When famine struck the country in the early ’70s, Communist propaganda circulated by Communist sympathizers led Ethiopians to increasingly blame Haile Selassie and his government. In 1974 a group of young officers formed a Soviet-backed Marxist-Leninist junta led by Mengistu Haile Mariam. They deposed Haile Selassie in humiliating fashion, imprisoned him and his closest family members, executed over sixty of Selassie’s family members, ministers, and military leaders, and established a one-party Communist state government called the Derg. No word whatsoever concerning the emperor was made public. Haile Selassie died under questionable circumstances. In a press release, the Derg stated the emperor had died of a heart attack while walking in a palace garden and there would be a private burial.
Under Mengistu, hundreds of thousands died during the Red Terror conducted by the Derg with direct military action and the use of hunger as a weapon. Cuban troops of Fidel Castro and Soviet-supplied military hardware were used to help Mengistu put down an uprising in what was called the Ogden War. (During that period, Count Gustaf von Rosen, who some years before had left Ethiopia for other adventures, was killed on the ground by guerrilla fighters near the Sudan border.)
In 1990 the collapse of the Soviet Union meant the end of Soviet support to the Derg. In 1991 Mengistu fled the country and found asylum in Zimbabwe. After a long trial in the High Court of Ethiopia that began in 1994 and ended in 2006, thousands of witnesses were called to testify; more than five thousand former members of the Derg were indicted. Mengistu and seventeen of his officers were convicted of genocide and sentenced to death. Ethiopia is conducting an ongoing, so far unsuccessful effort to have Mengistu extradited from Zimbabwe.
Information about the fate of Haile Selassie emerged after the fall of the Soviet-backed Communist Derg government. In 1992 during renovation of the palace, the body of Haile Selassie was found under a toilet facility where it had been thrown as a last gross insult by the Marxist regime. It is said to have been revealed by witnesses that Haile Selassie was tortured, then garroted in the basement of the palace on August 22, 1975. His remains were recovered and later buried with dignity and ceremony at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa. Haile Selassie, who ruled Ethiopia for forty-four years, during which time he worked to modernize his ancient nation, will best be remembered for his impassioned speech before the League of Nations in 1936 which ended with the warning, “It is us today. It will be you tomorrow,” words that rang hauntingly true three short years later, when Fascist Germany and Communist Russia crossed Poland’s border and unleashed World War II.
With the fall of Mengistu’s Communist government, relations with the United States and the United Nations were re-established. In 1994 under a new constitution, Ethiopia held its first multi-party elections to establish a federal republic. The people of Ethiopia continue to work toward modern economic development, world trade, and tourism. Mountainous terrain and lack of good roads still make land transportation difficult, but the Ethiopian Airlines John Robinson helped establish has one of the safest records of any airline. It serves thirty-eight domestic airfields and forty-two international destinations.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The history of John Charles Robinson presented herein has been gathered by the author during an often difficult trail of investigation and original research stretching some thirty years. It is difficult to resurrect the history of any long forgotten hero. It is particularly challenging to piece together the history of a forgotten hero whose story never appeared in history books, an American hero who successfully pursued his seemingly impossible dream only to have his extraordinary achievements lost in chaos as war followed war in terrible succession, a hero who was black in the age of segregation.
Scores of the details within this book came from the contributions of individuals who knew John Robinson firsthand—while some of them are now deceased, I wish to pay tribute to them here. I am ever grateful to the following: Miomi Godine (who was the first to confirm to me that an African American pilot of the 20s and 30s named Robinson grew up in Gulfport, Mississippi—it was the beginning); Mrs. Bertha Stokes, Col. Robinson’s sister of Queens, New York, an essential source; John Stokes and Andrew Stokes, Robinson’s nephews whose recollections, photographs, and priceless recorded interviews with his contemporaries contributed greatly to this work; Al Key, record-setting Mississippi aviator; Cornelius Coffey, a partner in Robinson’s school of aviation; Harold Hurd and Janet Waterford Bragg, both students and friends of Robinson; Inniss Ford and her son, Yosef Ford, who first met Robinson in Ethiopia; “Chief ” Alfred Anderson, head of the school of Aviation at Tuskegee Institute; Harry Tartt and Katie Booth, who looked up to Robinson during school days in Gulfport; General Noel F. Parrish, Ret.; Curtis Graves of NASA who arranged interviews that otherwise might not have been open to me; Pick Firmin, former editor of the Sun Herald newspaper; and Tyrone Haymore, who helped organize the Robbins Illinois Historical Society and Museum.
Of special recognition is Jim Cheeks, a pilot who served with Robinson training Army Air Corps aviation mechanics at several bases in the United States and later flew with him in Ethiopia. Jim’s input and photographs were primary sources for recording Col. Robinson’s return to Ethiopia during World War II at Haile Selassie’s request.
My friend and fellow flyer, Roland Weeks, retired publisher of the Sun Herald newspaper, arranged unlimited access of the microfiche archives of Robinson’s hometown newspaper, the Gulfport/Biloxi Sun Herald, for the years 1935 and 1936. It was necessary to scan every page of every day of the paper for those years to find articles on Robinson. Though the paper did provide, with some pride, articles of his adventures during the Italo-Ethiopian War and his homecoming, one had to search the back pages to find them.
Additional institutions that supported my research include the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum (special thanks to Von Hardesty and Dominick Pisano); the National Archives; the Library of Congress; the Tuskegee University Library; the Chicago Defender Archives; the libraries of Harrison County and the University of Southern Mississippi.
No author’s finished work stands as his or hers alone. The idea, the words, the style are more or less his or hers. But the finished book—tidy, free of awkward structure, grammatical errors, lapses in syntax, all the things that make a book acceptable to the reader—is aided by editors whose work often goes unsung. I hereby sing the praises of my editors, Jennifer McCartney and Herman Graf. Finally, this work may well have languished unread without the faith and hard work of my agent and friend, Jeanie Pantelakis.
I owe a debt of thanks to all the individuals and institutions listed above. I also thank my wife Kay, the love of my life, for her support and patience in putting up with cantankerous me and two no-account dogs.
Bibliography
(It should be remembered that the author did years of original research when there was very little printed information available on John C. Robinson. Much of the information gathered on Robinson was by personal interviews conducted by myself and by others on recorded cassette tapes at my request.)
National Archives
Library of Congress
Smithsonian Air and Space Museum
Archives of the Gulfport-Biloxi Daily Herald for the years 1934 through 1936.
Archives of the American Negro Press (ANP) for the years 1934 through 1936
The Tuskegee Messenger, Tuskegee, Alabama
Montgomery Advertiser, Montgomery, Alabama
The Chicago Defender Archives
The Associated Press (AP) 1935/36
The Evening Star, Washington, D.C.
Kansas City Call
Pittsburgh Courier
Hollis Burke Frissell Library, Tuskegee Institute, Alabama
Tuskegee University Library
Light Plane Guide, Vol. I, No. III, 1965
Travel & Leisure, Vol. 4, No. 1, 1965
World War II, Vol. 4, No. 4, October 1975
The Negro in American History, by the Board of Educat
ion, City of New York, 1965
The Ethiopian War by Angelo Del Boca, 1965
Rape of Ethiopia by A. J. Barker, 1936, Balantine
The Italian Invasion of Abyssinia by David Nicholle, 1997, Osprey
Haile Selassie’s War by Anthony Mockler 1984, Random House
The Coming of the Italian-Ethiopian War, George W. Baer, 1967, Harvard University Press
CIA The World Fact Book, Ethiopia
TIME, Monday, May 11, 1936; Monday, May 18, 1936
Pan African Journal, Vol. V, No. 1, Spring 1972
US Department of State, Notes on Ethiopia
Various newsreel films of Italo-Ethiopian War available on the Internet (Italian, British, Dutch, Swedish, etc.)
The Italian film Lo Squadrone Bianco, 1936, directed by Augusto Genina
The Italian film Il Cammino Della Heros, 1937
Photo Credit: T. Simmons
House at 1905 31st Ave. Gulfport, Mississippi, in which John C. Robinson grew up.
Photo Credit: John Collins
John C. Robinson (far left) with teenage friends. The boys had just swam across the harbor to impress the girls.
Photo Credit: Chicago Defender via Robins History Museum
Janet Waterford-Bragg (right, in flying clothes) who lent Robinson her plane to fly to Tuskegee Institute.
Photo Credit: Harold Hurd Collection
Robinson is welcomed by President Moton and Dr. Patterson of Tuskegee after landing on the campus in 1933 to promote the idea of a Tuskegee school of aviation.
Photo Credit: Thornton Studios, Chicago /Smithsonian Air and Space Museum
Airport at Robbins, Illinois, that Robinson helped found. Robinson is at far right.
Photo Credit: Chicago Defender
Curtis Wright Aviation School. Robinson became an instructor there after graduating from their flying school.
Imperial flag of Ethiopia, 1935
Fascist flag of Italy, 1935
Ethiopian Imperial Air Force aircraft roundel insignia
Photo Credit: T. Simmons Collection
John C. Robinson, as a Captain in the Imperial Ethiopian Air Force (second from left), with French pilots hired by Emperor Haile Selassie.
Photo Credit: T. Simmons Collection
Robinson (left) with French pilots hired by Emperor Haile Selassie. Note the Potez 25 biplane in background.
Photo Credit: John Stoke
Photo Credit: Gwendolyn Woods
Photo Credit: Harold Hurd Collection
Col. Robinson standing beside Junkers W33c transport. Note the Imperial Lion of Judah insignia on side of the aircraft.
Photo Credit: Harold Hurd Collection
Col. Robinson prior to takeoff in Junkers W33c transport.
Photo Credit: Smithsonian Air and Space Museum
Potez 25 aircraft like the one Col. Robinson flew on patrol
Italian IMAN RO 37 Used by Regia Aeronautica Italiana (Italian Air Force) in Ethiopia.
Sovoia-Marchetti SM 81 bomber.
IMAN RO 37 hunting targets of opportunity over Ethiopia.
Photo credit: T. Simmons Collection
Col. Robinson giving flight orders to Ethiopian pilots.
Italian Army CV 33 Tanketts used in Ethiopia.
Col. Robinson with Beechcraft model B17R Stagerwing in which he flew Emperor Haile Selassie between Addis Ababa and his front lines.
Col. Robinson returning to the U.S. aboard the North German Lloyd Lines ship, Europa.
Photo credit: International News Photo
Col. Robinson aboard the North German Lloyd Lines ship, Europa.
Photo Credit: Chicago Daily Tribune
Col. Robinson stepping from Transcontinental and Western Air (TWA) DC 3 at Chicago to a welcome by members of the Challenger Air Pilots Association which he helped organize. His friend Cornelius Coffey is at lower left.
Photo credit: Chicago Defender
Photo taken from the balcony of the Grand Hotel at the intersection of 15th and South Park Avenue. An estimated 20,000 people turned out to hail their hero, Col. Robinson, who was standing on the balcony.
Col. Robinson’s new Stinson SR Reliant. Mrs. Malone, founder of Poro College, stands beside the plane waiting to begin a tour of several cities to promote her cosmetic products.
Col. Robinson in Gulfport with his Cadillac convertible.
Photo credit: John Stokes
Col. Robinson in his commercial pilot uniform at an Army Headquarters flight line shack.
Photo credit: Jim Cheeks
Col. Robinson with his chosen American cadre of pilots to begin training a new Ethiopian Air Force. The group at their villa in Addis Ababa. Standing L to R: Jim Cheeks, Ed Jones, Haile Hill and Joe Muldrow. Front: L to R: Andy Hester, Col. Robinson.
Photo credit: Jim Cheeks
Starting engines after complete overhaul on a U. S. surplus Cessna UC 78.
Photo credit: South Mississippi Living Magazine
Col. Robinson with an English Army sergeant at the airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 1944.
Photo Credit: Jim Cheeks
Jim Cheeks standing by the tail of the Cessna UC 78. Note the Ethiopian roundel on the fuselage.
Photo Credit: Jim Cheeks
The first class of flight cadets trained in the UC 78, the only plane available at the time.
Photo Credit: John Stokes
Colonel John C. Robinson beside the first Ethiopian Air Line DC-3.
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