World's First Black Combat Aviator

WORLD'S FIRST BLACK COMBAT AVIATOR. In World War I, Bullard earned the Croix de Guerre, France's highest military medal, as an Infantryman at the Battle of Verdun. He later flew some 20 missions as a French combat pilot. In the interwar years, he was a musician, club owner, and celebrity in Paris. He married a Parisian society woman with whom he raised two daughters.

When Germany conquered France in 1940, Bullard came to New York where he worked in obscurity for the rest of his life.