Original Item: Only One Available. Now this was an absolutely incredible discovery. We had just received this typical looking Officer Valise bag from WWI, but it was anything but typical. This bag is named to Eugene Jacques Bullard, who is believed to be The World’s First Black Fighter Pilot.

Bullard flew for France, not the United States. Bullard was one of the few black combat pilots during World War I, along with William Robinson Clarke, a Jamaican who flew for the Royal Flying Corps, Domenico Mondelli from Italy, and Ahmet Ali Çelikten of the Ottoman Empire. Also a boxer and a jazz musician, he was called "L'Hirondelle noire" in French (literally "Black Swallow").

There is a wonderful article about Bullard which can be found at this link.

The bag itself is constructed of a heavy canvas with rigid reinforcements, leather straps and brass fixtures. The bag is a locking type and even retains the original key still tied to one of the handles, something rare to encounter! There are multiple paper labels attached to the bag, but they were written in pencil and is very difficult to read. The writing does appear to be a French based mailing address, once belonging to Bullard as he did own property after the war. The bag appears complete and still retains the two outer leather securing straps but in delicate condition. These leather straps do not appear to have ever been removed, causing the bottom portions to become extremely soft and delicate. We have removed these straps to mitigate any further risk of damage during the shipping process. I (Paddy), put each strap in their own small bag and labeled what side they were removed from and the date in which it was done. The labeling was done some the bag can return to its original “user configuration” even though both straps are identical. When referring to “left and right” side it is as you are looking at it. The straps are located on the outer sides with their leather brackets on the left and right side of the painted name Cpl E.J. Bullard / SPA 93 (Escadrille SPA 93).

To say this is an incredible opportunity to add this to your collection would be an understatement. Bullard defied all the negative stereotypical aspects of life during a time in history when it was nearly impossible to overcome them. He bared his teeth, fought valiantly and in the end was immortalized.

Comes more than ready for further research and display!

Bullard’s Early Life
Bullard was born in Columbus, Georgia, the seventh of 10 children born to William (Octave) Bullard, a Black man from Stewart County, Georgia, and Josephine ("Yokalee") Thomas, a Black woman said to be of African American and Indigenous (Muscogee Creek) heritage. His paternal ancestors had been enslaved in Georgia and Virginia according to U.S. census records, and his father was born on a property owned by Wiley Bullard, a slave owning planter in Stewart County. Bullard attended the 28th Street School in Columbus from 1901 to 1906 completing the 5th Grade.

During his youth, he suffered the trauma of watching a mob attempt to lynch his father over a workplace dispute. Meanwhile, his father continued to voice the conviction that African-Americans had to maintain their dignity and self-respect in the face of prejudice. Despite this, Bullard became enamored with his father's stories of France where slavery had been abolished and blacks were treated the same as whites. When he reached his 11th birthday, Bullard ran away from home with the intent of getting to France. Stopping in Atlanta, he joined a British clan of gypsies known by the surname of Stanley and traveled throughout Georgia tending their horses and learning to race. It was the Stanleys who told him how the racial barriers did not exist in Britain and reset his determination to now get to the United Kingdom.

Disheartened that the Stanleys were not scheduled to return to the United Kingdom, Bullard found work with the Turner family in Dawson, Georgia. Because he was hard-working as a stable boy, young Bullard won the Turners' affection and was asked to ride as their jockey in the 1911 County Fair races. In 1912, he made his way to Norfolk, Virginia where he stowed away on the German freighter Marta Russ, hoping to escape racial discrimination. Bullard arrived at Aberdeen, Scotland and made his way first to Glasgow and then London where he boxed and performed slapstick in the Freedman Pickaninnies, an African-American troupe. While in London, he trained under the then-famous boxer Dixie Kid who arranged for him to fight in Paris. As a result of that visit to Paris, he decided to settle in France. He continued to box in Paris and also worked in a music hall until the start of World War I.

World War One
World War I began in August 1914. On October 19, 1914, Bullard enlisted and was assigned to the 3rd Marching Regiment of the Foreign Legion (R.M.L.E.), as foreign volunteers were allowed only to serve in the Foreign Legion.

By 1915, Bullard was a machine gunner and saw combat on the Somme front in Picardy. In May and June, he was at Artois, and in the fall of that year fought in the Second Battle of Champagne (September 25 – November 6, 1915) along the Meuse River. He was assigned to the 3rd Marching Regiment of the 1st Foreign Regiment. On July 13, he joined the 2nd Marching Regiment of the 1st Foreign Regiment and also served with the 170th French Infantry Regiment [fr]. The 2nd Marching Regiment of the 1st Foreign Regiment and the 2nd Marching Regiment of the 2nd Foreign Regiment were serving as part of the 1st Moroccan Division. Commanded initially by Hubert Lyautey, Resident-General of Morocco at the outbreak of World War I, the division was a mix of the Metropolitan and Colonial French troops, including Legionnaires, zouaves and tirailleurs. Towards the end of the war, the 1st Moroccan Division became one of the most decorated units in the French Army. The Foreign Legion suffered high casualties in 1915. It started the year with 21,887 soldiers, NCOs, and officers, but ended with only 10,683. As a result, the Foreign Legion units fighting on the Western front were put in reserve for reinforcement and reorganization. On November 11, 1915, 3,316 survivors from the 1e and the 2e Étranger were merged into one unit — the Marching Regiment of the Foreign Legion (Régiment de Marche de la Légion étrangère), which in 1920 became the 3rd Foreign Regiment of the Foreign Legion. Bullard participated in the fighting on the Somme, Champagne, and Verdun, where he was severely wounded on March 5, 1916.

As for the Americans and other volunteers, they were allowed to transfer to the Metropolitan French Army units, including the 170th French Infantry Regiment. The 170th had a reputation of crack troops, being nicknamed Les Hirondelles de la Mort (in English, 'The Swallows of Death'). Bullard opted to serve in the 170th Infantry Regiment and the 170 military insignia is displayed on his uniform collar. In the beginning of 1916, the 170th Infantry along with the 48th French Infantry Division [fr], to which the regiment belonged from February 1915 to December 1916, was sent to Verdun. During his convalescence, Bullard was cited for acts of valor at the orders of the regiment on July 3, 1917, and was awarded the croix de guerre.

Aviation
While serving with the 170th Infantry, Bullard was seriously wounded in action in March 1916 at the Battle of Verdun. While recuperating he learned to fly on a bet.[19] After recovering, he volunteered on October 2, 1916, for the French Air Service (French: Aéronautique Militaire) as an air gunner. He was accepted and underwent training at the Aerial Gunnery School in Cazaux, Gironde. Following this, he went through his initial flight training at Châteauroux and Avord, and received pilot's license number 6950 from the Aéro-Club de France on May 5, 1917.

Like many other American aviators, Bullard hoped to join the famous squadron Escadrille Americaine N.124, the Lafayette Escadrille, but after enrolling 38 American pilots in the spring and summer of 1916, it stopped accepting applicants. After further training at Avord, Bullard joined 269 American aviators at the Lafayette Flying Corps on November 15, 1916, which was a designation for all American pilots who served with the French Air Service, rather than the name of a specific unit. American volunteers flew with French pilots in different pursuit and bomber/reconnaissance aero squadrons on the Western Front. Edmund L. Gros, who facilitated the incorporation of American pilots in the French Air Service, listed in the October 1917 issue of Flying, an official publication of the Aero Club of America, Bullard's name is on the member roster of the Lafayette Flying Corps.

On June 28, 1917, Bullard was promoted to corporal. On August 27, he was assigned to Escadrille N.93 (French: Escadrille SPA 93), based at Beauzée-sur-Aire south of Verdun, where he stayed until September 13. The squadron was equipped with Nieuport and Spad aircraft that displayed a flying stork as the squadron insignia. Bullard's service record also includes Squadron N.85 (French: Escadrille SPA 85), September 13, 1917 – November 11, 1917, which had a bull insignia. He took part in over twenty combat missions, and he is sometimes credited with shooting down one or two German aircraft (sources differ). However, the French authorities could not confirm Bullard's victories.

When the United States entered the war, the United States Army Air Service convened a medical board to recruit Americans serving in the Lafayette Flying Corps for the Air Service of the American Expeditionary Forces. Bullard went through the medical examination, but he was not accepted, as only white pilots were chosen. Some time later, while on a short break from duty in Paris, Bullard allegedly got into an argument with a French commissioned officer and was punished by being transferred to the service battalion of the French 170th Infantry Regiment in January 1918. He served beyond the Armistice, not being discharged until October 24, 1919.