Tuskegee

Tuskegee Airmen NHS

The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African-American US military combat pilots. They became known as the the Red Tails because they painted their plane tails red. 

Since the military was segregated at that time, there could not be only African-American fighter pilots. All the positions needed to get those planes in the air and support them from the ground had to be filled by African-Americans as well. So, Tuskegee was really an experiment with the odds stacked against it. And with everything on the line, because these men had to prove that black people were as smart as white people by executing their jobs perfectly. Any mistakes would "prove" that black people are inferior. What a weight on their shoulders!

These four men are former Tuskegee airmen who shared their stories in the excellent video at the visitor center. 

By the end of World War II, almost 1000 pilots had been trained, and almost 14,000 support personnel. Of these 15,000 airmen, there are less than 200 alive today.

This is an original training plane. 

After visiting the airstrip, we also visited Booker T Washington's home, The Oaks, at Tuskegee University, a school he started. 

This is a pretty impressive house for someone who started his life in slavery. 

Our tour guide was so impressed with our kids knowledge, but we were listening to Booker T Washington's autobiography, UP FROM SLAVERY, while driving in the car today. So we kinda cheated/played the homeschoolers well. (:

Through hard work and self-reliance, this man worked from having nothing to leaving a legacy.

These stairs were custom built super short for his 4'11" wife.  

This home was built by Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (now called Tuskegee University) students. Mr. Washington's mission was to equip students with life skills, academics, and trade skills. There was no money for supplies or even materials to build any classrooms with, so students made their  materials. For this home, they even made the bricks to build with. 

Booker T Washington was a leader in the black community. He had different methods, but in our timeline of people we have learned about so far on the trip, he comes after Frederick Douglass and before Martin Luther King, Jr.