Poolesville Seniors is celebrating Black History Month. As we searched for the untold stories of families with ties to our area’s historic black neighborhoods, we were generously granted access to historically documented accounts published in limited release. Last year in this Local Luminaries series, we brought you the stories of Noah Clarke and his daughter–in-law, Nina Honemond Clarke (Samuel Ellis Clarke).
Nina’s brother, Maxwell Honemond, born two years after Nina in 1919, also grew up in rural Poolesville and attended segregated schools including Rockville Colored High School. They were two of 11 siblings born to Percival James Honemond (1879) and Sarah Copeland (1876) themselves the offspring of formerly enslaved parents Maxwell deferred college while he earned money for his school expenses. He worked as a window washer in DC and played baseball for the ‘Poolesville Evening Stars”.
When Nina graduated from college, she paid Maxwell’s tuition at the Delaware State College for Colored Students, where he also began training as a pilot in Dover’s Civilian Pilot Training Program. In September 1941, Maxwell’s senior year was interrupted when he was drafted into the Army.
After basic training at Fort Bragg and attending Officer Candidate School at Fort Sill, he volunteered for the U.S. Army Air Corps Advanced Flying School in Tuskegee, Alabama and graduated as a 2nd Lt. in December 1943.
In WWII, Maxwell flew his small, fabric -covered Liaison or “L” aircraft over enemy lines, armed with only a primitive radio and .38 pistol. His job as an artillery spotter was to help fine tune the artillery commander’s aim in real-time during bombardment.
After the war, Maxwell used the G.I bill to complete a B.S. in Industrial Education at Delaware State College and a Master of Education at New York University. He also completed 30 hours of doctoral coursework at the University of California at Berkeley.
Maxwell wanted to be a commercial pilot and continued to fly on the weekends but opportunities for pilots of color were almost non-existent. The nation’s first Black airline pilot was not hired until 1964 after a high-profile lawsuit.
Maxwell began a career teaching junior and senior high school in the District of Columbia Public Schools. He rose to become an assistant principal at Francis and Hine Junior High Schools, and assistant principal and acting principal at Roosevelt High School. He was recruited by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare as a program director in the Office of Civil Rights, Desegregation of Schools Division. He was involved in desegregating the schools in Boston.
In the 1980s he co-owned a travel agency. He continued to attend conventions and gatherings of the Tuskegee Airmen and Black pilots of WWII.
Maxwell and Nina co-authored their family’s history in Chips Off the Old Block.
Maxwell Honemond passed away in 2006 and he is buried in Arlington Cemetery.