James Herman Banning (1900 - 1933)

Born 5 Nov 1900 in Canton, Blaine County, Oklahoma, United States

Ancestors

Died 5 Feb 1933 at age 32 in San Diego, San Diego, California, United States

Problems/Questions Profile managers: US Black Heritage Project WikiTree [send private message] and Sarah Heiney [send private message]

James Banning is a part of US Black history. Join: US Black Heritage Project Discuss: black_heritage

Biography

James Banning is Notable.

Pioneering American aviator James Herman Banning was the first African-American aviator to fly coast-to-coast,^[1] and the first African-American aviator licensed by the U.S. Department of Commerce.^[2]

James Banning, son of Riley Banning and Cora Woods, was born on 5 November 1900 in Canton, Oklahoma.^[2][3] As a child, Banning showed an early aptitude for mathematics, reading, and mechanics, and by his senior year in high school, he was a competent auto mechanic.^[2] He graduated from Favere High School in Guthrie, Oklahoma in 1918, and studied engineering at Iowa State College in Ames, Iowa between 1919-1921. He was running an auto mechanics shop out of his parents' garage, and as a result, his grades suffered; he left school to open J.H. Banning's Auto Repair, in Ames, Iowa, from 1921-1926.^[2]

His interest in aviation was piqued by newsreels of World War I. He began to read anything he could find regarding aviation,^[2] but he was repeatedly denied admission to flight schools.^[1] Eventually he met World War I Army veteran aviator Lieutenant Raymond C. Fisher, who began teaching him to fly.^[2] In 1926, the US Department of Commerce began requiring pilot licensing according to newly-instituted aviation licensing laws. Banning was the first African-American aviator licensed by the U.S. Department of Commerce.^[2] He became a professional pilot, and his flight experience included passenger, mail, and cargo carrying as well as barnstorming; he was the chief pilot and vice president of Bessie Coleman Aero Club in Los Angeles and Arizona in 1929.^[4] By then, he was the most experienced Black pilot in the country.^[2] He became a demonstration pilot on the west coast, flying the biplane he'd built and christened Miss Ames after his alma mater, Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.^[1]

The Miss Ames

Not long after he'd started his piloting lessons, Banning's flight instructor, Lt. Fisher, was killed in a crash just minutes after dropping off Banning on the ground.^[2] Although Banning was devastated and the plane was wrecked, the engine seemed repairable, so Banning later purchased it and had it moved to his mechanic shop. With the help of several mechanically-inclined friends, he was able to build an airplane entirely from salvaged parts. Having not yet practiced landing or piloting solo, Banning sought other pilots to test his plane. But because they knew the engine was from the plane that killed Lt. Fisher, they all refused.^[2] Banning took to driving his plane on the ground.

Each day I would ... start the motor, climb in the seat and ... slowly roll along the ground ... Finally this became the town joke - Banning and his ground plane.^[2]

One day he decided he'd try to fly the plane just a little bit off the ground. But the plane was faster than he'd anticipated, and he had to pull back hard on the stick to avoid hitting a fence.

[T]o my ... intense discomfiture the full power blast of the motor carried me down the field far faster than I had expected and there was a very substantial fence dead ahead. Instinctively I yanked backward on the stick and there I was - in the air alone - forced by accident to solo in a ship which had never been flown before. To my general astonishment, I found myself calm and collected. I immediately became self-reliant. I felt as only one who flies can feel - that here at last, I have conquered a new world, have moved into a new sphere. I had sprouted wings, a rhapsody in air, but the stark realization came to me that I had yet a landing to make!

... Well, the ship flew level and straight almost of its own accord; perfect job of rigging. I circled the field three times ... and started down in an erratic glide ... A minute later the machine settled on the ground with the gracefulness of a bird, rolling only a few feet before stopping. I had made it! I breathed a long sigh of relief and clambered from the ship to the ground, and, immediately, ... a great change occurred. My head erect, eyes to the front, shoulders squared, I was a different man. A full fledged pilot.^[2]

In 1932, Banning embarked on a cross-country flight with his mechanic, Thomas C. Allen. Calling themselves "The Flying Hobos," they flew 3,300 miles from Los Angeles to Long Island, New York, using a plane built partially with surplus parts.^[2][1] They left Los Angeles on 18 September 1932, traveling a southern route over Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma, and arrived at Curtiss Airport in Valley Stream, Long Island, New York on 9 October 1932.^[2] Although the flight itself lasted less than 42 hours, it actually took them 21 days to reach New York, because each time they stopped, they had to raise money to continue the trip.^[1] Old friends as well as new ones assisted with not only fuel, but lodging and meals. They even dropped leaflets for Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidential campaign. After their arrival, they were given the keys to the city by New York Mayor Jimmy Walker and feted in Harlem supper clubs. The Democratic Party completely rebuilt their plane for their return trip. Unfortunately that return was cut short near Pittsburgh due to a snowstorm. They crashed in Blairsville, Pennsylvania, breaking a wing tip.^[2]

Marriage

While on a promotional tour for the Bessie Coleman Aero Club, his plane was wrecked attempting a take-off in Jacksonville, Texas. In nearby Dallas, he met and married Mable Norford.^[2][5][6][7] They may have had one daughter.

Death

Banning was thirty-two years old when he died on 5 February 1933,^[8] in an aviation accident at a Los Angeles airshow. Only four months after his historic flight, he was a passenger in a two-seater Travel Air biplane flown by Navy Machinist Mate Second Class Albert Burghardt. After take-off, the plane climbed four hundred feet and stalled, entering a tailspin in front of the horrified spectators.^[1] He was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.^[9][10]

Research Notes

The only newspaper article found so far that mentions a child refers to her as his 14-year-old stepdaughter, and does not give a name.^{[citation needed]}

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5} Wikipedia contributors, "James Banning," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=James_Banning&oldid=1168253442 (accessed August 10, 2023). Wikipedia entry for James Banning
2. ↑ ^{2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15} Betty Kaplan Gubert, Miriam Sawyer and Caroline M. Fannin, Distinguished African Americans in Aviation and Space Science, (Westport, Connecticut: Oryx Press, 2002) pp. 17-21.
3. ↑ "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MLQX-8SN : accessed 23 November 2021), James H Banning in household of Riley W Banning, Harper, Dewey, Oklahoma, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 136, sheet 1A, family 1, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 1250; FHL microfilm 1,375,263.
4. ↑ City Directories database and digital images, "U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995," Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011 (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 April 2018); citing Chandler, Arizona, City Directory, 1929.
5. ↑ Harry Levette, (for ANP), "Unknown Friends Send Aid to Banning's Widow," The Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Saturday, 1 April 1933) pp. 4 and 7.
6. ↑ Harry Levette, (for ANP), "The Life of J. Herman Banning," The Black Dispatch, (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Thu, March 23, 1933), Free View of Clipping
7. ↑ Voter Registration: "California, U.S., Voter Registrations, 1900-1968"
   California State Library; Sacramento, California; Great Register of Voters, 1900-1968
   Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 61066 #47490825 (accessed 5 November 2022)
   Name: Mrs Mabel C Banning; Residence Date: 1934; Street Address: 1019 E 25th St; Residence Place: Los Angeles, California, USA; Party Affiliation: Democrat. (This is same address referenced in various newspaper articles)
8. ↑ "California Death Index, 1905-1939," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKSM-PWRN : 23 February 2021), James H Banning, 05 Feb 1933; citing 11182, Department of Health Services, Vital Statistics Department, Sacramento; FHL microfilm 1,686,048.
9. ↑ "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVVS-XGC2 : 16 December 2020), James Herman Banning, Burial, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America, Evergreen Cemetery; citing record ID 19180.
10. ↑ "California, Los Angeles, Evergreen Memorial Park Cemetery, Deceased Card File Index, 1877-1989", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:W8DY-55PZ : Fri Aug 04 02:34:39 UTC 2023), Entry for James H Banning, 10 Feb 1933.

See also:

• "Iowa, U.S., State Census Collection, 1836-1925"
  Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 1084 #4503593 (accessed 23 November 2021)
  James H Banning (24), single son in household of R W Banning (62) in Ames Ward 3, Story, Iowa, USA. Born in OK.
• "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHBB-3G1 : accessed 23 November 2021), Herman J Banning, Phoenix, Maricopa, Arizona, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 14, sheet 12B, line 100, family 346, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 57; FHL microfilm 2,339,792.
• https://books.google.com/books?id=B6kSEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1932&lpg=PA1932&dq=%22Pilot%27s+Biggest+Thrill+is+First+Time+He+Gets+a+Chance+to+Fly+Solo,%22+Pittsburgh+Courier,+(December+17,+1932)&source=bl&ots=nXo9yShFdl&sig=ACfU3U22aNY6eaE2vH3xfJVeYzTpUF590w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjwotG9w9WAAxVMmmoFHd79BPsQ6AF6BAgIEAM#v=onepage&q=%22Pilot's%20Biggest%20Thrill%20is%20First%20Time%20He%20Gets%20a%20Chance%20to%20Fly%20Solo%2C%22%20Pittsburgh%20Courier%2C%20(December%2017%2C%201932)&f=false
• "Pilot's Biggest Thrill is First Time He Gets a Chance to Fly Solo," Pittsburgh Courier, (December 17, 1932).
• J. Herman Banning, "The Negro and the Airplane," Pittsburgh Courier (November 23, 1932).
• "Famous Coast-to-Coast Trail Blazer Killed As Plane Crashes in West," Pittsburgh Courier, (February 11, 1933) p.1, col. 4.
• Philip S. Hart, Flying Free: America's First Black Aviators, (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Lerner Publications, 1992) pp. 28-39. (The author is Banning's great-nephew.)
• William J. Powell, Black Aviator: The Story of William J. Powell, (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994)
• "Two Negro Pilots Forced Down in Lower California," Los Angeles Times, (November 2, 1929) sec. 2, p.10.
• Wikidata: Item Q5565401