Tuskegee Airmen (1941-1945) are the 993 Black American pilots who served in the air force in the Second World War. They fought against both Nazi Germany and American racism.
Flight record: They lost very few bomber planes, flying bombers to Berlin, the capital of Nazi Germany. They were the first fighter pilots ever to sink a destroyer. And when Germany came out with the world’s first jet fighters, the fastest planes ever seen, they shot those down too.
But more important than their flight record was the fact that they even had a flight record. The flight school at Tuskegee was set up not to provide black pilots for the war, like you might think, but to prove that blacks could not fly and become good fighter pilots!
Despite Bessie Coleman, a black female pilot of the early 1920s, and despite there being 125 black pilots on the eve of the war, it was still widely believed that blacks did not have the brains and courage it took to be good pilots. Only white men possessed the right mix of qualities.
A government study proved it: “The Use of Negro Manpower in War” of 1925: blacks were “inferior human beings”, they were not honest or trustworthy, they were more given to crime, they caused trouble and:
In physical courage, it must be admitted that the American Negro falls well back of the white man and possibly behind all races.
So the air force (then the Army Air Corps) would not admit black pilots or mechanics. Blacks fought for that right. The president, wanting the black vote (blacks in the North could vote), promised to open a flight school at Tuskegee to produce air force pilots. It was widely expected to fail.
But it did not fail. And when Tuskegee produced enough pilots for its first squadron no one knew what to do with them. They were kept well behind the front lines – and then when they failed to shoot down many enemy aircraft, that was used as proof that they lacked courage! And when they did shoot down the enemy against orders (something white pilots did all the time), that was proof they lacked discipline!
As was common in American wars, blacks were kept out of direct combat till commanders had little choice. Then all the fighting for rights and all the careful preparation that went into the Tuskegee Airmen could shine.
Segregation: The American military was segregated by race. A black officer, for example, despite his military rank, could not enter a white officers’s club. The excuse was white morale. It was civil disobedience by the Airmen at Freeman Field in Michigan in 1945 that helped to overturn that. Among the protesters:
- Daniel “Chappie” James, who later became the first black four-star general
- Coleman Young, who later became the first black mayor of Detroit
- William Coleman, who later became the first black secretary of transportation
See also:
- Tuskegee Experiment – a very different experiment carried out at the same place and at the same time
- Red Tails
- The Liberation of Paris: whites only
- Tirailleurs Senegalais
- How white people think
- Jim Crow racism
- Madison Grant
- Coal Black And De Sebben Dwarfs – the sort of racist cartoons they were showing back home at the time
Great reading this morning. Thanks!
LikeLike
Nicely done. Thanks for the post. A very good friend of mine is currently the first female president of the Tuskegee Airmen group (she is also Jamaican). For Black History Month we will be hosting a special showing of the film (in Upstate NY) followed by a Q&A will the remaining Tuskegee Airmen. I know that they worked long and hard to get this movie made, and hope that everyone will go out and see it.
LikeLike
Good post!
LikeLike
…and were the first to get bombers to Berlin, the capital of Nazi Germany. They were the first fighter pilots ever to sink a destroyer.
Not true Abagond. The British did these things while America still had it’s head in the sand about Nazi Germany.
LikeLike
The full sentence says that they were the first Americans, but I will make it a little clearer.
LikeLike
It’s maddening how they fought for America yet were treated as second class citizens. These men truly deserve every ounce of respect.
LikeLike
It was once said sometime in 2007 by someone (a self declared white historian) that the Tuskeegee airmen didn’t have the zero bomber loss record. Since then whites have exploded all over the internet about said statement.
It’s pretty comical.
LikeLike
good post
LikeLike
AWESOME! Real life super-heroes, indeed. Thank you for this post Abagond.
LikeLike
Flight record: They were the only Americans in the war never to lose a bomber plane and were the first Americans to get bombers to Berlin, the capital of Nazi Germany. They were the first fighter pilots ever to sink a destroyer. And when Germany came out with the world’s first jet fighters, the fastest planes ever seen, they shot those down too.
All of those claims are untrue. Check out Nine Myths about the Tuskegee Airmen.
LikeLike
Well done.. Two excellent and informative posts Abagond!
LikeLike
I tried to find the documentary about the black US soldiers in Europe during WW2 but could not find it, sorry. In that document one of them said people treated them “over there” much better than back home or in the army but that they were fighting against the guys who were even worse than what they had back home. He said it made them feel good to be able to drink in the same bars as the whites, dance in the same bars and generally be like others. He said something like: “That made me realize that for the french I was just an american soldier”.
LikeLike
Very good work, sir!
You just continue to raise your own bar.
LikeLike
Thanks for another historical truth, Abagond.
LikeLike
This is excellent, thanks so much, I wish you would be writing for Scholastic, and get this into the schools.
LikeLike
Enjoyed this post very much 🙂
This is where i am now–showing my nephews & niece that there were others before them who believed in their courage & intelligence & abilities when society consistently told them they had nothing to offer.
LikeLike
Abagond gets a gold star yet once again! Your blog has always been a reliable source of factual information.
LikeLike
“A government study proved it: “The Use of Negro Manpower in War” of 1925: blacks were “inferior human beings”, they were not honest or trustworthy, they were more given to crime, they caused trouble and:
In physical courage, it must be admitted that the American Negro falls well back of the white man and possibly behind all races.”
is that true???? holy sh*t, what the hell is wrong with people?
LikeLike
we’ve come a long way. the argument was once that “blacks are inferior to whites”, now we understand that “black are *on average* inferior to whites”.
LikeLike
Oh my. Look who’s here with his white supremacy myths. It’s Piggy a.k.a. Chuck Rudd a.k.a. Chuck Ross.
LikeLike
Good post. It highlights nicely the bitter irony of the Jim Crow of that era, which as noted elsewhere continued unabated for decades after WWII ended, including, among other things, the $ support given to white, but not black, veterans in the form of assistance in purchasing a new house in brand new segregated suburbs like Levittown and GI bill college assistance.
LikeLike
Excellent post! That ‘Red Tails’ movie looks so horrible – it doesn’t do these great men any justice at all.
LikeLike
@ Deucce, sadly you are right.
Black stereotypes are nasty. Even today, they have real life implications for black people. Black “failures” are blame on the biological and genetic inferiority of blacks, while white failures are individualized and dismissed as “honest mistakes.”
LikeLike
@NickyHP Caribbean Tuskeegee Airmen;
http://www.199armytour.com/TuskegeeAirmen.htm
LikeLike
Lara–
Apparently the movie is full of the myths, exaggerations and lies that have been built up by blacks over this unit over the years.
The following is from a letter to the Atlanta Journal Constitution after they again spread some of these myths and lies on the occasion of a former black pilot in the unit’s obituary. It’s written by a military historian and form WWII pilot:
http://amren.com/news/2012/01/facts-about-the-tuskegee-airmen/
It was a mediocre, well below average unit, in actual fact.
The movie did pretty well on its first weekend, due to lots of publicizing it within the black community and in many areas school children getting the afternoon off from school to participated in bussed trips to see it, but bombed the second week.
http://www.vdare.com/articles/red-tails-nosedives
LikeLike
It was, goodness, in middle school during Black History Month that I heard about this group of Americans (1986 I think). I later asked my dad about them, since he was in the Air Force, and he mentioned something about how they were a great example of the right fighting spirit. Talk about impressive! The record they had as a unit, the way they stood together, true men in my mind. It was their type of dedication that this country needs. I didn’t know, or maybe forgot since it has been awhile, that they were first to sink a destroyer, so thanks for that info 🙂
LikeLike
@ Doug1
So VDare is getting so desperate for readers that they’re now siphoning (the miniscule amount of) fame from SBPDL? That’s almost as laughable as AMRen resorting to hearsay from some random white military officer, and calling it “air tight proof”.
LikeLike
You can’t forget about Chief Alfred Anderson the chief flight instructor who mentored and trained the Tuskegee Airmen. His role was important to the progression of black aviation. He was the one who flew First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt so that the 99th Fighter Squadron known as the RED TAILS could be established and was the first African american to receive a transport licence. He is the Father of Black Aviation…make sure you support his foundation @ http://www.facebook.com/candersonfoundation.
LikeLike
[…] Tuskegee Airmen […]
LikeLike
I have a copy of the film ‘Tuskegee Airmen’ a brilliant story.
Their dedication to their duty proves that they were true American Citizens!
LikeLike
Outstanding! The Tuskgee Airmen inspired me to become a pilot when I enlisted in the Air Force during the Vietnam War. I was a (FAC) Forward Air Controller. My aircraft was the P- 38 Lightning
LikeLike
Good to hear today that President of the USA, Donald Trump, decided to order the halt of all Boeing aircraft’s 737 Max 8.
It made me think about the progress Black people have made during the last 100 years worldwide. Slow but steady progress.
You can wonder: what have that Trump’s decision to do with Black progress?
It’s not straightforward but there is a link.
Black people in the past (and even today!) were supposed to be too stupid to drive an aircraft. So stupid that people could even be unable to imagine a Black pilot flying even a small airplane much less a big one.
In the case of an accident, involving a Black pilot, nobody would doubt that its reason would be because the pilot was certainly not fit!
And… the most amazing thing is happening right now before my eyes: a technologically advanced aircraft crashes shortly after taking flight from an African airport and nobody, absolutely nobody (!!!) puts the blame on the shoulders of the African pilot.
Even more: the President of the USA, not exactly known to be best friend of Black folks, goes public doubting the safety of the technologically advanced aircraft and not… the Black African pilot!
This is amazing! This is amazing! This is amazing!
This is indeed A Wonderful New World!
LikeLike
My mother’s father. My grandfather was an aeronautics mechanic for the Tuskegee Airmen.
LikeLiked by 1 person
My father (b.1934) talked to some brazilian soldiers who served in Italy. They were all horrified to the way the USA treated the black soldiers, it was as if there was still slavery
LikeLike