Tuskegee Airmen
How Tuskegee Airmen Fought Military Segregation With Nonviolent Action
The Tuskegee Airmen are best known for proving during World War II that Black men could be elite fighter pilots. Less widely known is the instrumental role these pilots, navigators and bombardiers played during the war in fighting segregation through nonviolent direct action. ...read more
Black Heroes Throughout US Military History
American Revolution During the American Revolution, thousands of Black Americans fought—on both sides of the conflict. But unlike their white counterparts, they weren’t just fighting for the colony's independence, or to maintain British control. Most took up arms hoping to be ...read more
Why Harry Truman Ended Segregation in the US Military in 1948
When President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981 on July 26, 1948, calling for the desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces, he repudiated 170 years of officially sanctioned discrimination. Since the American Revolution, African Americans had served in the military, but ...read more
6 Renowned Tuskegee Airmen
As the first Black aviators to serve in the U.S. Army Air Corps, the Tuskegee Airmen broke through a massive segregation barrier in the American military. Their success and heroism during World War II, fighting Germans in the skies over Europe, shattered pervasive stereotypes ...read more
Black Americans Who Served in WWII Faced Segregation Abroad and at Home
When the Selective Training and Service Act became the nation’s first peacetime draft law in September 1940, civil rights leaders pressured President Franklin D. Roosevelt to allow Black men the opportunity to register and serve in integrated regiments. Although African ...read more
Black History in the United States: A Timeline
In August of 1619, a journal entry recorded that “20 and odd” Angolans, kidnapped by the Portuguese, arrived in the British colony of Virginia and were then were bought by English colonists. The date and the story of the enslaved Africans have become symbolic of slavery’s roots, ...read more
The Pictures that Defined World War II
Getting the perfect shot in wartime is not only about weapons. With over 30 countries involved in World War II and the loss of over 50 million lives, war photography captured the destruction and victories of the deadliest war in history. Lead by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, over one ...read more
Did World War II Launch the Civil Rights Movement?
The civil rights movement was a fight for equal rights under the law for African Americans during the 1950s and 1960s. Centuries of prejudice and discrimination fueled the crusade, but World War II and its aftermath were arguably the main catalysts. A. Philip Randolph’s crusade ...read more
Lost Tuskegee Airman’s Body May Have Been Found
The Tuskegee Airmen were the first black U.S. military pilots, whose service paved the way for the military’s desegregation after World War II. Of the roughly 150 aviators killed in combat or training, there are still 27 Tuskegee Airmen whose bodies have not been accounted for ...read more
HISTORY Vault: Celebrate Black History
Black History Month, or National African American History Month, is an annual celebration of achievements by black Americans and a time for recognizing the central role of African Americans in U.S. history. The effort to create the commemoration began in 1915, half a century ...read more
How the Tuskegee Airmen Became Pioneers of Black Military Aviation
On March 19, 1941, the U.S. War Department established the 99th Pursuit Squadron, which, along with a few other squadrons formed later, became better known as the Tuskegee Airmen. Consisting of America’s first Black military pilots, these units confronted racism at home in ...read more
WWI Hero Henry Johnson Finally Receives Medal of Honor
In 1917, Henry Johnson was working as a railroad porter in Albany, New York, when the United States declared war on Germany. At the time, before the Selective Service Act introduced conscription, African-American volunteers were only allowed in four all-black regiments in the ...read more
Two Tuskegee Airmen Die on Same Day in Los Angeles
As many as 19,000 pilots and other personnel are believed to have participated in the so-called “Tuskegee Experience,” which trained African-American men and women for military service from 1941 to 1949 at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Though the exact number of Tuskegee ...read more
The Tuskegee Airmen: 5 Fascinating Facts
1. The Tuskegee Airmen once shot down three German jets in a single day. On March 24, 1944, a fleet of P-51 Mustangs led by Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, commander of the Tuskegee airmen, set out on the longest escort mission their crews would fly during World War II. The 43 ...read more
Tuskegee Airmen
The Tuskegee Airmen were the first Black military aviators in the U.S. Army Air Corps (AAC), a precursor of the U.S. Air Force. Trained at the Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama, they flew more than 15,000 individual sorties in Europe and North Africa during World War II. Their ...read more
Alabama
Alabama, which joined the union as the 22nd state in 1819, is located in the southern United States and nicknamed the “Heart of Dixie.” The region that became Alabama was occupied by aboriginals as early as some 10,000 years ago. Europeans reached the area in the 16th century. ...read more