23,922
Speaker 2: above him in the clouds. However, Eugenie Bullard still has

938
00:54:24,002 --> 00:54:27,402
Speaker 2: one more turn to reinvent himself and to make history.

939
00:54:27,882 --> 00:54:30,602
Speaker 2: With the war over, Bullard returns to Paris, a city

940
00:54:30,642 --> 00:54:34,362
Speaker 2: brimming with new energy. His battlefield injuries leave him somewhat

941
00:54:34,402 --> 00:54:37,882
Speaker 2: gnarled and bent, unable to be the boxer he once was.

942
00:54:38,322 --> 00:54:42,042
Speaker 2: Yet he quickly finds new gainful employment at a legendary

943
00:54:42,042 --> 00:54:45,482
Speaker 2: place called Zelli's. It's a sort of Parisian night spot

944
00:54:45,482 --> 00:54:49,242
Speaker 2: where artists like Picasso and man Ray drink and carouse.

945
00:54:49,962 --> 00:54:52,482
Speaker 2: After the war, Bullard is working as a jazz drummer.

946
00:54:52,922 --> 00:54:55,522
Speaker 2: That's the brand new music coming out of nightclubs in

947
00:54:55,562 --> 00:54:58,082
Speaker 2: New Orleans and the reefer parties in New York City.

948
00:54:58,562 --> 00:55:01,722
Speaker 2: Over in Paris, the nightclub Zellies is the spot to

949
00:55:01,762 --> 00:55:05,162
Speaker 2: hear that hothouse jazz sound. So Bullard trades in his

950
00:55:05,282 --> 00:55:08,122
Speaker 2: pilot stick for a set of drumstone. Instead of hitting men,

951
00:55:08,402 --> 00:55:12,482
Speaker 2: now he's hitting the drumskins. Years later, when Hemingway wrote

952
00:55:12,482 --> 00:55:15,242
Speaker 2: about his life in Paris Between the Wars, he attempted

953
00:55:15,322 --> 00:55:18,762
Speaker 2: to render for readers the scene inside Zelly's. He wrote

954
00:55:18,762 --> 00:55:21,602
Speaker 2: a character based on Eugene Bullard in his novel The

955
00:55:21,642 --> 00:55:25,482
Speaker 2: Sun Also Rises. The Hemingway stand in Jake Barnes talks

956
00:55:25,482 --> 00:55:28,802
Speaker 2: with a romantic interest Lady Brett Ashley, and she indicates

957
00:55:28,842 --> 00:55:31,402
Speaker 2: the black drummer with the Southern accent, and she says

958
00:55:31,402 --> 00:55:34,362
Speaker 2: of the character based on Bullard, He's a great friend

959
00:55:34,402 --> 00:55:41,242
Speaker 2: of mine, and Lady bred adds, damn good drummer. Bulliard

960
00:55:41,242 --> 00:55:44,762
Speaker 2: was quite flattered to be included in Hemingway's beloved novel.

961
00:55:44,922 --> 00:55:47,522
Speaker 2: It was not his only time in print, though, or

962
00:55:47,562 --> 00:55:50,122
Speaker 2: in a famous book. Bullard also appeared in a book

963
00:55:50,122 --> 00:55:53,402
Speaker 2: by Langston Hughes in his memoir of his early footloose years,

964
00:55:53,442 --> 00:55:56,722
Speaker 2: The Big Sea, the Harlem Renaissance poet wrote about his

965
00:55:56,802 --> 00:55:59,162
Speaker 2: time in Paris when he gets a job as a

966
00:55:59,202 --> 00:56:02,882
Speaker 2: dishwasher and bus boy. It's Eugene Bullard who hires him.

967
00:56:03,122 --> 00:56:05,602
Speaker 2: They work together at a new jazz club called Le

968
00:56:05,682 --> 00:56:08,922
Speaker 2: Grand Duke. Now I knew about Langston Hughes's time in

969
00:56:09,002 --> 00:56:11,402
Speaker 2: Paris since my pops gave me his book to read

970
00:56:11,442 --> 00:56:14,002
Speaker 2: when I was a teenager. An incredible read. I highly

971
00:56:14,042 --> 00:56:17,682
Speaker 2: recommended it expanded my horizons. As my pop says.

972
00:56:18,202 --> 00:56:21,762
Speaker 1: I love when history exposes itself. But the things you

973
00:56:21,802 --> 00:56:25,682
Speaker 1: know show up and unexpected. Not unexpected, because I know

974
00:56:25,722 --> 00:56:28,082
Speaker 1: what happened in that life, but I didn't expect it

975
00:56:28,162 --> 00:56:30,842
Speaker 1: to Just when the name started showing up at the club,

976
00:56:31,482 --> 00:56:36,642
Speaker 1: when the people talking about, like damn, everybody's in that motherfucker.

977
00:56:38,362 --> 00:56:41,042
Speaker 2: That's not an understatement in the least. Bullard works with

978
00:56:41,122 --> 00:56:44,922
Speaker 2: Parisian nightclub legends like Bricktop and Josephine Baker. Bullard also

979
00:56:44,962 --> 00:56:50,282
Speaker 2: befriends many famous black cultural forces like the boxer Jack Johnson. Now,

980
00:56:50,322 --> 00:56:52,882
Speaker 2: while he's working as a jazz drummer, Bullard befriends a

981
00:56:52,962 --> 00:56:56,802
Speaker 2: number of early jazz musicians like Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller.

982
00:56:57,122 --> 00:57:00,322
Speaker 2: They also come to France to enjoy the life Paris

983
00:57:00,442 --> 00:57:04,042
Speaker 2: can offer a young Black American as the years passed,

984
00:57:04,122 --> 00:57:07,522
Speaker 2: Bullard opens his own nightclub. He names it La Escurdrill.

985
00:57:07,642 --> 00:57:10,362
Speaker 2: In English, it means the Squadron. He also opens an

986
00:57:10,402 --> 00:57:12,842
Speaker 2: athletic club, a gymnasium where he can train the next

987
00:57:12,882 --> 00:57:16,522
Speaker 2: generation of boxers and so he can stay in shape himself.

988
00:57:16,882 --> 00:57:20,042
Speaker 2: Louis Armstrong was a particular fan of his gym, and

989
00:57:20,082 --> 00:57:22,162
Speaker 2: for Bollard it was a spot for him to fight,

990
00:57:22,242 --> 00:57:25,482
Speaker 2: but not to make war, to throw punches and stay sharp,

991
00:57:25,962 --> 00:57:29,602
Speaker 2: but for the fight that he always had to expect. Meanwhile,

992
00:57:29,682 --> 00:57:32,482
Speaker 2: Bullard's growing suspicion that the French will once again have

993
00:57:32,562 --> 00:57:35,002
Speaker 2: to go to war with the Germans. It turns out

994
00:57:35,122 --> 00:57:38,522
Speaker 2: to be accurate when the Second World War finally erupts

995
00:57:38,522 --> 00:57:41,162
Speaker 2: across Europe in all of its bloody horror. It is

996
00:57:41,242 --> 00:57:45,322
Speaker 2: motivated by the Nazis plans for slaughter and genocide. The

997
00:57:45,402 --> 00:57:49,482
Speaker 2: Nazi blitz comes fast. Eugene Bullard escapes the city he

998
00:57:49,522 --> 00:57:52,042
Speaker 2: loves and he signs up to once again volunteer to

999
00:57:52,082 --> 00:57:53,042
Speaker 2: fight for France.

1000
00:57:53,482 --> 00:57:54,242
Speaker 3: Now he is.

1001
00:57:54,202 --> 00:57:57,402
Speaker 2: A middle aged veteran forty four years of age. He

1002
00:57:57,482 --> 00:58:00,842
Speaker 2: signs up to serve with the fifty first Infantry. Being

1003
00:58:00,882 --> 00:58:04,122
Speaker 2: that he was a conscientious objector against the war in Vietnam,

1004
00:58:04,402 --> 00:58:07,242
Speaker 2: a man who received his own official deferral from the

1005
00:58:07,322 --> 00:58:09,802
Speaker 2: draft board. I have to ask my pop what he

1006
00:58:09,882 --> 00:58:13,162
Speaker 2: thinks about Bullard's choice to volunteer once again for the

1007
00:58:13,202 --> 00:58:14,322
Speaker 2: obscenity of war.

1008
00:58:15,002 --> 00:58:16,762
Speaker 1: I didn't see where you could have a choice when

1009
00:58:16,762 --> 00:58:19,122
Speaker 1: your nation is attacked. He had been living in France

1010
00:58:19,122 --> 00:58:22,122
Speaker 1: for twenty four years, which is over half of his life.

1011
00:58:22,762 --> 00:58:26,282
Speaker 1: As a resident Frenchman. He had two choices. He could

1012
00:58:26,602 --> 00:58:30,802
Speaker 1: run from the fight or join the fight. And you

1013
00:58:30,842 --> 00:58:32,682
Speaker 1: know that's not much of a choice if you had

1014
00:58:32,762 --> 00:58:35,922
Speaker 1: any heart. And when your homeless attack, you have you

1015
00:58:35,962 --> 00:58:38,082
Speaker 1: can't run from your home. You got to defend it.

1016
00:58:38,762 --> 00:58:41,402
Speaker 1: So I was proud of him, especially in the condition

1017
00:58:41,482 --> 00:58:43,362
Speaker 1: he was in, because he got beat up pretty good

1018
00:58:43,362 --> 00:58:44,162
Speaker 1: in the First War.

1019
00:58:45,042 --> 00:58:47,882
Speaker 2: In June of nineteen forty, he's ordered to defend a

1020
00:58:48,002 --> 00:58:50,802
Speaker 2: series of French cities, and just like in the First War,

1021
00:58:51,242 --> 00:58:57,082
Speaker 2: Bullard is grievously injured on the battlefield. An exploding artillery

1022
00:58:57,082 --> 00:58:59,642
Speaker 2: shell knocks him across the street and against a wall.

1023
00:58:59,842 --> 00:59:02,762
Speaker 2: His boxer's fitness is the only thing that saves him.

1024
00:59:02,922 --> 00:59:06,642
Speaker 2: His back is badly hurt. He's eventually released from service

1025
00:59:06,642 --> 00:59:09,922
Speaker 2: and told to flee France. The Nazis are on their way,

1026
00:59:09,922 --> 00:59:12,362
Speaker 2: and with the Nazis there is no hope the Bullard

1027
00:59:12,362 --> 00:59:16,002
Speaker 2: will be spared. If captured. Bullard now must endure a

1028
00:59:16,042 --> 00:59:20,282
Speaker 2: punishing forced retreat alone. He heads to Bordeaux, and from

1029
00:59:20,282 --> 00:59:23,682
Speaker 2: there he heads south for Spain in the vain hope

1030
00:59:23,762 --> 00:59:26,042
Speaker 2: he can make it to the Portuguese coast and catch

1031
00:59:26,042 --> 00:59:27,842
Speaker 2: a boat back to America.

1032
00:59:28,362 --> 00:59:30,602
Speaker 1: See how that the oldest line place worse than your

1033
00:59:30,602 --> 00:59:37,042
Speaker 1: home is the Nazis. Only way he could be chased

1034
00:59:37,042 --> 00:59:40,562
Speaker 1: out of France is by an uglier force than what

1035
00:59:40,882 --> 00:59:41,442
Speaker 1: was back here.

1036
00:59:42,282 --> 00:59:44,762
Speaker 2: During his escape from the Nazis, Bullard is aided to

1037
00:59:44,802 --> 00:59:47,442
Speaker 2: safety thanks to who he is, not that he's a

1038
00:59:47,482 --> 00:59:50,642
Speaker 2: black man or an American, not as many identities, but

1039
00:59:50,762 --> 00:59:54,682
Speaker 2: rather because of who he is as an individual. For instance,

1040
00:59:54,922 --> 00:59:59,642
Speaker 2: he runs into a former military comrade, the officer recognizes him,

1041
00:59:59,842 --> 01:00:02,802
Speaker 2: he helps him get a US passport, making it possible

1042
01:00:02,802 --> 01:00:05,122
Speaker 2: for Bullard to get the hell out of France. Now

1043
01:00:05,202 --> 01:00:08,642
Speaker 2: some might call that good luck. Not my pops, I don't.

1044
01:00:08,402 --> 01:00:11,562
Speaker 1: Call it good luck. It's good fortune because he has

1045
01:00:11,882 --> 01:00:16,042
Speaker 1: shared himself with everybody he's ever met, So when something bad,

1046
01:00:16,122 --> 01:00:19,402
Speaker 1: that's happening to him, the fact that the existence of

1047
01:00:19,522 --> 01:00:22,402
Speaker 1: so many people in so many places he has helped

1048
01:00:22,722 --> 01:00:25,402
Speaker 1: the eyes on his side that he'll run into one

1049
01:00:25,402 --> 01:00:29,642
Speaker 1: of them, and that's what keeps happening still.

1050
01:00:29,722 --> 01:00:32,722
Speaker 2: The journey is a test of endurance. No longer in

1051
01:00:32,762 --> 01:00:35,722
Speaker 2: the skies, Bullard now must ride a bike out of France.

1052
01:00:35,922 --> 01:00:38,762
Speaker 2: When the bike eventually fails, he walks. His back is

1053
01:00:38,802 --> 01:00:41,882
Speaker 2: painting him the entire time. He eventually makes it to

1054
01:00:42,042 --> 01:00:46,042
Speaker 2: the Spanish border, where he runs into another old French

1055
01:00:46,082 --> 01:00:49,962
Speaker 2: foreign legion comrade, working now as a Spanish customs officer.

1056
01:00:50,202 --> 01:00:52,442
Speaker 2: He helps him across the border and takes Bullard to

1057
01:00:52,522 --> 01:00:56,202
Speaker 2: enjoy a fine meal together. Fit to be Bullard's last

1058
01:00:56,242 --> 01:00:58,882
Speaker 2: meal with a comrade in Europe, it is a life

1059
01:00:59,002 --> 01:01:03,802
Speaker 2: nourishing goodbye. Bullard continues on to Portugal. Within days he

1060
01:01:03,882 --> 01:01:07,322
Speaker 2: finds passage on a steamship, the SS Manhattan. He's part

1061
01:01:07,322 --> 01:01:10,522
Speaker 2: of a desperate wave of American refugees to evacuate Europe

1062
01:01:10,922 --> 01:01:14,722
Speaker 2: just before the Nazis fully take control. The painful irony

1063
01:01:14,722 --> 01:01:17,602
Speaker 2: for Bullard is how despite all that he did, and

1064
01:01:17,642 --> 01:01:21,082
Speaker 2: all of his bravery and all of his service overseas.

1065
01:01:21,362 --> 01:01:24,522
Speaker 1: Back to America's His first experience was bigotry.

1066
01:01:25,402 --> 01:01:28,442
Speaker 2: Eugene Bullard walks down the gangplank of the ship. There

1067
01:01:28,482 --> 01:01:30,602
Speaker 2: is a man with a clipboard there to help the

1068
01:01:30,642 --> 01:01:33,202
Speaker 2: war veterans, give them a little money, get them a

1069
01:01:33,242 --> 01:01:35,322
Speaker 2: place to stay, set them up.

1070
01:01:35,202 --> 01:01:35,802
Speaker 3: With a job.

1071
01:01:36,282 --> 01:01:40,082
Speaker 2: The soldiers are returning volunteers like Bullard, since it's July

1072
01:01:40,242 --> 01:01:43,362
Speaker 2: nineteen forty and America will not officially enter World War

1073
01:01:43,402 --> 01:01:46,762
Speaker 2: II for another year and a half. When Bullard tells

1074
01:01:46,802 --> 01:01:49,362
Speaker 2: the man his name, he's informed he's not on the

1075
01:01:49,442 --> 01:01:53,202
Speaker 2: list and there's no assistance for him. Luckily, another soldier,

1076
01:01:53,242 --> 01:01:56,442
Speaker 2: a fellow pilot, recognizes Bullard and is able to give

1077
01:01:56,522 --> 01:01:59,082
Speaker 2: him a little pocket money to ease his re entry

1078
01:01:59,162 --> 01:02:02,082
Speaker 2: to the US, and so does the man.

1079
01:02:01,882 --> 01:02:02,882
Speaker 3: Holding the clipboard.

1080
01:02:03,642 --> 01:02:07,722
Speaker 2: Bullard's story makes me burn with one question, actually more

1081
01:02:07,762 --> 01:02:12,082
Speaker 2: than one question, multiple questions. One why be a bigot?

1082
01:02:12,082 --> 01:02:12,282
Speaker 1: Two?

1083
01:02:12,402 --> 01:02:15,042
Speaker 3: What benefit do biggots get out of their bigotry? Three?

1084
01:02:15,242 --> 01:02:18,362
Speaker 2: Why do they prefer bigotry rather than celebrate a war hero,

1085
01:02:18,522 --> 01:02:20,682
Speaker 2: a brave American, the sort of man that books are

1086
01:02:20,722 --> 01:02:24,242
Speaker 2: written about and movies are made about if they're white.

1087
01:02:24,842 --> 01:02:28,002
Speaker 1: These people people like gross part of him as a

1088
01:02:28,002 --> 01:02:31,322
Speaker 1: thinking person, a part of his brain has to know

1089
01:02:31,882 --> 01:02:33,482
Speaker 1: that nothing he's saying is true.

1090
01:02:35,442 --> 01:02:39,442
Speaker 2: Actions follow thoughts, and thoughts are motivated by one's beliefs.

1091
01:02:39,642 --> 01:02:43,442
Speaker 2: So how can you change someone's beliefs in their own superiority.

1092
01:02:44,042 --> 01:02:45,762
Speaker 2: I mean, we've tried it for centuries.

1093
01:02:46,042 --> 01:02:49,482
Speaker 1: It's a madness because bigotry itself is a madness to

1094
01:02:49,522 --> 01:02:53,642
Speaker 1: believe that superiority occurs in nature. It's contrary to nature.

1095
01:02:54,322 --> 01:02:56,402
Speaker 1: So when people are claiming it, they have to come

1096
01:02:56,482 --> 01:02:59,442
Speaker 1: up with a set of beliefs and things that would

1097
01:03:00,642 --> 01:03:03,162
Speaker 1: support that shit. I think they did with slavery, the

1098
01:03:03,282 --> 01:03:05,202
Speaker 1: all the shit they met black people in slavery, they

1099
01:03:05,282 --> 01:03:08,162
Speaker 1: knew they were making it up, put itself in textbooks,

1100
01:03:08,242 --> 01:03:10,242
Speaker 1: they put it in bibles. Then they'd go get the

1101
01:03:10,242 --> 01:03:12,562
Speaker 1: book and bring it out to prove what they said.

1102
01:03:12,762 --> 01:03:14,282
Speaker 1: And they put this shit into the book in the

1103
01:03:14,282 --> 01:03:14,882
Speaker 1: first place.

1104
01:03:15,442 --> 01:03:18,762
Speaker 2: You know what, forget the bigots. What of Eugene Bullard.

1105
01:03:19,362 --> 01:03:21,322
Speaker 1: I felt sorry for him because he had been living

1106
01:03:21,362 --> 01:03:24,402
Speaker 1: as a free man in Paris, unfettered, in alive, and

1107
01:03:24,442 --> 01:03:26,722
Speaker 1: he came back here and he had to take a

1108
01:03:26,802 --> 01:03:29,642
Speaker 1: job running an elevator only because he was black.

1109
01:03:30,282 --> 01:03:33,082
Speaker 2: Once Eugene Bollard returns home to the US. He makes

1110
01:03:33,082 --> 01:03:36,122
Speaker 2: a new home for himself in New York, specifically Harlem

1111
01:03:36,362 --> 01:03:39,322
Speaker 2: and a Touch. Ironically, he now has to wear a

1112
01:03:39,362 --> 01:03:43,722
Speaker 2: new uniform, that of an elevator operator. The closest he

1113
01:03:43,762 --> 01:03:46,042
Speaker 2: can get to the skies now is, however, high up

1114
01:03:46,082 --> 01:03:49,522
Speaker 2: the top floor of the building is. Racism has grounded

1115
01:03:49,602 --> 01:03:52,522
Speaker 2: him once more. But Eugene Bullard is a free man,

1116
01:03:53,042 --> 01:03:56,242
Speaker 2: one who lives on his own terms regardless, and nothing

1117
01:03:56,322 --> 01:03:58,882
Speaker 2: can deny or take away his time in France.

1118
01:03:59,322 --> 01:04:01,642
Speaker 1: The reason I admire him is I feel the same way.

1119
01:04:01,682 --> 01:04:05,842
Speaker 1: I've never let anybody define me as anything but a

1120
01:04:05,842 --> 01:04:06,282
Speaker 1: free man.

1121
01:04:07,122 --> 01:04:11,682
Speaker 2: So ultimately, yes, it does matter that Eugene Bullard was

1122
01:04:11,722 --> 01:04:15,122
Speaker 2: black because others make it matter to him. It was

1123
01:04:15,122 --> 01:04:18,922
Speaker 2: something he had to overcome, and he did. As MLK

1124
01:04:19,082 --> 01:04:23,682
Speaker 2: would say, we shall overcome well decades earlier, Eugene Bullard

1125
01:04:23,842 --> 01:04:27,402
Speaker 2: did exactly that, and we should respect him for the

1126
01:04:27,522 --> 01:04:28,882
Speaker 2: content of his character.

1127
01:04:29,362 --> 01:04:31,802
Speaker 1: That's why it was all blood runs red, That's all

1128
01:04:31,842 --> 01:04:32,602
Speaker 1: he's talking about.

1129
01:04:33,082 --> 01:04:36,002
Speaker 2: Eugene Bullard attempted to tell his own story. He wrote

1130
01:04:36,002 --> 01:04:38,322
Speaker 2: of his life up until the year nineteen forty one.

1131
01:04:38,402 --> 01:04:42,042
Speaker 2: He wrote a whole autobiography, but the book went unpublished,

1132
01:04:42,242 --> 01:04:45,042
Speaker 2: and then he lived for another two decades, which includes

1133
01:04:45,082 --> 01:04:50,282
Speaker 2: other brushes with history, one notably involving Paul Robeson. Thankfully,

1134
01:04:50,562 --> 01:04:54,522
Speaker 2: in twenty nineteen, the book All Blood Runs Red, based

1135
01:04:54,522 --> 01:04:58,322
Speaker 2: on his unpublished autobiography, was printed as well. There is

1136
01:04:58,362 --> 01:05:01,882
Speaker 2: a more scholastic treatment, a book entitled Eugene Bullard, Black

1137
01:05:01,962 --> 01:05:05,802
Speaker 2: Expatriot in jazz Age Paris. I definitely recommend that one,

1138
01:05:06,282 --> 01:05:09,682
Speaker 2: and thanks to both books, Bullard's life story is now

1139
01:05:09,922 --> 01:05:13,282
Speaker 2: documented and we're all made better by his example of

1140
01:05:13,322 --> 01:05:19,242
Speaker 2: a life dedicated to being free.

1141
01:05:22,202 --> 01:05:24,802
Speaker 5: Zaren once again, so great to have you and your

1142
01:05:24,882 --> 01:05:26,362
Speaker 5: dad chopping it up here.

1143
01:05:26,482 --> 01:05:28,562
Speaker 1: Pop's killing it. What's the next episode?

1144
01:05:29,042 --> 01:05:29,882
Speaker 5: Get it into production.

1145
01:05:30,162 --> 01:05:32,282
Speaker 2: I'm gonna actually talk to him again. I'm bringing a

1146
01:05:32,362 --> 01:05:35,322
Speaker 2: man to talk about Louis Armstrong and Richard Nixon, so

1147
01:05:35,402 --> 01:05:37,962
Speaker 2: I think you will get to hear him opine about

1148
01:05:37,962 --> 01:05:42,642
Speaker 2: how a vice president could smuggle pot fantastic. Did you

1149
01:05:42,682 --> 01:05:45,122
Speaker 2: happen to cast this one while you were writing it?

1150
01:05:45,202 --> 01:05:45,562
Speaker 3: I did.

1151
01:05:45,642 --> 01:05:48,322
Speaker 2: This was an interesting one because it goes all over

1152
01:05:48,362 --> 01:05:48,682
Speaker 2: the place.

1153
01:05:48,722 --> 01:05:49,642
Speaker 6: Who's your Bullard?

1154
01:05:49,722 --> 01:05:52,602
Speaker 2: That's the main question, Okay, Eugene Boullerd. I thought he

1155
01:05:52,642 --> 01:05:54,602
Speaker 2: had both the soul and then obviously he's been in

1156
01:05:54,642 --> 01:05:55,282
Speaker 2: fight films.

1157
01:05:55,322 --> 01:05:55,682
Speaker 3: Michael B.

1158
01:05:55,842 --> 01:05:56,122
Speaker 1: Jordan.

1159
01:05:56,242 --> 01:05:58,442
Speaker 2: It just seemed like the perfect fits, right, you know,

1160
01:05:58,682 --> 01:06:01,162
Speaker 2: if you can play in the Creed films, and obviously

1161
01:06:01,202 --> 01:06:03,482
Speaker 2: he knows boxing, and then I think he just has

1162
01:06:03,522 --> 01:06:06,002
Speaker 2: the soulfulness and you believe in him. So boom Eugene

1163
01:06:06,002 --> 01:06:08,322
Speaker 2: Bullard for me, for his dad, big Ox. I was

1164
01:06:08,322 --> 01:06:10,722
Speaker 2: thinking Idris Elba, he can do an American accent. He's

1165
01:06:10,722 --> 01:06:13,202
Speaker 2: got the size. You feel him, You're like, oh man,

1166
01:06:13,322 --> 01:06:14,882
Speaker 2: And if anybody like you know, tried to put a

1167
01:06:14,882 --> 01:06:16,842
Speaker 2: spike in Idris Elba's head, I think the audience is

1168
01:06:16,882 --> 01:06:18,602
Speaker 2: going to be immediately on his side, like, oh yeah,

1169
01:06:18,682 --> 01:06:19,242
Speaker 2: mess him up.

1170
01:06:19,282 --> 01:06:19,602
Speaker 1: Interest.

1171
01:06:20,002 --> 01:06:22,602
Speaker 2: So then the other one, doctor Gross, I thought Tim Robbins.

1172
01:06:22,722 --> 01:06:25,362
Speaker 2: I just felt right, you know, like tall actor, kind

1173
01:06:25,402 --> 01:06:27,162
Speaker 2: of like to give him a beard, maybe like a

1174
01:06:27,202 --> 01:06:31,442
Speaker 2: small tight beard, like a Freudian beard. Anyway, Josephine Baker

1175
01:06:31,562 --> 01:06:34,522
Speaker 2: Rihanna seemed like that's just a natural fit for Bricktop.

1176
01:06:34,562 --> 01:06:36,602
Speaker 2: I was thinking Regina King. I thought she could kill

1177
01:06:36,642 --> 01:06:38,762
Speaker 2: it in that role. For LANs to use, this was

1178
01:06:38,762 --> 01:06:40,962
Speaker 2: a tough one. But I thought Michael Ealy, that light

1179
01:06:40,962 --> 01:06:44,002
Speaker 2: eyed actor. I thought he could be good, right, Louis Armstrong.

1180
01:06:44,042 --> 01:06:48,322
Speaker 2: Another difficult one. I thought, finally David Oyolowell. They played

1181
01:06:48,322 --> 01:06:50,402
Speaker 2: doctor King in Selma. I thought he would be able

1182
01:06:50,442 --> 01:06:53,442
Speaker 2: to right, Yeah, And then finally Ernest Hemingway. This one

1183
01:06:53,562 --> 01:06:55,842
Speaker 2: was also difficult. But I think you dye the hair,

1184
01:06:56,082 --> 01:06:57,722
Speaker 2: you tell him, have fun with it.

1185
01:06:57,962 --> 01:07:01,562
Speaker 1: Jesse Plemmons, Jesse Plemmons in anything. I'm sorry, Jesse.

1186
01:07:01,962 --> 01:07:05,202
Speaker 6: You just saying Jesse Plemmons as Ernest Hemingway, And I'm like,

1187
01:07:05,202 --> 01:07:07,242
Speaker 6: I'm watching this movie.

1188
01:07:07,522 --> 01:07:11,122
Speaker 5: See I'm telling you, this feels like a prestige Apple

1189
01:07:11,202 --> 01:07:14,042
Speaker 5: TV show. Let's go, Let's just get you in the

1190
01:07:14,122 --> 01:07:15,362
Speaker 5: room pitching this to the right.

1191
01:07:15,402 --> 01:07:18,402
Speaker 2: People call it all blood runs red Boom, you got there,

1192
01:07:18,482 --> 01:07:21,162
Speaker 2: You go, Hollywood Free gift. Story of a citizen of

1193
01:07:21,162 --> 01:07:23,282
Speaker 2: the World. By the way, I was just in France

1194
01:07:23,322 --> 01:07:25,522
Speaker 2: and I got to say what he described, that feeling

1195
01:07:25,562 --> 01:07:27,802
Speaker 2: of being treated as a human being was still true.

1196
01:07:27,842 --> 01:07:29,922
Speaker 2: I went over there and it was astounding. I did

1197
01:07:29,922 --> 01:07:31,842
Speaker 2: to tell my wife about it because I'm like, look,

1198
01:07:31,842 --> 01:07:33,922
Speaker 2: do you see this? People like normally when I walk

1199
01:07:33,922 --> 01:07:35,842
Speaker 2: around in public, it's like a shark in a school

1200
01:07:35,842 --> 01:07:37,922
Speaker 2: of fish. There's like the bubble of no space or right.

1201
01:07:38,042 --> 01:07:40,522
Speaker 2: It's just like open water and then surrounding fish. That's

1202
01:07:40,562 --> 01:07:42,722
Speaker 2: how I moved through the world. Over there, people are

1203
01:07:42,762 --> 01:07:45,522
Speaker 2: bumping into me, people are stepping on my feet. I'm like,

1204
01:07:45,562 --> 01:07:48,522
Speaker 2: this is amazing. I'm a whole human being. There's no

1205
01:07:48,722 --> 01:07:51,522
Speaker 2: fear in their eyes. So I loved it so just

1206
01:07:51,602 --> 01:07:53,242
Speaker 2: I had to have my Bullard moment too.

1207
01:07:53,602 --> 01:07:55,962
Speaker 5: Well, that moment of your dad telling you for the

1208
01:07:55,962 --> 01:07:58,802
Speaker 5: first time that his dream was to go over to France.

1209
01:07:59,002 --> 01:08:00,522
Speaker 5: That's my favorite part of the episode.

1210
01:08:00,682 --> 01:08:02,722
Speaker 2: Yeah, he never told me that, So I.

1211
01:08:02,642 --> 01:08:05,882
Speaker 6: Also just love imagine being talented enough to be a boxer,

1212
01:08:06,122 --> 01:08:09,522
Speaker 6: a musician and also an aviator and just good at

1213
01:08:09,562 --> 01:08:10,562
Speaker 6: all three things.

1214
01:08:10,682 --> 01:08:10,882
Speaker 1: Right.

1215
01:08:11,242 --> 01:08:13,682
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's a great, inspiring triple threat.

1216
01:08:13,962 --> 01:08:14,762
Speaker 1: Yeah, totally.

1217
01:08:18,322 --> 01:08:21,122
Speaker 5: Very special episodes is made by some very special people.

1218
01:08:21,522 --> 01:08:24,802
Speaker 5: This show is hosted by Danish Schwartz, Sarah Burnett, and

1219
01:08:24,922 --> 01:08:25,682
Speaker 5: Jason English.

1220
01:08:25,962 --> 01:08:27,642
Speaker 1: Today's episode was written.

1221
01:08:27,362 --> 01:08:31,162
Speaker 5: By Zaren Burnett. Our producer is Josh Fisher. Our story

1222
01:08:31,242 --> 01:08:32,642
Speaker 5: editors are Marisa.

1223
01:08:32,322 --> 01:08:33,842
Speaker 1: Brown and Ryan Murdoch.

1224
01:08:34,802 --> 01:08:38,162
Speaker 5: Editing and sound design by Chris Childs and Josh Fisher.

1225
01:08:38,762 --> 01:08:43,562
Speaker 5: Additional editing by Emily Meredoth, Mixing and mastering by Beheath Frasier.

1226
01:08:44,202 --> 01:08:48,362
Speaker 5: Original music by Alis McCoy. Voice actors are Jonathan Washington

1227
01:08:48,562 --> 01:08:52,202
Speaker 5: and Chris Childs. Research in fact checking by Zarn Burnette

1228
01:08:52,282 --> 01:08:57,682
Speaker 5: and Austin Thompson. Show logo by Lucy Quintonia. Our executive

1229
01:08:57,682 --> 01:09:01,362
Speaker 5: producer is Jason English. If you'd like to email the show,

1230
01:09:01,442 --> 01:09:04,442
Speaker 5: you can reach us at Very Special Episodes at gmail

1231
01:09:04,522 --> 01:09:13,162
Speaker 5: dot com. Very Special Episodeisodes is a production of iHeart Podcasts.