This video features photos and video footage from our civil rights trip. We dedicate this blog and this video to all of the Foot Soldiers whose names are often forgotten, but played a huge role by participating in the Civil Rights Movement.
Tag Archives: Air Force
Alabama: The Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site
Our visit to the Tuskegee Airmen museum was one of our most unique experiences. Originally an experiment to train civilians as pilots resulted in some of the most successful flight crews. This hangar and field, named after the second president of the Tuskegee Institute, Robert Russa Moton, was the “only primary flight-training facility for Black pilots during World War II.” In 1948, Truman’s Executive Order 9981 desegregated the military. This is a very early event in the Civil Rights Movement, which helped start the larger movement that followed.
The hangar was decorated with two practice planes and dress-up clothes! Our class thoroughly enjoyed putting on the coats and outfits similar to those that were worn. The museum had bios of several people who had served essential roles in the workings of this hangar. The museum featured not only excellent leaders, but also civilians as well like Alice Dungey Gray who was the facility’s only permanent Parachute Rigger. Charles Anderson was one of the instructors and leaders of the flight school. When Eleanor Roosevelt came to see what they were doing and their progress, Anderson piloted the flight she requested. Eleanor Roosevelt supported and advocated for the Tuskegee Airmen from then on.
The museum had rooms like the preparation room where pilots would wait for their solo flight tests as well as study the air force’s planes as well as Germany’s planes to be able to distinguish between the two. Additionally, the tearoom was the first lunchroom that did not segregate between white and black.
A personal anecdote, as I was flipping through the books they had kept that identified the planes of the United States Air force, I found the type of bomber plane my paternal grandpa was a gunner on during World War II. Once I confirmed the type of plane with my father, he told me that the Tuskegee Airmen escorted my grandpa’s flights. Since my grandpa has been deceased for a few years now, it was nice to connect with the Tuskegee Airmen through him and to thank them for protecting him.
The Foot Soldiers 