Toledo Blade...
Deserved tribute  
August  15, 2011 

African-Americans have fought in all of America’s wars. The first casualty of the Revolutionary War was a black man. The tales of the black regiments that fought and died for the Union during the Civil War are well documented. The Buffalo Soldiers of the closing years of the 19th century are justifiably legendary. 

Even with such an honorable history, the conventional wisdom among American military brass during World War II was that blacks didn’t have the will, fighting spirit, or intellectual capacity to be fighter pilots. 

Seventy years ago, America embarked on a bold military experiment, after fierce lobbying by civil rights organizations and sympathetic political leaders paved the way. On July 19, 1941, the first training session of the all-black Tuskegee Airmen took place at Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama. 

More than 1,000 African-Americans learned to fly and fight over the skies of Tuskegee. When they got the opportunity to prove their skills against the Germans in the European Theater, prejudice against them evaporated as the number of Axis planes they destroyed increased. 

This month, nearly 100 surviving Tuskegee Airmen gathered in Washington, D.C. for their annual convention. They offered a reminder, in a town known for being small-minded, what personal valor in the name of public service really means. 

Read it at the Toledo Blade