The Lure of Ethiopia

Thousands of African Americans hoped to travel to Ethiopia in 1935 to join its forces as they resisted the Italian invasion. Among these people were Great War veterans, doctors, nurses, and civil rights activists. Logistical problems thwarted these people, however. The Justice Department enforced prohibitions on enlistment in foreign armies warring against nations with which the United States enjoyed peace; the State Department refused to issue passports. Compounding matters, the cost of travel to Ethiopia exceeded the resources of most African Americans or potential sponsoring agencies. Still, in August 1935 Emperor Haile Selassie entrusted the fledgling Imperial Ethiopian Air Force (IEAF) to John Robinson, a Black aviation pioneer, originally from Mississippi. Commissioned chief of the IEAF with a mandate to make it ready for war, Robinson enjoyed good relations with principal members of the royal household, despite language barriers and yawning differences in habits of mind and culture. To the IEAF pilots and ground crews, he gave coaching and encouragement.