CREATION OF THE TUSKEGEE
AIR FORCE FLYING SCHOOL
The continued rejection/segregation of Black men who applied to the Air Corps led to lawsuits supported by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The NAACP rejected the policy of segregation and encouraged men who applied to request their training in a facility closest to their home and not at the Tuskegee facility.
Although these pioneers endured separate and unequal facilities--an incomplete airfield, crowded instruction rooms, etc--the first graduation class of Tuskegee pilots took place on March 7, 1942. The five Army Air Corps pilots were CPT Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., District of Columbia; Lemuel R.Curtis, Connecticut; Charles Debow Jr., Indiana; George S. Roberts, West Virginia; Mac Ross, Ohio.
Copyright © 2001-, Terry Muse
Revised: December 30, 2001
URL: http://black_and_hispanic.tripod.com/blackhistory/
Contact: Terry Muse