Hubert Julian

The Black Eagle of Harlem is a documentary by independent filmmaker Billy Tooma. It covers Julian's life from his birth in Trinidad to his adventures in Harlem, Ethiopia, and everywhere between. It saw its world premiere on 24 June 2017, at the Aviation Hall of Fame & Museum of New Jersey.

Julian spent his retirement meeting the likes of Muhammad Ali and appearing on The Merv Griffin Show and The Tonight Show. He died in 1983 and was buried at Calverton National Cemetery in Suffolk County, New York.

Hubert Julian was married three times. His first marriage, which lasted only a few years, was to Edna Powell. His second marriage, his longest, was to Essie Gittens, whom he had known while growing up in Trinidad. They raised a young orphaned cousin of Essie's, a girl named Olga, as their own. His third marriage, after Essie died, was to a woman named Doreen, who gave birth to Julian's only biological child, Mark Anthony Bernard Julian, in July 1971.

In 1962 during the civil strife in the Congo, he was arrested by UN troops in Elisabethville on suspicion of trying to smuggle arms to his old friend, Katangan leader Moise Tshombe.

After the end of World War II Julian become a licensed arms dealer. His first contract was with the Arbenz government of Guatemala. He defied the FBI when, after being asked to cease his dealings, Julian continued selling. His second contract was with the Batista government of Cuba as it tried, and ultimately failed, to combat Fidel Castro's revolutionaries. His third, and final, contract was with Moise Tshombe, leader of Katanga during the Congo Secession Crisis of the early 1960s. Julian was detained by United Nations forces for questioning and was in the end jailed for four months before being released. He retired upon his return to the United States.

He moved back to the US in 1951, buying an apartment building in New York City and becoming a registered arms dealer.

In the 1948 elections Julian worked for Democrat Harry S. Truman to get out the black vote, and was later sent by Truman to Berlin to investigate reports of discrimination against black US troops during the Berlin Airlift.

In 1940, when Finland was attacked by the Soviet Union, Julian flew to that country and was soon appointed a captain in the Finnish Air Force and placed in charge of a squadron of fighter planes that fought the Russians. When the US entered World War II Julian joined the Army Air Corps and asked to be posted to a fighter unit, but the army considered him too old for combat duty and released him to take a job at the Ford Motor Co. aircraft plant in Willow Run, Michigan. When the war ended he was given a job by his old friend Haile Sealassie as president of Ethiopian Airlines.

He dabbled briefly in the film business, producing two movies in conjunction with pioneer black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux: The Notorious Elinor Lee (1940) and Lying Lips (1939). He also got into the gold business, as a broker for foreign interests wanting to purchase US gold.

He maintained his relationship with Selassie, to the extent that he was made a colonel in the Ethiopian Air Force and Military Governor of Ethiopia when that country was invaded by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's forces in 1939.

He was even the personal pilot for the black religious leader Father Divine in 1932.

During the first half of the 1930s, Julian made three trips to the Ethiopian Empire. It was during his second visit when he crashed Haile Selassie's favorite plane, causing the emperor to ask Julian to leave his kingdom. But the Black Eagle would return on the eve of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, gaining a military commission to help defend the African kingdom. It was during this third trip when he would come to blows with John C. Robinson, the Brown Condor of Chicago, over jabs in the press which Julian attributed to Robinson. Once it became clear that the forces of Fascist Italy would prevail, Julian left the country. Julian returned to Ethiopia as a volunteer in the East African Campaign of 1940-41.

In 1924 he announced his intention to fly from New York to Africa. He didn't get any farther than Flushing Bay, into which his plane crashed, but the attempt made him world-famous and resulted in his being dubbed "The Black Eagle". For the next several years he made a living putting on airborne stunt shows. He made the acquaintance of a string of world leaders and celebrities, including Marcus Garvey and Ethiopian ruler Haile Selassie.

In 1922 he entered the Long Island Air Show, and became the first African-American to parachute from a plane over New York City.

Julian would try twice more to pilot a transatlantic flight before the 1920s came to end. The first of these two attempts ended when his plane's wings were vandalized by unknown assailants while they were being stored in Happyland Park. The second, and final, attempt saw New York State Senator A. Spencer Feld take the helm of the endeavor, but after Amelia Earhart crossed the Atlantic Ocean, Julian felt dismayed at the prospect of performing something that had now been done by more than a handful of others and canceled the project.

His parents packed him off to boarding school in England, but at the outbreak of World War I he was sent to Canada, and entered the US in 1918. Having always been interested in aviation, he had developed a device that resembled a cross between a helicopter and a parachute and wanted to get a US patent for it. The patent was granted, but the device was never developed any further. While promoting this invention he was given flying lessons.

Hubert Fauntleroy Julian was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, in 1897. His father, Henry, was a cocoa plantation manager in Toco. Julian caught his first glimpse of an airplane on 3 January 1913, when Frank Boland performed an exhibition flight, ultimately crashing and dying. The shock of the crash stayed with Julian who, after World War I, left his island home for Canada. There, in November 1920, he flew for the first time during a joyride with Canadian flying ace Billy Bishop. Shortly after this he designed and patented what was labeled an "Aeroplane Safety Appliance."

Hubert Julian was born into a wealthy family -- his father was a plantation owner -- in Trinidad, West Indies, in 1897.