Tusgekee Airmen Inaugural Invitation

from the nytimes 12/9/08

When the Tuskegee Airmen, the all-black force of elite pilots, emerged from combat in World War II, they faced as much discrimination as they had before the war. It was not until six decades later that their valor was recognized and they received the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor Congress can give.
Now, the roughly 330 pilots and members of the ground crew who are left from about 16,000 who served are receiving another honor that has surpassed their dreams: They are being invited to watch the inauguration of Barack Obama as the country’s first black president.
“I didn’t believe I’d live long enough to see something like this,” said Lt. Col. Charles A. Lane Jr., 83, of Omaha, a retired Tuskegee fighter pilot who flew missions over Italy.
“I would love to be there, I would love to be able to see it with my own eyes,” he said, chuckling on the phone as he heard about the invitation. But, he said, he had a “physical limitation” and was not sure he would be able to attend.
Thousands of people who participated in the fight for civil rights over several decades helped pave the way for Mr. Obama’s triumph. But the Tuskegee Airmen have a special place in history. Their bravery during the war — on behalf of a country that actively discriminated against them — helped persuade President Harry S. Truman to desegregate the military in 1948.
“The election of Barack Obama was like a culmination of a struggle that we were going through, wanting to be pilots,” said William M. Wheeler, 85, a retired Tuskegee combat fighter pilot who lives in Hempstead, N.Y. He tried to become a commercial pilot after the war but was offered a job cleaning planes instead.
Mr. Obama has acknowledged his debt to the airmen, issuing a statement in 2007, when they received the Congressional Gold Medal. It said in part: “My career in public service was made possible by the path heroes like the Tuskegee Airmen trail-blazed.”
The invitation to his swearing-in was extended Tuesday by Senator Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who is chairwoman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies.
Howard Gantman, staff director for the committee, said of the decision to invite them: “They served honorably on behalf of our country, helped fight the battle to overcome racial barriers and because of the historic nature of this election, we thought they deserved to be there.”
Tickets to the Jan. 20 inauguration are the most sought-after commodity, with more than 1.5 million people expected in Washington. Of the 240,000 tickets, the airmen would have seats among the 30,000 on the terrace below the podium, along with former members of Congress and others.
For logistical reasons, the actual invitation ended up with Robert D. Rose, a retired Air Force captain in Bellevue, Neb., who was not a Tuskegee airman but is the first vice president of the Tuskegee Airmen Inc., an association of the original airmen and their supporters.
The onus is on the association to extend the invitation to the airmen, who must respond by Dec. 19. Each can bring one guest. The tickets are not transferable, so if an airman cannot make it, he cannot give his ticket away.
“We’ll have a lot of happy fellows and ladies,” said Mr. Rose, who predicted that many would try to attend.
He said that before the invitation was made Tuesday, he had already been trying to get word to higher ups that the airmen would like to be invited. “I thought if the name ‘Tuskegee’ surfaced at a high enough level, someone would recognize it and it would make sense to invite them,” he said.
There is no firm handle on how many are still alive. More than 300 came forward in March 2007 to collect their bronze replicas of the Congressional Gold Medal at a ceremony at the Capitol. The actual Gold Medal itself was given to the Smithsonian Institution.
In all, 994 pilots and about 15,000 ground personnel collectively known as the Tuskegee Airmen were trained at the segregated Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama from 1942 to 1946.
About 119 pilots and 211 ground personnel are still alive, according to Tuskegee Airmen Inc. They are in their 80s and 90s, many are frail, and it is unclear how many will be able to make the trip to Washington. And those who make it will face various challenges: they will most likely have to walk some distance, the weather could be harsh, the crowds will be huge and accommodations are scarce.
Still, these are some of the airmen who flew more than 150,000 sorties over Europe and North Africa during World War II, escorting Allied bombers and destroying hundreds of enemy aircraft. Some were taken prisoner. And most faced fierce discrimination during and after the war.
“Even the Nazis asked why they would fight for a country that treated them unfairly,” President Bush said in awarding the medals.
Mr. Rose, of the airmen’s association, said he saw a direct connection between the Tuskegee experience and Mr. Obama’s election.
“The Tuskegee Airmen preceded Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, and if they hadn’t helped generate a climate of tolerance by integration of the military, we might not have progressed through the civil rights era,” he said. ”We would have seen a different civil rights movement, if we would have seen one at all.

”

The Double V For Victory

from 4/17/06 from
pseudo-intellectualism

One of the many things I learned in reading Striver's Row was the pressure to end some of the humiliations of segregation while Black America's was enlisted to defeat fascism abroad. I was aware of the struggles of the Tuskegee Airmen, but that was tame compared to some of the actual incidents of race wars in southern bootcamps. Above is a picture taken in 1942 on 119th Street. I found at the inmotionaame site Here is a link to a larger image of that site with more background information

Black History Coloring Pages: Tuskegee Airmen And Black Soldiers

Tuskegee Airmen 5

This scene is based on a true life episode where Eleanor Roosevelt makes a special request to fly with one of the Tuskegee pilots to show her faith in their ability
This is mentioned in a history from african americans.com

The controversial decision to establish a training school for African American pilots at the Tuskegee Institute took place on January 16, 1940.
The first all-African American flying unit in the U.S. military, Tuskegee Airmen served during World War II. The squadron was commissioned by the War Department under increased pressure from the NAACP and other organizations seeking to provide opportunities for African Americans in the armed forces. Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Oliver Davis, Jr.commanded the Tuskegee Airmens first graduating class. They flew over fifteen hundred missions and destroyed hundreds of enemy aircrafts without ever losing a bomber to hostile fire.
In the face of strong resistance from the military establishment and most officials in the War Department, a relentless effort was carried on by a number of Black organizations and individuals, including sympathetic Whites, to persuade the government to accept Blacks for training by the Air Corps in military aviation. After considerable debate on the subject, the government agreed to establish a program in which African American applicants would be trained in all aspects of military aviation and sent into combat as a segregated unit.
In January 1941, under the direction of the NAACP, a Howard University student, Yancey Williams, filed suit against the War Department to compel his admission to a pilot training center. Almost immediately following the filing of the suit, the War Department under pressure from northern congressmen, and with an order from the Commander-in-Chief, Franklin Roosevelt, announced that it would establish an aviation unit near Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, in cooperation with the institute for the training of Negro pilots for the Army. This unit was to be called the 99th Pursuit Squadron.
The First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, was a strong supporter of the Tuskegee Airmen. She even "inspected the troops" and took a ride with a recent graduate. The first pilot class, completed the training and received their wings on March 7, 1942. The five graduates were: Captain Benjamin O. Davis, 2nd Lieutenant Lemuel R. Custis, 2nd Lieutenant Charles DeBow, 2nd Lieutenant George S. Roberts, and 2nd Lieutenant Mac Ross. The Red Tails Enter Combat The Tuskegee Airmen we nick-named "Red Tails" because of the distinctive red paint on their tails. Airplanes in Tuskegee, Alabama where the group trained were painted with red markings to identify students. When the unit moved to North Africa, replacement aircraft were often bare metal with no paint except for basic identification numbers. It was decided that the colors of the trainer aircraft of Tuskegee would carry over into combat. A simple "A" on the side of the fuselage would designate the 99th Pursuit Squadron, "B" the 100th, "C" the 301st, and "D" for the 302nd. The Airmen had an illustrious record in combat. Over Italy in 1944, Lt. Gwynne Pierson, Lt. Windell Pruitt and four other Tuskegee Airmen, flying P-47s, attacked a German Destroyer (TA-27) in Trieste Harbor. Accurate machine gun fire hit the powder magazine and sank the ship. Thus Pierson and Pruitt are credited with the destruction of an enemy ship using only machine gun fire. Captain Charles B. Hallwas credited as the first African American to shoot down an enemy aircraft. The 450 Tuskegee Airmen assigned to the African/European Theater flew 1578 missions - 15,553 combat sorties while fighting the Germans, both in North Africa and Italy; the unequaled record of not having lost a single bomber, while they were escorting, due to enemy aircraft action. Bomber crews saw the "Red Tails" as a welcome sight. The contributions of the 477th Bombardment Group and their struggle to achieve parity and recognition as competent military professionals, leading to the War Department's evaluation of it's racial policies and the ultimate desegregation of the military. A total of 926 pilots graduated from Tuskegee Army Flying School over the years. Class 46-C was the last class to finish training at the school and graduated on June 29, 1946. Shortly thereafter the "Tuskegee Experience" ended with the closing of Tuskegee Army Air Field. Tuskegee set the tone for leadership in the newly formed Air Force. Excellence was expected and results were positive. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.would become a general and command several air wings as well as Air Force bases. He would lead a new generation of African Americans who were professional soldiers and great leaders. Another Tuskegee graduate was Daniel "Chappie" James, Jr., the first USAF African American 4-star general. After he was promoted to 4-star grade on Sept. 1, 1975, James was assigned as Commander in Chief North American Air Defense Command and Aerospace Defense Command, a position he held until his retirement on Feb. 1, 1978. He died 24 days later. Chappie served in WWII as well as the wars in Korean and Vietnam.

Tuskegee Airmen 4

While on a training mission one of the pilots' planes exhibits trouble and is forced to make an emergency landing. He (played by Malcolm Jamal Warner) lands amidst an all black chain gang. The prisoners and guards look on in disbelief at the site of a black airmen. For the prisoners it is a vision of pride.

Tuskegee Airmen 3

In this scene the airmens' black instructor exposes their ingrained inferiority complex
as they assume he had no real combat experience. In truth he flew in World Wat One for the Canadians, just like the real life Eugene Bullard flew for the French

Tuskegee Airmen 2

In this clip the airmen are forced to change to segregated cars during their train trip once they cross into a southern state. They experience the indignity of viewing German prisoners of war having better accommodations.

Tuskegee Airmen 1

from an amazon review with which I agree

This true story of the black flyers who broke the color barrier in the U.S. Air Force during World War II is a well-intentioned film highlighted by an excellent cast. Proud, solemn, Iowa-born Laurence Fishburne and city-kid hipster Cuba Gooding Jr. are among the hopefuls who meet en route to Tuskegee Air Force Base, where they are among the recruits for an "experimental" program to "prove" the abilities of the black man in the U.S. armed services. Fighting prejudice from racist officers and government officials and held to a consistently higher level of performance than their white counterparts, these men prove themselves in training and in combat, many of them dying for their country in the process. Andre Braugher costars as a West Point graduate who takes charge of the unit in Africa and in Italy (where it's christened the 332nd). The film is rousing, if slow starting and episodic, but it's periodically grounded by a host of war movie clichés, notably the calculated demise of practically every trainee introduced in the opening scenes (ironic given the 332nd's real-life combat record--high casualties for the enemy, low casualties among themselves, and no losses among the bombers they escorted). Ultimately the Emmy-nominated performances by moral backbone Fishburne and the dedicated Braugher and the energy and cocky confidence of Gooding give their battles both on and off the battlefield the sweet taste of victory.

In this opening clip the new recruits meet aboard a train headed south to Tuskegee.
Cuba Gooding's character, A-Train, declares his origins on 131st Street and Lenox in Harlem. A real life Tuskegee Airmen, Dabney Montgomery from Harlem, was mentioned in a previous posting

Dabney Montgomery

Harlem Activist Remembers Slain Civil Rights Hero, interview by -Cheryl Wills
ny1.com, February 11, 2008

NY1 celebrates Black History Month with a week-long salute to the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King and those who are working to keep his dream alive. NY1’s Cheryl Wills filed the following report. At 84, Harlem resident Dabney Montgomery is both living Dr. Martin Luther King's dream and, 40 years after his death, working to keep it alive. He knew King as a student years before the civil rights leader became famous. One of his few mementos is his 50-year-old address book, which bears King's Atlanta address. The two even shared a godmother, making them like brothers. "He could sit down and talk with you or anyone, and you could see that this young man is going to make a mark – somewhere,” says Montgomery. Together, the two would make quite a mark during the civil rights movement. For five days and four terrifying nights in 1965, Montgomery was one of King's personal bodyguards during the third Selma to Montgomery March. He says he was prepared to die to ensure King's safety along state Highway 80. "if we saw anyone pulling a knife or gun out, to go to him, push him to the ground and fall on top of him,” he says. Devastated after King's death in 1968, the Alabama-born activist proved that he was down but not out. He settled into Harlem where he became a community activist, inspiring young people by joining grass roots efforts. He loved the protest march,” says Montgomery’s wife Amelia Montgomery. “He would sacrifice everything to go." And Montgomery also became a leader and historian at the oldest black church in New York: Mother AME Zion. "He's always been one to motive, always been one to inspire," says author and activist Yvonne Davis. Still, that's just the half of Montgomery's story. He is a proud veteran of the Tuskegee Airmen – a group of African American pilots who flew with distinction during World War II. He has received dozens of honors. He met President Bush and received the congressional gold medal. He has been featured in a number of documentaries like this one called "Flying for Freedom: untold stories of the Tuskegee Airmen." And as one of the survivors of both WWII and the civil rights movements, Montgomery says he still lives by King's philosophy. "Don't let fear prevent you from doing anything that's positive,” he says. “Go ahead and do it!"