Thomas E. Simmons to speak on the Brown Condor for the Mississippi Historical Society Convention in conjunction with MISSISSIPPI’S 2017 BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION!

Tom Simmons has been chosen to speak on Col. John Charles Robinson, The Brown Condor of Ethiopia at the luncheon hosted by the Mississippi Historical Society Convention March 3, 2017. It is being held for the first time on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in conjunction with MISSISSIPPI’S 2017 BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION.

The Man Called Brown Condor is the biography of John Charles Robinson, known in the media of the 1930s as The Brown Condor of Ethiopia. This is the true story of Robinson’s struggles to overcome the racial prejudice that all but closed the field of aviation to Blacks. His outstanding success in accomplishing his dream of flying, his influence toward the establishment of a school of aviation at Tuskegee Institute (there would have been no Tuskegee Airmen without him) and his courageous wartime service in Ethiopia during the Italian invasion in 1935 are brought to life.

It was during Robinson’s service to Ethiopia that he took to the air in opposition to the first Fascist invasion of what would become World War II. This remarkable American Hero may have been the first American to oppose Fascism in combat.