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 [it] from Italy, and Ahmet Ali Çelikten of the Ottoman Empire.

All Blood Runs Red, a biography of Bullard by Phil Keith and Tom Clavin, was published in 2019 by Hanover Square Press.

[3] 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.

Despite the rampant racism of Jim Crow-era Georgia, his father continued to voice the conviction that African Americans had to maintain their dignity and self-respect in the face of the white prejudice.

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.

[3] 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.

Bullard arrived at Aberdeen, Scotland, and made his way first to Glasgow and then to London, where he boxed and performed slapstick in Belle Davis's "Freedman Pickaninnies", an African-American troupe.

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.

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.

Bullard worked with Robert Henri, a lawyer and friend, to secure a club license, which allowed Zelli's to stay open past midnight.

[28] Following his time at Zelli's, Bullard departed for Alexandria, Egypt, where he performed with a jazz ensemble at Hotel Claridge and fought two prize fights.

[citation needed] As a popular jazz venue, "Le Grand Duc" gained him many famous friends, including Josephine Baker, Louis Armstrong, Langston Hughes, and French flying ace Charles Nungesser.

[29][30] The marriage ended in divorce on December 5, 1935, with Straumann abandoning custody of their two surviving children, Jacqueline Ginette and Lolita Joséphine, to Bullard upon her departure.

Following the German invasion of France in May 1940, Bullard volunteered and served with the 51st Infantry Regiment (French: 51e Régiment d'Infanterie) in defending Orléans on June 15, 1940.

These were caused in part by members of the local Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion posts, who considered Robeson a communist sympathizer.

[32] The rescheduled concert took place without incident, but as concert-goers drove away, they passed through long lines of hostile locals, who threw rocks through their windshields.

His daughters had married, and he lived alone in his apartment, which was decorated with pictures of his famous friends and a framed case containing his 14 French war medals.

[1] He was buried with military honors in the French War Veterans' section of Flushing Cemetery in the New York City borough of Queens.

[13] In 1954, the French government invited Bullard to Paris to be one of the three men chosen to rekindle the everlasting flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe.

[10] In 1959, he was made a Chevalier (Knight) of the Légion d'honneur[10] by General Charles de Gaulle, who called Bullard a "véritable héros français" ("true French hero").

In 1972, Bullard's exploits as a pilot were retold in a biography, The Black Swallow of Death by Patrick Carisella and James Ryan.

[37] He is also the subject of the nonfiction young adult memoir Eugene Bullard: World's First Black Fighter Pilot by Larry Greenly.

[38] The 2006 movie Flyboys loosely portrays a fictionalization of Bullard, called 'Eugene Skinner' played by British actor Abdul Salis.