Red Tails Movie Review

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HIST 2057 1 December 2014 Red Tails “Red Tails” was set in Italy in 1944 based off the 332nd Fighter Group, a group of all African American men who were trained pilots in World War II. The 332nd Fighter Group was a United States military experiment to see if African American soldiers could perform in combat and missions as well as Caucasian soldiers. Terrence Howard (Colonel A. J. Bullard) and Cuba Gooding (Major Emanuelle Stance) played the commanding offers of the 332nd Fighter Group and had to battle against racial discrimination not only in the air, but in conferences. Nate Parker (Marty “Easy” Julian) played a senior airmen who led many of the missions for the 332nd Fighter Group and fought alongside the rest of his fellow airmen such as David Oyelowo (Joe “Lightning” Little), Tristan Wilds (Ray “Junior” Gannon), and Ne-Yo (Andrew “Smokey” Salem). The Tuskegee Airmen, a.k.a the Red Tails, were air pilots that fought in World War II and were the first African-American military aviators in the United States armed forces. April 3rd, 1939, the Appropriations Bill Public Law 18 was passed which allowed African-Americans to enlist in the army and gave funds to training camps. However, the training camps were strict and only allowed highly-educated African Americans and/or those that had flight experience to join the war. Despite the Appropriations Bill Public Law 18 being passed, the U.S. military was still racially segregated and somewhat enforced the Jim Crow laws. On March 19th, 1941, the 99th Pursuit Squadron, the first all-black flying unit, were deployed to Chanute Field in Rantoul, Illinois where the airmen were directed by Captain Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.; he was one of only two black line officers then serving. The 99th, 100th, 301st, and the 302nd all formed the 332nd Fighter Group and deployed to Africa in 1943. However, they were assigned to a

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