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African Americans - The Tuskegee Airmen

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Plan of Investigation The period during the Second World War was a time where there was racial segregation in the United States Army Air Forces against the Africans Americans. As the blacks were not allowed in at first, they, along with other organizations, put forth an effort to be a part of and included in the program. How did the actions of the African Americans lead to the start of the Tuskegee Airmen? For this investigation, the way and intensity the African Americans were brought into the war will be analyzed. Information about African Americans along with the NAACP involvement in developing the 99th squadron, 332nd squadron, and Tuskegee airmen will be analyzed. I will research the situation for the black during the time period. I will look at books to understand the basics of the Army, I will look at books to understand how the time affected the blacks for being in the army, and I will look at books and journal articles to understand how they were accepted into the army. The two sources Tuskegee (Weather) Airmen: Black Meteorologists in World War 2 by Gerald A. White Jr. and Blacks in the Army Air Forces During World War 2 by Alan M. Osur along with many will be evaluated for their Origin, Purpose, value, and Limitation. Summary of Evidence Before the War During Racial Segregation However, they were greatly underrepresented due to their limited economic circumstances, made worse by Jim Crow laws and practices that restricted or denied their entrance into military and commercial aviation. This started to change in 1939, with the creation of the Civilian Pilot Training (CPT) Program (White 20). This is all under the pretenses that they would be segregated and they were not officially starting the process of having them in the Army Air Forces, just the combat training and a new unit so that they could be, in the future, a part of it (White 20). During the War with No Blacks in the Army They were aided by organizations within the black community and by the propaganda war which emphasized the racist and undemocratic character of the Axis power (Osur 1). Their ability to organize and the political self-consciousness and awareness that had developed in the black community gave them the capability to exert pressure (Osur 1). He continued this reasoning in 1941 in a letter in which he argued against ending segregation which he saw as “tantamount to solving a social problem which has perplexed the American people throughout the history of the nation” (Osur 10). During the War with Blacks in the Army The first African-American combat unit in the Army Air Forces was the 99th Fighter Squadron (Haulman 38). Under pressure from the NAACP and other groups, the army reluctantly created the 99th Pursuit Squadron in January 1941, with the proviso that black pilots would be strictly segregated from the rest of the Army Air Force (Kislow 292). Training of the Men to Be a Part of the Army The service would have to admit blacks piecemeal to specialist training schools to which they had until then been denied, staff the wing’s tactical units with white officers a decision that would be guaranteed to bring down condemnation from civil right coalition, or desegregate once and for all (Moye 145). They were aided by many organizations within the black community and by the

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