Eugene bullard biography movies

If Hollywood is searching for the subject of the next hit miniseries, the first black American fighter pilot Eugene Bullard should definitely make the shortlist. Eugene "Gene" Bullard was born in Georgia, the seventh of ten children. Wanting a life away from the racism of the American South, and inspired by stories told to him by his father, Gene decided to escape to France when he was 11 or 12 years old.

After several attempts, Gene was able to run away from home without his father catching him. Working his way to the coast via trains and odd jobs, he was able to stow away on a ship called the Marta Russ in Norfolk, Virginia, which took him to Aberdeen, Scotland. From there, Gene made his way down to Liverpool, where he was introduced to boxing and saw it as a means to earn enough money to get to France.

Eugene bullard biography movies: Bullard tells the extraordinary

Eventually the fighting tours brought him to Paris, where Gene finally settled down in the spring of Gene was living in Paris when Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated on June 28, , pulling France and the rest of Europe into world war. Seeing most of his friends join the war effort, Gene enlisted in the French Foreign Legion on his 19th birthday.

During his time with the Legion and later the th Infantry, he served as a machine gunner in the Second Battle of Artois and the Battle of Verdun, where he was wounded by an artillery shell. While recovering from his injuries, Gene met an air commandant who recommended that he join the Air Service. Reporting to flight school as a gunner trainee, Gene learned that he could become a pilot by joining a special squadron of American pilots, the Lafayette Escadrille.