OUR HISTORY

      Julius Alexander was born in Tuskegee, Alabama. As a young boy, he would watch The Tuskegee Airmen take off from Moton Field as they prepared for their missions during World War II. This is where his interest in aviation began. He later moved to Atlanta and attended Atlanta Public Schools. After graduating from high school, Julius attended Tuskegee University and was a cadet in the ROTC Program and his interest in aviation grew. In 1955, he relocated to Atlanta and enrolled at Morehouse College to major in English.  As a freshman, Julius began taking flight lessons in a Piper J-3 Cub at Atlanta’s Fulton County Airport.  On January 22, 1956, he made his first solo flight and acquired his Private Pilot’s license later the same year.  Upon graduation from Morehouse in 1959, Julius became an English teacher with the Atlanta Public Schools.

     While teaching at Price High School, he acquired various FAA Pilot ratings, and became a flight instructor for single-engine and multi-engine airplanes in the 1960s. With these ratings he wanted to make an impact on his students by introducing them to aviation and the thrill of flight.  Julius knew that these young people deserved exposure to aviation and the opportunities in the field. During this time, Julius was aware of some public high schools being piloted to host aviation programs, but Price High School was not considered during these discussions.

KNOWLEDGE IS KEY

As an advocate for his students, he was successful in convincing leaders that Price High would be a perfect school to expose students to aviation. He took the knowledge he gained and built an entire curriculum around aerospace engineering. Julius would later teach this aviation curriculum to students at Brown, Okeef, and Washington High Schools in Atlanta.

     Mr. Alexander’s commitment to exposing his students, many that were from low-income housing, impressed not only educators in the Atlanta area, but aviation professionals and government leaders as well. All eyes were on this educator who was contributing to teaching future aviators.  Young minority students were learning about aviation and were excited about learning more.

     Many students benefited from Julius’s classroom teachings. There were two students that took full advantage of everything that they learned under Julius Alexander and ultimately pursued careers as airline pilots.

Two of his first students, Lonnie Robinson and Ozzie Ross would later become pilots at USAirways, (now American) and commanded flights together as crew members. Lonnie was the Captain and Ozzie was the First Officer. This was one of the proudest moments for Julius Alexander.  Lonnie and Ozzie are now retired Captains for American Airlines.

     After leaving the Atlanta Public School system as a teacher, Julius began a career with Lockheed Martin in Marietta, Georgia. He was responsible for Public Relations for the C-130. He missed teaching and wanted to have an impact on the lives of young people and continue efforts in exposing young African American students to the rewards of an aviation career.

        Julius helped organize an aviation group called Atlanta Negro Airmen Flying Club which consisted of like-minded African American who were vested in increasing the knowledge of aviation and aerospace in young African Americans.

          Under this flying club, they were able to gain financial support through the Atlanta Comprehensive Employment Training Act (CETA) and the National Alliance of Business (NAB) to train teenagers of low-income families how to prepare for job opportunities.  Although the program was thriving, Julius felt like there was an opportunity to reach more young people. In 1980, Aviation Career Enrichment (ACE) was born.