Tweet-A-Leet @MzTweeta2u - Twitter Profile

Tweet-A-Leet @MzTweeta2u

3 days ago

This needs to be a movie.

AFRICAN & BLACK HISTORY

@AfricanArchives

4 days ago

Eugene Jacques Bullard, 'Black Swallow of Death'. When the President of France visited the U.S. in April 1960, he asked the FBI to help him find a man. He was looking for a 64-year-old American citizen who was awarded 15 French military decorations and was made a Knight of the Légion d'honneur, the highest civilian honor France can give. A true French hero. The FBI found the man operating the elevator at Rockefeller Center in New York. His name was Eugene Bullard. He ran away from Columbus, Georgia, at 11, after watching a white mob nearly lynch his father. At 16, he stowed away on a German freighter and landed in Aberdeen, Scotland. By 18, he was prizefighting in Paris. When Germany invaded France in August 1914, Bullard, an American citizen, went to the recruiting office on October 19, 1914, and signed up for the French Foreign Legion. He spent the next 18 months as an infantryman in some of the worst fighting of the war — at the Somme, at Champagne, at Verdun. He was wounded 3 times. The third wound left him with a permanently damaged leg. The doctors told him he would not return to the infantry, so he decided to fly. There were no blacks in the air service, but Bullard did not care. After earning his pilot’s license, he reported to the front in August 1917 and flew approximately twenty combat missions over the next three months. His plane was painted with a bleeding heart pierced by a knife and the phrase Tout le Sang qui Coule est Rouge — All Blood that Flows is Red. The French press called him L'Hirondelle Noire — the Black Swallow. When the U.S. entered the war in 1917, Bullard tried to transfer to the U.S. Air Service, which then had a policy of not accepting Black pilots. The other American pilots flying for France, all white, were transferred. His application was rejected. After WWI, he owned a nightclub called L'Escadrille. He spoke fluent French, English, and German. Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Langston Hughes all drank there. Josephine Baker and Louis Armstrong were personal friends. His fluent German and his nightclub frequented by German officers led him to join the French Resistance. He eavesdropped on conversations between German officers who did not know he understood their language. When France fell in June 1940, the Resistance smuggled him across the Spanish border before the Gestapo arrived. He returned to the U.S. for the first time in 28 years. No one knew who he was. He worked at a perfume counter, as a security guard, in shipyards, and by the late 1940s, he operated the elevator at Rockefeller Center. It was there when a producer from NBC came down from the studios to bring him to Charles de Gaulle. When he died in 1961, Bullard was buried in the French War Veterans' section of Flushing Cemetery, in Queens, in the uniform of the French Foreign Legion. His casket was draped with the French flag. In 1994, the U.S. Air Force formally commissioned Eugene Jacques Bullard as a 2nd Lieutenant.

AfricanArchives's tweet photo. Eugene Jacques Bullard, 'Black Swallow of Death'.

When the President of France visited the U.S. in April 1960, he asked the FBI to help him find a man. He was looking for a 64-year-old American citizen who was awarded 15 French military decorations and was made a Knight of the Légion d'honneur, the highest civilian honor France can give. A true French hero.

The FBI found the man operating the elevator at Rockefeller Center in New York. His name was Eugene Bullard. He ran away from Columbus, Georgia, at 11, after watching a white mob nearly lynch his father. At 16, he stowed away on a German freighter and landed in Aberdeen, Scotland. By 18, he was prizefighting in Paris.

When Germany invaded France in August 1914, Bullard, an American citizen, went to the recruiting office on October 19, 1914, and signed up for the French Foreign Legion. He spent the next 18 months as an infantryman in some of the worst fighting of the war — at the Somme, at Champagne, at Verdun. He was wounded 3 times. The third wound left him with a permanently damaged leg. The doctors told him he would not return to the infantry, so he decided to fly.

There were no blacks in the air service, but Bullard did not care. After earning his pilot’s license, he reported to the front in August 1917 and flew approximately twenty combat missions over the next three months. His plane was painted with a bleeding heart pierced by a knife and the phrase Tout le Sang qui Coule est Rouge — All Blood that Flows is Red. The French press called him L'Hirondelle Noire — the Black Swallow.

When the U.S. entered the war in 1917, Bullard tried to transfer to the U.S. Air Service, which then had a policy of not accepting Black pilots. The other American pilots flying for France, all white, were transferred. His application was rejected.

After WWI, he owned a nightclub called L'Escadrille. He spoke fluent French, English, and German. Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Langston Hughes all drank there. Josephine Baker and Louis Armstrong were personal friends. His fluent German and his nightclub frequented by German officers led him to join the French Resistance. He eavesdropped on conversations between German officers who did not know he understood their language.

When France fell in June 1940, the Resistance smuggled him across the Spanish border before the Gestapo arrived. He returned to the U.S. for the first time in 28 years. No one knew who he was.

He worked at a perfume counter, as a security guard, in shipyards, and by the late 1940s, he operated the elevator at Rockefeller Center. It was there when a producer from NBC came down from the studios to bring him to Charles de Gaulle.

When he died in 1961, Bullard was buried in the French War Veterans' section of Flushing Cemetery, in Queens, in the uniform of the French Foreign Legion. His casket was draped with the French flag. In 1994, the U.S. Air Force formally commissioned Eugene Jacques Bullard as a 2nd Lieutenant.

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Tweet-A-Leet @MzTweeta2u

3 months ago

@sephz2much Heeeeeeeeey boo!!!!

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Tweet-A-Leet @MzTweeta2u

4 months ago

We love you Trey! 🙏🏾💕

Daily Loud

@DailyLoud

4 months ago

A grateful mother is so THANKFUL after her son miraculously survived a devastating crash that left the car completely crushed—one year later, his recovery journey is nothing short of incredible.