Tuskegee Airmen - the Civil Rights Movement

LaKeva Crim

Tuskegee Airmen

The Civil Rights Movement occurred in the 1940s not in the 1960s how most people think.  The end of legalized segregation did not start with peaceful protests or marches. The Civil Rights Movement began when a Civilian Pilot Training Program, created in 1939 invited several historically black colleges to train to ensure that pilots would be available should war break out. Key personnel of the United States Army Air Corps did not believe that African Americans had the mental capacity to become successful military pilots. Although racism and inequality against Negroes occurred throughout the nation, it was more intense in the South where it hardened into rigidly enforced patterns of segregation. Such as Tuskegee Univesity location the military chose for training.

The War Department discriminated against African Americans to serve in the Armed Forces before World War II.   Involvement of African Americans in other branches of military service was strictly prohibited. Employment opportunities for black members of the armed forces marginalized them to essential labor or domestic roles. African-American combat troops were nonexistent, and combat training prevented. ^[1]The barring guidelines toward blacks started around 1639 when the first Negros appeared in the English Colonies. The military began excluding non-whites with the Militia Act in 1792, barring blacks from the armed forces. Despite the fact, five thousand Negroes helped America gain independence in 1783, and fought in every war since colonial times.

On January 16, 1941, ^[2]The War Department announced an all-black fighter pilot unit would train at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, a historically African American college established by Booker T. Washington. Over 400 African Americans enlisted in the new division. The strict requirements included a series of IQ and other intelligence tests. Because of discriminatory policies in the Army, the officers who assumed the responsibility of the recruits were white. The flight training took place at the Tuskegee Air Fields in Alabama, and the trainees took courses at Tuskegee University. They quickly proved their drive to learn and skills as pilots. Their proficiency broke barriers on race-based policies in the military; African Americans received the highly advanced training they previously were barred from receiving.

In 1941, ^[3]Tuskegee Institute appealed to Julius Rosenwald Fund of Chicago for financial help. The funding committee met at the institution along with First Lady Roosevelt, who opposed discrimination and supported rights for African Americans. ^[4]The first lady requested a flight with a black pilot. She rode as a passenger of pilot Alfred "Chief" Anderson, and it was a success. After the flight, she commented, “Well, you can fly all right.” He became an unofficial leader and mentor of the airmen because of his skills. The first Tuskegee Airmen graduated from advanced aviator training at Tuskegee Army Air Field on March 7, 1942.

By 1943, in the middle of World War II, the Tuskegee Airmen were ready for combat. Chief of Staff George Marshall convinced the War Department to deploy the Tuskegee Airmen.  In one of their earliest missions, Tuskegee Airmen was assigned to attack a tactical island located in the Mediterranean Sea, near Italy. They strategically pushed 1,000 Italian troops to surrender and were instrumental in the capture of the island. The Amy Air Force was against blacks flying, observing the Airmen insignificant record of taking the enemy down and recommended removal of combat flight. Army Chief of Staff overruled the Army Air Corps General's recommendation. The airmen were assigned to escort larger bomber planes to validate their combat skill. Command reported the success of the airmen mission, and all bombers safely returned. Upon hearing the statistics of the airmen first, combat mission all bomber plane units requested Tuskegee Airmen. At the end of World War II, the airmen became famous for their capability and maneuver skills to escort bomber planes.

The Tuskegee Airmen encountered racial challenges; they received an assignment in 1945 on Freeman Airfield in Indiana. Colonel Robert R. Selway, Jr., and Selway's superior, Major General Frank O'Driscoll Hunter, commander of the First Air Force was confirmed, a segregationist. The African American airmen wanted better treated as their white counterparts, which included having access to an officer's club. Major Hunter was determined to maintain strict racial segregation in the units under his command.  The Army issued regulation AR 210-10, which stated:

No officers club, mess, or other similar civil administration of officers will be authorized by post command to occupy any part of any public structure, other than private quarters of an officer, unless such club, mess, or other organization extends to all officers on duty at the post the right to full membership, either indefinite or short-term, in such club, mess, or administration, including the equal right with any and all other members to participate in the management thereof, in which the officers concerned have an interest.^[5]