Willa Beatrice Brown (January 22, 1906 – July 18, 1992) was an American aviator, lobbyist, teacher, and civil rights activist.

She not only lobbied the U.S. government to integrate the United States Army Air Corps and include African Americans in the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP), she and Cornelius Coffey co-founded the Coffey School of Aeronautics, distinguishing it as the first private flight training academy owned and operated by African Americans in the United States.

[5][6] Brown remained politically and socially active in Chicago long after the Coffey School closed in 1945.

She ran in Congressional primary elections in 1946 and 1950 and taught in the Chicago Public School System until 1971, when she retired at age 65.

[4] She started with lessons from Fred Schumacher, Dorothy Darby, and Colonel Robinson, and ran Brown's Lunch Room, a sandwich shop, at the airfield.

[7] She eventually trained with certified flight instructor Cornelius Coffey, an expert in the field of aviation mechanics.

[7] Brown later was elected president of the organization's Chicago branch, and user her position as an activist for racial equality.

She also took on public relations duties for the organization, and flew to colleges and spoke on the radio to get African Americans interested in flying.

[9] One of her key advocacy efforts came via her performances in air shows, which were frequently covered by the Chicago Defender, which was also interested in desegregating aviation.

In 1940, she earned a ground school instructor's rating from the Civil Aeronautics Authority, the precursor to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

She also worked to disprove a 1925 Army War College study which had deemed African Americans unfit to fly.

[7] She ran for Congress a third time in the 1950 Republican primary election, and was defeated by Archibald Carey Jr.[19] Brown returned to teaching in high schools from 1962 until her retirement in 1971.

She had a confident bearing and there was an undercurrent of determination in her husky voice as she announced, not asked, that she wanted to see me.In 1947, she and Cornelius Coffey married, but the marriage did not last long.