The Man Called Brown Condor

Tom Simmons, author of The Man Called Brown Condor, will share the forgotten true story of American war hero John Charles Robinson, also known as The Brown Condor of Ethiopia. Robinson’s struggles to overcome the racial prejudice that all but closed the field of aviation to Blacks. His outstanding success in accomplishing his dream of flying, his influence toward the establishment of a school of aviation at Tuskegee Institute (there would have been no Tuskegee Airmen without him) and his courageous wartime service in Ethiopia during the Italian invasion in 1935 are brought to life in Simmons’ presentation. Simmons recently returned from an all-expense paid trip to Ethiopia to speak on the book, provided by the former president of Ethiopia, the CEO of Ethiopian Air Lines and the Pan African Technology Association.

Speakers Expertise:

Tom Simmons is the author of four books: The Man Called Brown Condor, Forgotten Heroes of WWII, Escape from Archangel and By Accident of Birth. He has also written numerous magazine articles, including Growing Up With Mr. Faulkner, published in The Oxford American. Simmons grew up in Gulfport and attended Marion Military Institute, the U.S. Naval Academy, the University of Southern Mississippi and the University of Alabama. He has been a pilot since age 16, and participated in air shows, flying aerobatics in open-cockpit biplanes. In the late 1950s he served as an artillery officer in Korea. He resides in Gulfport.