Tuskegee Airmen Observation

The Tuskegee Airmen
The museum that I chose to visit for this assignment is the Palm Springs Air Museum. I visited the museum on March 22nd with a few of my friends. I had arrived at the Museum with the intent that I was going to write about one of their many aircrafts. However, it didn’t end up being so simple, for I was delighted to come across an overwhelming array of options. Surprisingly, I was most interested by the historical displays rather than the aircraft. They provided an incredible amount of information about historical aeronautical events ranging from aerial combat situations to very unique events such as “The Piggyback Flight.” In addition, they also have displays commemorating numerous historical figures and groups. One of these
Originally, black people were not allowed to serve as pilots in the US military; however, this all changed during President Franklin Roosevelt's third term. During a visit at Tuskegee, Mrs. Roosevelt took flight with an African American pilot named Charles Anderson (Redtail.org). Mrs. Roosevelt was skeptical in a black man's ability to fly, however after the flight she was quoted in saying, “ I guess Negroes can fly”(Redtails.org). After Mrs Roosevelt returned to Washington it would later be announced that the first Negro Air Corps pilots would be trained at Tuskegee institute (Redtails.org). Although this will be a great advance in equality for African Americans, they would still feel the constraint of segregation during their time in the military. Black pilots were trained in one facility and were not allowed to serve in the same unit as white
Haulman, he discusses an important event regarding racial tensions with the Tuskegee Airmen that is most commonly referred to as the “Freeman Field Mutiny.” It all started when a group of sixty one black officers were arrested after attempting to enter a white only officers’ club. A few days later all but three of these officers were released. The other three were accused of using force and were detained for an extended period of time. The black officers were asked to sign a new base regulation acknowledging the separation of officer clubs on base. Despite the exceeding pressure from their superiors, black officers refused to sign the agreement and were arrested again. They would later be released after the War Department announced that they did not authorize segregated officers’ clubs. Later, all officers who had been arrested were given letters of reprimand. Its events like this that give the reader insight into the Tuskegee Airmen’s struggle with racism during their time at war. With this paper I hope to educate the reader on who the Tuskegee Airmen were and the struggles they face with racism during the war. It's important recognize the obstacles they faced for the reason that they didn’t have the same opportunities as white Americans did. They had to work much harder to prove that the color of their skin didn’t reflect their ability to fly. THe Tuskegee Airmen persevered though overwhelming odds and developed into fighting