In this inspiring account of the Tuskegee Airmen--the country's first African American military pilots--historian J. Todd Moye captures the challenges and triumphs of these brave aviators in their own words, drawing on more than 800 interviews recorded for the National Park Service's Tuskegee Airmen Oral History Project. Denied the right to fully participate in the U.S. war effort alongside whites at the beginning of World War II, African Americans--spurred on by black newspapers and civil rights organizations such as the NAACP--compelled the prestigious Army Air Corps to open its training programs to black pilots, despite the objections of its top generals. Thousands of young men came from every part of the country to Tuskegee, Alabama, in the heart of the segregated South, to enter the program, which expanded in 1943 to train multi-engine bomber pilots in addition to fighter pilots. By the end of the war, Tuskegee Airfield had become a small city populated by black mechanics, parachute packers, doctors, and nurses. Together, they helped prove that racial segregation of the fighting forces was so inefficient as to be counterproductive to the nation's defense. Freedom Flyers brings to life the legacy of a determined, visionary cadre of African American airmen who proved their capabilities and patriotism beyond question, transformed the armed forces--formerly the nation's most racially polarized institution--and jump-started the modern struggle for racial equality.
"The personal nature of the examples Moye cites make it a far deeper and richer narrative than typical WWII fare.... The author's friendly style should open the title up to even casual readers."
--Booklist
"An excellent history of the first African-American military pilots.... Moye's lively prose and the intimate details of the personal narratives yield an accessible scholarly history that also succeeds as vivid social history."
--Publishers Weekly
The Tuskegee Airmen, the nation's first military pilots of color, fought two wars: against fascism in the skies over Europe, and against Jim Crow racism at home. This history of civil rights pioneers is the first to include material from the 800+ interviews from the Tuskegee Airmen Oral History Project. It depicts the Tuskegee Airmen experience as a microcosm of the African American experience during World War II, and focuses on the changes that the war wrought in the lives of African Americans. It explores the ironies and contradictions that were inherent in fighting a war against fascism with a Jim Crow military force.
