Franklin Macon, who passed away at his home on November 22, 2020 at the age of 97, was one of only two remaining original Tuskegee airmen.
After lengthy stays at care centers following an illness, he was happy to finally go home to his own house in the neighborhood that he had grown up in as a boy. His beautiful Spruce Street home on the historic West Side of Colorado Springs reflects his career and lifelong interest in flying. Franklin had an amazing family history. The two great aunts who raised him, Maude Gray Macon Loper and Ella Gray Bell, were grandnieces of Frederick Douglass, Civil War abolitionist and acquaintance of Abraham Lincoln.
His aunt Maude married a Colorado Springs resident, Frank Loper, who’d been born a slave on the Jefferson Davis plantation in 1850. After the Civil War ended, Loper came to Colorado Springs to work for Davis’ daughter, Margaret Hayes, at her Cascade Avenue mansion. Franklin’s grandfather, Charles Banks, was a veteran of the Spanish-American War and a civil rights activist who played a prominent role in ending segregation in Colorado Springs.
In 2018 Franklin published a book about his early experience, from childhood growing up in the black community of the west side of Colorado Springs through his entry into the pilot program at Tuskegee Institute. His book, I Wanted to Be a Pilot–the Making of a Tuskegee Airman, is available through Barnes and Noble and Amazon.
In 1973 a Delta airliner carrying 86 people slammed into the seawall of the Logan Airport in Boston, killing everyone on board. Needing to know what caused this crash, the FAA officials made a call to Colorado Springs.
The man they sent for was Franklin Macon, a retired Fort Carson former aviation inspector, who was then working in aeronautical research for Scott Science and Technology in Colorado Springs. Franklin’s follow-up work after examining the wreckage helped determine the improvements needed on landing instruments to prevent future crashes. This expertise was a continuation of the passion that had formed his life.
As a teenager Frank worked in auto mechanics after school and on the weekends, but his real interest was in airplanes. He joined the Civil Air Patrol while he was still in high school and learned to fly. In 1942 at the age of 18 he made his first solo flight at the Pine Valley Airport, that would later become part of the United States Air Force Academy.
In September 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt announced that the Army Air Corps would begin training black military pilots. The War Department chose the Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama, home of the historic Tuskegee Institute founded by Booker T. Washington in 1881.
The military was segregated at that time and this new program was known as “The Tuskegee Experiment.” It was a highly successful “experiment.” By the end of the war, the Tuskegee Airmen had flown 15,000 missions and earned more than 150 distinguished Flying Crosses. Their performance helped break down the common belief at the time that that black soldiers were inferior to whites and were not intelligent enough to operate sophisticated aircraft. It was a step toward integration of the armed forces.
Franklin heard about the flight school at Tuskegee Institute. There were two separate programs–the military program, and the civilian pilot training program. Having just graduated from high school, and with some flight experience as a civilian pilot, Franklin took the test that qualified him to enter the civilian pilot training program.
At Tuskegee he enjoyed his classes on aircraft mechanics, and one day he heard about an instructor on campus who was conducting scientific research in his laboratory.
He made it a point to meet him and began a friendship with George Washington Carver, who kindly answered the young man’s questions. Franklin went to the lab every chance he got though sometimes Carver was not there. He took time for solitude and prayer in the nearby woods. Franklin remembers passing him on campus. Tall and skinny, always dressed in a suit, he’d greet Franklin with a cheery “Hello, hello, hello!”
With all these exciting things going on, Franklin had neglected to call home to tell his aunt he had arrived safely. Aunt Maude was worried. She finally got in touch with a Tuskegee official, and in a long anxious conversation, mentioned that Franklin had never been away from home before and he was only 18. The official, surprised at finding this out, when the minimum age requirement was 20, immediately began the procedure to end Franklin’s residency there, and send him home.
Franklin found himself back in Colorado Springs working as a mechanic. But in July, 1943, Lt. Charles B. Hall, one of the first Tuskegee airmen, shot down an enemy plane and the War Department wanted to recruit more black men for the program. Back at the same Denver office where he’d passed the civilian test, this time Franklin applied for the Tuskegee Army Air Corps training. 18-year-olds were now being drafted, and Franklin was no longer too young.
By 1943 he was back on campus again, training to be a fighter pilot. He passed primary flight training with ease and moved forward to advanced flight training. He wanted to see George Washington Carver again, but sadly, Dr. Carver had passed away in January, 1943, just a few months before Franklin returned.
Franklin flew every day and his favorite part was the acrobatic maneuvers the pilots practiced in “dog fighting.” He woke up one morning with a severe head cold. He knew he should go to the dispensary, but he didn’t want to miss a morning of flying. Happy with his decision, he did a Hollywood-style loop and heard a “Pop!” He had blown out both his eardrums.
Sent immediately to a hospital in Illinois, his recovery took over a year. It included training in radio codes as a therapy to treat his hearing loss. His graduation uniform had been hanging in his closet for a long time, and he graduated in the class of 45-A, but the war had ended. Franklin joked that “Hitler saw him coming and surrendered.”
Back in Colorado Springs, disappointed but still passionate over anything dealing with flight, Franklin began a 23-year civil service career at Fort Carson, supervising maintenance operations, and servicing, repairing, and inventing modifications for aircraft, including helicopters. His experience with diagnosing problems led to his post-retirement job with the research group, and being called by the FAA from time to time to investigate crashes.
In his ’80s and ’90s Franklin, still and healthy and robust, began speaking to college classes, including Air Force Academy cadets. He visited schools, particularly those for students with learning challenges. He had dyslexia as a child and found reading difficult and demoralizing. This disability was undiagnosed and untreated at the time, but Franklin persevered, and was able to succeed. Dyslexia did not stop him from graduating from high school and receiving a diploma from Tuskegee Institute. His ear injury, even though it ended his dream of being a fighter pilot, did not stop him from a lifetime of work in the flight industry.
On May 10, 2018, at Afflerbach Elementary School in Cheyenne, Wyoming, he ended his visit as he usually did—a thank you for inviting him, a pause, and then a firm command: “Don’t Give Up—If I can do it, then you can, too.”
Franklin will be buried at the Air Force Academy in a private ceremony. A public celebration of his life will be held in Colorado Springs after the threat of Covid 19 is over.
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Lucy Bell’s 35-year teaching career included over twenty years as a writing consultant. Her latest book, Coming Up, A Boy’s Adventures in 1940s Colorado Springs, combines narrative non-fiction with the history of the black community of Colorado Springs. It features rare historical photographs and the watercolor illustrations of Linda Martin. Release date: October 14, 2018. Her children’s novel, Molly and the Cat Who Stole Her Tongue, published in 2016, is available at Poor Richard’s Bookstore, Colorado Springs and Amazon.
