Photos: Facebook\Wikimedia Commons
NEW YORK, NY, USA, January 29, 2024—February 19, 1983 marked the end of 85 years of life for Colonel Hubert Fauntleroy Julian, the world famous Black Eagle of Harlem, born in Trinidad, a global adventurer, pioneering pilot, daredevil parachutist, humanitarian and arms dealer. He was a worldwide sensation between the 1920s and 1960s.
His only son, Mark Anthony Bernard Julian, was eleven and at school at the time of his father’s death and subsequently without explanation excluded from attending his funeral. The reasons are still uncertain.
“It was intimated to me that it was to protect, hide my existence,” Mark reveals. “I wasn’t even taken to see him in the hospital. Just woke up one morning, and Daddy was gone.”
He had no support structure, but never let on to anyone about his father’s death or his feelings.
Mark plans to visit his father’s grave site at Calverton National Cemetery in remembrance on February 19, the anniversary of his death. When asked why now after four decades and never before, Julian emotionally answers, “I was afraid… afraid of the ghosts of the past. Didn’t know if I could handle acknowledging he was really gone.”
Julian is eager to share his father’s accomplishments with the world, introduce him to a new generation, further his legacy through encouraging children to follow his father’s ambition and racial pride and ensure he’s remembered and included appropriately in Black history. “I wanted to ask for his forgiveness for not seeing him sooner and to get his blessing,” he admits.
In order to complete the grief process, Julian acknowledges that he needs to reconnect with his father and get closure by following through on what he has been avoiding all these decades. He wasn’t provided the opportunity to mourn graveside as a child, attend a burial or memorial service for his father or say good-bye. His father’s death went relatively unnoticed by all.
In life, over four decades, his father was more proactive and adept than most at attracting press, from parachuting throughout the 20s including into the middle of Harlem wearing a devil costume and playing a saxophone, to doing fly-bys over Marcus Garvey UNIA parades, to crashing a plane in Flushing Bay in a failed attempt to cross the Atlantic before Charles Lindberg, to sailing to Ethiopia to fight against Italy for Haile Selassie in the 30s, to challenging Hermann Goring to an air battle in the 40s, to defying the FBI and UN by running arms to Guatemala, Cuba and the Congo up through the 60s. The Associated Press, New York press, Time, Jet, Ebony, The Tonight Show, David Frost, Merv Griffin and Ripley’s Believe it or Not all sought him out to tell of his adventures. All fond memories and stories he’d share with his only son, at bedtime, at dinner, away from the limelight.
“My father’s life is a unique blend of personal adventure and humanitarianism and real-life escapades that rival and surpass many fictional literary figures. He performed on a world stage to a captive world audience when society looked upon the black man as still subhuman. To do what he did as a pilot, soldier, inventor, and humanitarian during Jim Crow and segregation was nothing short of incredible. Being the offspring of such an individual carries the heavy burden of social revelation. His story is one of perseverance, personal achievement, love of humanity, nationalism and cultural pride. It’s a calling to reintroduce my father to the world and show the relevance of his life, both then and now.”
Join Mark Julian’s mission to preserve and share his father’s legacy. He can be reached via [email protected].
Mark Anthony Bernard Julian
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