Naperville’s Lou Freeman made history in 1980 when he became the first Black pilot to fly a plane for Southwest Airlines.
Known as Captain Lou, he also made history in 1992 when he became the first Black chief pilot for any major airline.
But the most memorable time on the job for Freeman was when he was flying plane transporting the body of civil rights leader Rosa Parks, plus her family, friends, dignitaries and actress Cicily Tyson, from Detroit to Montgomery, Alabama, then to Washington, D.C., and back to Detroit in 2005.
Freeman circled Montgomery, the city where in 1955 Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus even though she was told to stand and let a white passenger take a place. That caused a controversy and helped to change history.
Freeman had the plane dip over the city as a farewell gesture. He called it “wiggling our wings.”
At the time, he told reporters it’s a “wondrous, reflective part of history.” It brought tears to his eyes.
It still resonates with him today.
Freeman, 70, retired as a pilot in 2017 but still represents the airline. On Tuesday, he spoke to a group of students from St. Damian School in Oak Forest and he didn’t hesitate to answer when a student asked him about his favorite flight.
“Flying Rosa Parks,” he said. “It was amazing, but even more amazing was just that summer. I took my kids to Memphis to the Civil Rights Museum and let them sit on the replica of the bus that she was on.
“And I did that to show them the sacrifices she made for them to be able to have the opportunities they have today. That was in the summer and in October, she passed away and they asked me if I would do the memorial flight and I was honored.”
There was an irony that he noted about the memorial trip.
He told the students that in Montgomery, there was a water cannon salute in Parks’ honor, a far cry from the civil rights movement days when Black protesters were blasted by high-pressure fire hoses.
As for his own place in history, Freeman is proud but admits that in November 1980, just weeks after being hired by the Southwest, then-regional airline, he wasn’t too keen on drawing attention to himself about being the first Black pilot in the company. The Texas native, however, had to get used to the limelight.
“People came to me and wanted to do interviews and stuff, but I originally didn’t want to do it,” he said before his Oak Forest presentation. “I was still on probation, and I wanted to keep my head down and just show up.”
Southwest had other plans.
“They said, ‘No, no, no, no, no,”’ he said. “They wanted me to talk, especially since I was from Dallas. They said I had to show the kids of Dallas that they can do it too.”
He remembers that first flight well.
“We went from Dallas to Lubbock as fast as we could,” Freeman said. “The guy I flew with said, ‘Lou just make sure you have your seat belt fastened.’
“That was it. It was like, zoom, and that’s the way Southwest flew back then. We just went as fast as the airplane could fly. It was ‘fast as you can for as long as you could stand.”’
Freeman has been a Naperville resident since the early 1990s, when he picked up the chief pilot title and worked in Chicago.
When talking to the students, there was a joy he had in telling his stories. After the students filed out, one yelled, “You are a great speaker. You are inspiring!”
He said he loves talking to the up and coming generation.
“This is an opportunity to talk to the kids and say that you don’t need to be special, you just have to want to do whatever it is that you want to do and figure out how to make money doing it,” he said. “And you will love life.”
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
