A Deeper Look at the Tuskegee Airmen

The Tuskegee Airmen were the first all African-American squadron to fly for the United States Military. The majority of the men were African-American, but there were five Haitians who also took part in the Tuskegee Airmen squadron.

African-Americans were prohibited from flying for the United States, until various civil rights groups and organizations put pressure on the government to change the segregated policies.

The Tuskegee Airmen came out of Tuskegee, Alabama, and flew for the United States during World War II. Their official name was the 32nd Fighter Group or the 477th Bombardment Group. The Tuskegee Airmen still had to deal with racial discrimination and the Jim Crow laws in effect.

In March of 1941, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt took a flight with a Tuskegee pilot, C. Alfred "Chief" Anderson. Her flight with the African-American pilot brought a lot of publicity to the Tuskegee flight program for African-Americans. "Chief" Anderson had been flying for twelve years by then, and had trained thousands of pilots by that point.

After her flight, Eleanor Roosevelt arranged a loan for Moton Field, where the Tuskegee Airmen could train. The program began with 47 officers and 429 men. They first trained at Moton Field, and then went to the Tuskegee Army Air Field to learn about different kinds of operations. At that time, Tuskegee became the only section of the army where all four phases of pilot training were taught in one place.

The U.S. Army still had racial segregated policies in place, however. For example, before the Tuskegee unit, all the U.S. Army flight surgeons had been white. But the need for flight surgeons resulted in two black doctors being admitted to a Texan army school of aviation medicine in 1943. By 1949, 17 black flight surgeons had been with the Tuskegee Airmen.

Often at Tuskegee, African-American enlisted men were somewhat thrust upon the program and sent there in large numbers. Many trained officers were stationed there with nothing to do. The U.S. Army's rationale was that if African-American pilots were used in the Air Force, they would then serve over white men, which would wreak havoc on the existing Jim Crow laws.

Despite facing these racial difficulties, the men of Tuskegee were held in high regard. Many of the men involved in the program played key roles in postwar aviation developments, many teaching in flight schools. In 1995, HBO made a movie about these historic men.

Steven Myers is a Democrat in Orange County who is also a four-time CEO and founder of Steven Myers & Associates (SM&A). His work with various charitable organizations is widespread, and he also has various board leadership roles.