FDR did quite a lot to advance blacks overall, including the creation of black fighter pilot units.
Sure, some blacks did get training. But when the hell did they get to fly in combat? What good did it do to train blacks and hold them out of war jobs?
Segregation in the Armed Forces
During the 1920s and ‘30s, the exploits of record-setting pilots like
Charles Lindbergh and
Amelia Earhart had captivated the nation, and thousands of young men and women clamored to follow in their footsteps.
But young African Americans who aspired to become pilots met with significant obstacles, starting with the widespread (racist) belief that Black people could not learn to fly or operate sophisticated aircraft.
In 1938, with Europe teetering on the brink of another great war, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt announced he would expand the civilian pilot training program in the United States.
At the time, racial segregation remained the rule in the U.S. armed forces—as well as much of the country. Much of the military establishment (particularly in the South) believed Black soldiers were inferior to whites, and performed relatively poorly in combat.
But as the AAC began ramping up its training program, Black newspapers like the
Chicago Defender and
Pittsburgh Courier joined civil rights groups like the
NAACP in arguing that Black Americans be included.
Note: FDR was not trying to get them into war planes. Look who kicked his ass!!!
Among the 13 members of the first class of aviation cadets in 1941 was Benjamin O. Davis Jr., a graduate of West Point and the son of Brig. Gen. Benjamin O. Davis, one of two Black officers (other than chaplains) in the entire U.S. military.
The “Tuskegee Experiment” took a great leap forward in April 1941 thanks to a visit by
Eleanor Roosevelt to the airfield. Charles “Chief” Anderson, then the chief flight instructor in the program, took the first lady on an aerial tour, and photos and film of that flight helped publicize the program.
So when did blacks get into the war? Notice too only black college graduates got to fly war planes, precisely just the small fighter planes.
In April 1943, the Tuskegee-trained 99th Pursuit Squadron deployed to North Africa, which the Allies had occupied.
In North Africa and then Sicily, they flew missions in
second-hand P-40 planes, which were slower and more difficult to maneuver than their German counterparts. After the commander of the 99th’s assigned fighter group complained about the squadron’s performance, Davis had to defend his men before a War Department committee.
Rather than being shipped home, the 99th was moved to Italy, where they served alongside the white pilots of the 79th Fighter Group.
In early 1944, pilots from the 99th shot down 12 German fighters in two days, going some distance toward proving themselves in combat.
This I got from the history of the pilots. Notice that it was in early 1944 they were allowed to be in actual combat. Africa was already under control of the allies.
When you want to keep bragging about FDR, unpack his shit first.
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 missions in Europe and North Africa during World War II.
www.history.com
