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.
The Tuskegee Airmen included pilots, navigators, bombardiers, maintenance and support staff, instructors, and all the personnel who kept the planes in the air. The reason that they called this the “Tuskegee Experiment” is because the white man was not sure that this would work. There was not much faith that the African Americans would make good fighter pilots let alone stand out to make history one
Tuskegee Airman Influence on Military Desegregation Byron Ross USASMA Department of Military History Class 63 SGM Williams January 17, 2013 Abstract The intent of this research paper is to identify how contributions of the Tuskegee Airman Experiment completely influenced desegregation of the United States Armed Forces. Furthermore, it will capture information on events and accomplishment of African Americans, despite the challenges blacks faced even though they displayed the same abilities and intelligence as whites. It will show how discrimination and racism played a major part of denying fully capable aviators the right to serve as fighter pilots during World War II. The information presented will also show that the Tuskegee Airman Experiment is a part of American Military History that will always be the center of African American contributions during tactical air battle heroics and the war efforts of World War II. Approved and enforced by Franklin D. Roosevelt, this experiment showed to be an excellent way to increase the combat effectiveness, combat power and diversity of the United States Army.
Band Of Brothers,which is written by Stephen E. Ambrose talks about Easy Company, of the 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division. Easy Company is now one of the best known companies of the United States Army as it played important contributions to World War II. Easy Company was made up of people of different parts of the country who had volunteered to be paratroopers. Now paratroopers at the time were still fairly new to the U.S and it held a great risk, but the idea of earning an extra 50 dollars made the men volunteer for it. Once they were enlisted they were sent to Camp Toccoa, where they completed basic training.
Marine Corps Aviation History Name Institution Abstract The USMC had its humble beginnings in May 1912 when Lt Cunningham reported to duty in the newly created aviation camp in Annapolis. Since then, the force has undergone notable changes. Its initial operations were in the WW 1, which were marred by inadequate personnel and equipment. However, in the inter-war years, it managed to improve its strength in minor operations launched in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and China. In the WW11, upon assault from the Japanese, the naval air force demonstrated its strength through the defeat and subsequent occupation of Okinawa.
Muhammad Ali was drafted to the war, and he made the decision not to participate because of his beliefs. Jackie Robinson helped to establish the Freedom National Bank, which is an African American owned financial institution. These athletes and many more have seized opportunities outside the sporting arena in hopes to advance the African American community. Today sports such as football, basketball, and track and fields are dominated by African Americans. This makes me question why are African Americans so prominent and dominant in these sports?
However, many southern states found ways around the laws to disenfranchise the black populations. They did this by introducing a ‘Grandfather Clause’, which is that only people whose grandfather voted, gave them the ability to vote. Also literacy test was another method used, which in most ways wasn’t made fairly and even well educated people were disenfranchised and not allowed to vote. However, in 1946 President Truman established The President’s Committee on ‘Civil rights’, producing a report examining the experiences of racial minorities in America. The report was called ‘To Secure These Rights’, this report highlighted the problems facing African Americans and proposed radical changes to make American society better.
Why was the second World war a turning point for black Americans? In WWII, African-Americans served in segregated units known as the ‘Jim Crow army” and were not allowed to fight alongside whites. The Nazis also had a policy of racial discrimination so African-Americans were sent to fight an enemy who saw them as lessor beings, yet the side they fought for also saw them that way too. It was a contradiction. President Roosevelt, former governor of New York, did not believe in racial segregation of African-Americans and when African-Americans were hired to drive buses in Philadelphia during the war, some residents refused to ride the buses others threatened to burn the buses.
The war had seen over 1.2 million black men join the US army. The experiences of racism and formal segregation had radicalised the soldiers, especially the Northern blacks, as they had never encountered the harsh treatment of blacks in the Southern states. Many soldiers would later join the fight against segregation back home; the evidence for this was the massive rise in NAACP members. Furthermore, at liberation of Nazi concentration camps, the extreme horrors of racism for a ‘lesser’ race was shown to US and the world, this convinced many people back in the US that racism was completely unacceptable. The impact from the war influenced public opinion on racism, however they couldn’t make de facto changes regarding segregation and so wasn’t the main reason for the improvement in effecting the position of African-Americans.
African American men were fighting in Vietnam alongside of white Americans, yet returning to a nation that was still treating them as second class citizens. When black men returned home, they were unable to find employment and when they did, those jobs came at a much lower salary than their white counterparts. On average, non-whites earned between thirty two and thirty-eight percent less than whites regardless of education or accomplishments. This enraged black men, as they felt that their services would give them more respect once they returned from serving their country. Even when it came to more accomplished African diplomats, they too were mistreated simply due to the color of their skin.