Columnist Jamala Rogers
My mother received a plane ticket to Washington, D.C. just days prior to the big ceremony to acknowledge the Tuskegee Airman with the Congressional Medal of Honor. She, like a number of other airmen or widows, could not make such a hasty journey.
Congressman Emmanuel Cleaver made a decision to hold a ceremony closer to home to accommodate those living in the Kansas City metropolitan area. My mother proudly accepted the posthumous award on behalf of Dad #2, Lt. Col. Virgil Brashears, a bomber pilot in World War II.
After 60 years, after several books and movies made about them, the prestigious corps of airmen was finally given their just due. Believe me, after hearing the stories and reading accounts about the Tuskegee brothers, no amount of gold can balance out the racist acts they suffered while trying to serve their country.
Like the other infamous Tuskegee experiment on the untreated syphilis of black men, the training of black men to fly was also an experiment. A study in 1925 by the Army War College concluded that colored men lacked the intelligence to learn how to fly and courage need for air combat. About the same time, a young Howard University student by the name of Yancy Williams filed a discrimination suit against the Department of Defense. Williams already had his pilot’s license and an engineering degree but was still barred from military training as a pilot. Then President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the creation of an all-black aviators’ training school.
Of course, the school was set up for failure, but the 1,000 men who went through the rigorous training would have none of that. These brothers were so fierce and respected in the skies that the Germans nicknamed them “Schwartze Vogelmenschen,” or Black Birdmen. Whenever they saw those red-tailed bomber planes coming flown by the blackmen, the enemy was forced from offensive to defensive tactics.
One airman’s view doesn’t seem to reflect the majority of Tuskegee Airman. Col. Elmer Jones was quoted as saying “It’s never too late for your country to say that you’ve done a great job for us.” Most others, while appreciative of receiving the highest honor were critical that it took too long. Like my step-dad, many had already died leaving only about 100 airmen alive today. Some in the 477th unit had to wait 50 years to have their military records expunged for protesting segregated officers’ quarters at Freeman Field in Indiana.
I’m sure a lot of young African-American men and women don’t know the story of Tuskegee Airmen. There certainly was nothing in the history books when I was going to school.
While I’m positive most would respect the sacrifices made by these courageous men and the all-black support personnel who backed them, the need to prove any thing is no longer a driving force for this generation. These young people are not interested in fighting two wars simultaneously – one against the discrimination inside the armed forces and one as a civilian still trying to get full citizenship rights. Their low recruitment numbers bear this out.
As the nation prepares for a big anti-war rally this weekend in its capitol and 11 other cities, African Americans maintain a united consensus about this unjust war and our need to stay out of it. How we show our patriotism, if at all, is less clear.