Tuskegee, AL

We left Danielle’s yesterday and spent last night in Newnan, GA. Today we stopped in Tuskegee, AL, on our way back to Mobile. Our main sightseeing destination was the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site, an excellent and moving exhibit documenting the African-American veterans who broke the color barrier in military aviation during World War II. President Roosevelt authorized the first squadron of black cadets to begin primary flight training in July 1941, after pressure from voters, the press, civil rights organizations and his wife, Eleanor. Tuskegee was chosen due its favorable year-round flying conditions and the existence of a successful civilian pilot training program at the nearby Tuskegee Institute, founded by Booker T. Washington. The first graduates had to overcome long-standing prejudices among Army Air Corps commanders, many of whom believed that black men did not possess the temperament and cognitive ability to fly or fight. The Tuskegee Airmen excelled at both, proving beyond doubt that they were more than equal to the task, and their collective combat record in Europe and North Africa was superb. One of the program’s mottos was “Double Victory”—their mission was to fight facism abroad and racism at home. They returned to an America where segregation and discrimination was still the norm—even the military wouldn’t fully integrate until 1948—and many of the former pilots, air crew and mechanics went on to became involved in the civil rights movement.