The Flight of Jesse Leroy Brown (Bluejacket Books)
by Theodore Taylor
On This Page
Description
This biography of America's first African American naval aviator is a "compelling portrait of a quiet hero [and] the racial climate between 1926 and 1959" (Booklist). "In the late 1940s, when every aspiring black pilot had heard of the army's Tuskegee program, Jesse Leroy Brown set his sights on becoming a navy aviator. An outstanding student and top athlete, the 17-year-old's ambition was met with a combination of incredulity and resistance. Yet, at a time when Jim Crow laws were rampant, show more Brown managed to break the color barrier to become the first black U.S. Navy pilot. Taylor puts his considerable narrative skills to good use in tracing Brown's path from his youth in poverty-stricken Palmer's Crossing, Miss., to his eventual induction into the heady and dangerous world of carrier aviation. Taylor based much of his research on interviews with those who knew Brown and on personal letters from more than a half-century ago [and] doesn't skimp on the indignities Brown suffered. . . . An engaging and intimate glimpse of a young pioneer who desperately wanted to earn his aviator's wings." --Publishers Weekly "More than a biography, this is a thrilling story of naval aviation and combat." --School Library Journal show lessTags
Recommendations
Members
- Recently Added By
Author Information
51+ Works 10,574 Members
Author Theodore Taylor was born in Statesville, North Carolina on June 23, 1921. At the age of seventeen, he became a copyboy at the Washington, D. C. Daily News and was writing radio network sports for NBC in New York two years later. During World War II, he joined the merchant marines and earned a commission as an ensign in the U. S. Navy. He show more was recalled to active duty during the Korean War. In 1955, he became a press agent for Paramount Pictures and later became a story editor and an associate producer. He has written over fifty fiction and non-fiction books for young adults and adults. He has received numerous awards for his works including the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award for The Cay, the 1992 Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best Young Adult Mystery for The Weirdo, and the 1996 Scott O'Dell Award for historical fiction for The Bomb. He died on October 26, 2006. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 34
- Popularity
- 839,380
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
- ASINs
- 2
