Updated Tuesday, July 12, 2005  

World War II

Show your support for freedom and democracy

By the time World War II engulfed the world into another global conflict the status of black Americans remained unchanged. In southern states blacks were not permitted to vote, and segregation prevailed. In northern communities the attitudes, processes, and procedures of the majority  made sure that "colored people" knew their place and stayed there. The outbreak of a world war brought about only a few changes. Then, as now, a black man willing to stand his ground was generally knocked down for his arrogance; literally in the south and institutionally in the north. However, as history truly demonstrates, black men joined the ranks of those volunteering to fight against Nazi tyranny, and Imperial Japanese treachery.

The United States Army and Navy were segregated on December 7, 1941 when Japanese planes bombed Pearl Harbor. Those few blacks in military service were reduced to job descriptions despised by their white counterparts. Most were in the Navy were cooks, orderlies, and dock workers. In the Army a black man could look forward to be assigned to jobs associated with cleaning latrines, transportation, or the medical corps. During the war years those duties were expanded to the burying of the dead as also occurred during the Civil War. Nothing like progress.

I suppose the will of the human spirit can not be denied; in peace or in war. Given an opportunity to perform under hostile conditions the black man has demonstrated his bravery under fire. Consider Dorie Miller, who had never been trained on the machine gun that he used to shoot down four Japanese planes during the attack on Pearl Harbor that infamous day; December 7, 1941. His heroics with the gun followed his demonstrated bravery when he drugged his wounded captain to safety before manning the gun. As fate would have it Dorie's next ship was sunk by a Japanese torpedo and he died along with his shipmates. No Medal of Honor for Dorie Miller. You know shooting down four planes with no training is an everyday feat. 

BACK    MAIN MENU    NEXT

Black men distinguished themselves on the sea, on land, and in the air; but for each step of progress there were months of lobbying of our government to gain the right to die for one's country. Belated as it is but now the challenges that faced the Tuskegee Airmen is now known, thanks primarily to HBO Productions; move evidence of our visual dependence for information. However, when one becomes aware of the true history of the men that are now thought of as the Tuskegee Airmen we find true heroes. No fighter squadron has ever matched the record established by the black airmen. During escort duties over Germany these pilots did not lose a single bomber to enemy aircraft; prior to this these same pilots racked up an impressive flying record during the Italian Campaign.

The all black 93rd saw action in the Pacific

Tuskegee Airmen 

 The Red Tails

Young boys and girls need heroes. Adults they can look up to and immolate. Children immolate what they see and they see what they see. As a result it is important that children meet, and communicate with adults who are what the child wants to be, or think they want to be. Those ambitions, occupations, and vocations change many times as we mature, but the evolution of aspirations remains rooted in hero worshipping. Slanted History denies the youngster a person from the village to immolate, and presents selected heroes that bear no relation. Some would argue that the intent is intentional, others that it's simply normal human behavior for those with the greatest resources to select what we know, and there are thousands of more with hypotheses that lay the cause on other effects. It matters not. The reality is that Slanted History robs children of something to shoot for. No black child can ever grow up to be white. For those that knew, and few did, the Tuskegee Airmen were excellent role models. Not only were they courageous, and proficient at war, but they were highly educated young men who took education seriously, and made no apologies for it. 

Lena Horne visited the men of Tuskegee

The black pilots from Tuskegee had the same cavalier flair of other "Knights of the Sky". They wore the scarf, goggles, and held the attitude that causes one to be a fighter pilot. When assigned the new P51s they even had the tails of their planes painted red so that the enemy would know who they were facing. It must of gave them a great psychological edge because it was not uncommon for German pilots to flee when they spotted the "red tails" against the horizon. Ah, you think not? Read on.

Initially called the 99th Fighter Squadron, later to be reformed as the 332nd Fighter Group, and even later the 477th Composite Group, these black pilots, and their ground crews, demonstrated that black men were not only capable of combat flying, but were damn good at it. Check out their records:

C.D. "Lucky" Lester tells how he shot down three German planes 

On March 7, 1942, five black men became the first of the Tuskegee Airmen to earn their wings.

Benjamin O. Davis

Charles DeBow

Lemuel Custis

George S. Roberts

Mac Ross

All survived the war to return to a racially divided homeland.

War Records:

Lt. Charles B. Hall (Indiana), on July 2, 1943, shot down a German FW190 fighter becoming the first back fighter pilot of W.W.II to down an enemy plane.

Lt. William Griffin (Birmingham, Alabama), on January 15, 1944 crash landed behind enemy lines and was taken prisoner. He spent the remainder of the war in a Prisoner of War Camp.

Seventy-five of the four hundred and fifty black pilots that served during W.W.II shot down enemy aircraft.

Captain Lee Archer (New York City), on October 13, 1944, shot down three (3) Lufawaffe planes during a single engagement. OUTSTANDING !!!

Lt. Langdon E. Johnson also shot down three (3) on August 12, 1944. Later Johnson was shot down and killed.

Lt. Armour G. McDaniel (Martinsville, Virginia), was shot down March 24, 1945, just days before the war's end, but he remained a POW until allied troops prevailed.

Captain Wendell O. Pruitt (St. Louis, Missouri) and Lt. Pierson Gwyne (Oakland, California) teamed up on July 25, 1944 and sunk a German destroyer. Oh yeah, "straighten up and fly right".

AFTER THE WAR

Did bravery under fire in defense of one's country bring equality to those once denied level ground? Consider this quote from Lt. Colonel Willie Ashley, one of the Tuskegee Airmen, upon his return stateside, "When we returned to the States with chests full of ribbons, we were very proud of what we had done for our country, and we hoped others would be equally proud of us. But, when we went into the Officer's Club, we were marched through the kitchen, out the back door, and told not to return."

African American veterans returning to the South after military service in World Wars I and II were often unwilling to be subjected to the humiliation and degradation of segregation and discrimination in the land for which they served and shed blood. Some whites, especially in the South, felt that these veterans needed to be terrorized into submission, whether they wore the nation's uniform or not. Charles White's drawing indicates the collusion between some law enforcement officers and the Ku Klux Klan.

To demonstrate that progress is so very slow when it comes to black people in the U.S.A. we examine the case of Lt. Vernon Baker, a true hero that gained no recognition until fifty years had passed. It must be noted that no blacks were awarded the Medal of Honor during all of World War II. Keep that in mind as you read about the leadership of Vernon Baker, a black man.

                Lt. Vernon Baker  .......... A True American Hero

On January 13, 1997, Vernon Baker was awarded the Medal of Honor by President William Jefferson Clinton for his heroism demonstrated on April 5, 1945. Yeah, you can do the math. Lending credit to the accomplishments of black men has always been an area of additional challenge and struggle.

On that early spring day back in 1945 Lt. Baker led his all black platoon of twenty-five (25) men on a reconnaissance mission three miles behind enemy lines during the Northern Italian Campaign. Baker's commander, a white officer, had abandoned his platoon supposedly to go and bring back reinforcements. Uh, the commander never returned, but even went so far as to file an official report charging that the men under his command refused to fight. Oh, how hypocritical for the coward to charge cowardice.

Abandoned by their leader Baker, and his men, had to fight their way back to friendly lines. During the course of a running battle they shot and killed twenty-six (26) German soldiers, destroyed six (6) machine gun emplacements, two (2) observation posts, and four (4) dugouts as they fought their way through enemy territory. Only eight (8) or the original twenty-six (26) men made it back alive.

After the war Baker remained in the Army before retiring to Idaho with his wife. During W.W.II there were over three hundred (300) men awarded the Medal of Honor; none of them black until Baker, just a few years ago. Six others also received belated recognition for their W.W.II heroism; Major Charles Thomas, 1st Lt. John Fox, Staff Sergeant Edward Carter, Staff Sergeant Ruben Rivers, Private Willy James, Jr., and Private George Watson; however their families had to accept the awards because they are all dead.

The Medal of Honor

                                                                Lt. John Fox

Lt. Fox called artillery fire onto his own position when he realized he, and his men, could not hold back the swarming Germans. In a reportedly calm voice he gave out the co ordinance over his field telephone. The soldier on the other end questioned him repeatedly, but Lt. Fox repeated his position. He, and most of his men, died as a result.

 
View Guestbook
Sign Guestbook

WOMEN OF WAR

Not only did black men flock to the enlistment offices, but so did black women. Women served as nurses, clerks, typists, and some even as pilots. There were commission, and non-commissioned officers as well as enlisted personnel. Some noted examples are Major Charity B. Adams, and Captain Abbie N. Campbell. Again it took strong political lobbying to bring about an opportunity for black women to serve. Mary McLeod Bethume championed the cause for women into the very offices of the President of the United States, and is credited with paving the way for women to serve.

Even though an extreme shortage of nurses in World War II forced the federal government to seriously consider drafting white nurses, defense officials remained reluctant to recruit black nurses throughout the war. Allowing black nurses to care for whites was considered a violation of social norms. Nevertheless, the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses, led by Mabel Staupers, and rights groups like the NAACP, loudly protested racial policies in the Army Nurse Corps and the military in general. These groups achieved some success. This photograph documents the arrival of the first African American nurses in England.

Toni Frissell became the first professional photographer permitted to photograph the all-black 332nd Fighter Pilot Squadron in a combat situation. She traveled to their air base in southern Italy, from where the "Tuskegee Airmen" flew sorties into southern Europe and North Africa. Best known of those Frissell photographed was Col. Benjamin O. Davis,Jr., the son of the first African American general, pictured on the left, and First Lieutenant Lee Rayford.

MAIN MENU