Black Horizons: One Aviator's Experience in the Post-Tuskegee Era

By Glen Sharp and U.L. Rip Gooch

REVISED EDITION: The autobiography of a boy who went from the bottom to become a pioneering aviator to businessman and politician in the post-Tuskegee Airmen era. As a poor African-American youngster picking cotton in a Tennessee field in the 1930s, U.L. Rip Gooch would look to the sky as airplanes flew overhead and think about escaping to a better life. Soon after World War II, he earned his pilot's license, but found that racist hiring practices among airlines and other companies did not allow employment of black aviators, even those who gained fame as Tuskegee Airmen. Rip fought back the only way he could - by becoming successful in a white man's world. In time he built a million-dollar aviation business selling Mooney Aircraft and become one of the few black politicians in one of the most conservative states in the nation. *** "Sen. Rip Gooch is a man of integrity, a role model and a leader. He has served the people of Wichita and Kansas in ways that can never be measured." - Kathleen Sebelius, former governor of Kansas *** "As told in this book, the life of Rip Gooch has been a combination of joys and sorrows, challenges, opportunities and successes." - George Haley, former U.S. ambassador to Gambia

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0978676238
• ISBN13: 9780978676230
• Release Date: May 2015
• Publisher: ABC Consulting
• Length: 298 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.7" x 6.0"
• Age Range: 8 years and up