Racial Discrimination In The Tuskegee Experiment

Tuskegee Airmen Succeed, Despite Odds Against Them In the beginning of World War II, the U.S. government received an enormous amount of backlash for not allowing any African Americans into the elite status of the armed forces. This lead to the “Tuskegee Experiment” which was designed to see if African Americans were fit for war. Because of this experiment, this allowed “996 pilots and more than 15,000 ground personnel” to serve on the “all-black units” that trained here at Moton Field (History.com). In these units, they had to overcome racial discrimination and other racial obstacles. Throughout the war, the unit was credited with 15,500 combat missions and legend has it, they never lost a bomber they were escorting due to enemy fire. Because of their amazing accomplishments, this lead towards President “Truman abolishing racial discrimination in the military with the Executive order of 9981” (Impact). Works Cited
HEWITT, NANCY A. EXPLORING AMERICAN HISTORIES THINKING THROUGH SOURCES FOR AMERICAN HISTORIES VOLUME 2, 2ND ED... . LAUNCHPAD FOR EXPLORING AMERICAN HISTORIES AND. N.p.: BEDFORD BKS ST MARTIN'S, 2016. Print.
History.com Staff. "Tuskegee Airmen."
History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/tuskegee-airmen
"Impact and Legacy." The Tuskegee Airmen. N.p., n.d. Web. https://tuskegeeairmeninthesky.weebly.com/impact-and-legacy.html
"Legends of Tuskegee: The Tuskegee Airmen: Moton Field." National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior, n.d. Web. https://www.nps.gov/museum/exhibits/tuskegee/airmoton.htm
"Tuskegee Airmen." HistoryNet. N.p., n.d. Web. http://www.historynet.com/tuskegee-airmen Marker Location I would choose to put my roadside marker next to Moton Field because this is where the whole Tuskegee Experiment started. Moton Field is an airport that was constructed in 1941 by the U.S. Military and the Tuskegee Institute. It is located in Tuskegee Alabama and is only 5 miles away from Tuskegee University. This airport was used to train the piolet cadets through their primary flight training before they were “transferred to Tuskegee Army Airfield (TAAF) to complete their training with the Army Air Corps” (Legends). Other Markers on the Tuskegee Airmen When I was looking for other roadside markers on the Tuskegee Airmen, I only found two that were about the whole group.
All the other markers I found were about certain people and how they contributed to the Tuskegee Airmen. For Example, I found one marker that talks about Captain Andrews Maples Jr. who was a Tuskegee Airman in the 301st Fighter Squadron but was shot down over the Adriatic Sea during a bomber escort mission. It says he was declared missing in action in June of 1945. Charles B. Smith was a different Tuskegee Airman that I read about and he was in the 99th Fighter Squadron. It said he was a technical sergeant and crew chief in North Africa and in Europe. Towards the end of the marker it talks about the impact that the Tuskegee Airmen had on the integration of America’s Armed
Forces. The two roadside markers that I found that included the whole Tuskegee Airmen unit incorporated similar information to mine. One of the markers is located in Walterboro, South Carolina and it talks about how the “Black Bird Men” were feared by the enemy and loved by the bombers who they were protecting. The second marker is located in Franklin County, Ohio and it mentions the fact that the Tuskegee Airmen helped lead to the Executive Order of 9981 “which mandated equality of treatment and opportunity in the armed forces.” This marker also talks about how the program trained African Americans how to fly and how this contributed to the advancements of their rights. The very last thing that this roadside marker talks about is how the 477th Composite Group was moved from Godman, Kentucky to Lockbourne Army Air base. This fact is significant because it explains why the roadside marker is located in Ohio, which is where the Lockbourne Army Air base is found. The things that I had to Leave Out of my Roadside Marker When I was writing my roadside marker, I was working with a 140-word maximum that caused me to not go into great detail about the event and forced me to leave things out. The most important thing that I left out of my marker was the fact that I did not talk about certain people and their contributions to the Tuskegee Airmen. I did not talk about Yancey Williams, who was an African American student who took the United States Government to court, with the help of the NAACP, because they did not let him into the U.S. Air Corps. This resulted in the Tuskegee Experiment, which ultimately ended up leading to the abolishment of discrimination in the United States Army. I also did not talk about any of the generals who helped make the program as successful as it was.