The Tuskegee Airmen Essay Example
Uchenna Ekeh
Mrs. Reed
Composition and Reading
21 February 2012
The Red Tails: Their influence from the ground and up. Being the first of anything is never easy, especially when you are representing a whole race. Knowing this, it was difficult for the Tuskegee Airmen, a.k.a. Red Tails for the red mark on the tail of their aircraft, to participate in World War II as the first African-American pilots in history. They served from 1943-1945, collecting marvelous records and earning great respect for their performance. But most importantly, the Red Tails helped attain equal rights for African-Americans. The Tuskegee Airmen showed persistence in the struggle to participate in the war, which set a precedent for colored-people, they showed that African Americans can do anything any other people can do, and their remarkable performance gave the army a reason to involve African-Americans in the war. Despite the arduous obstacles they had to face, the Tuskegee Airmen showed a great amount of determination and perseverance to play a part in World War II. Firstly, the Tuskegee Airmen encountered many political difficulties to even be allowed to train in aviation. Before 1940, African-Americans were considered incapable of using airplane machinery. In January 15 1941, the NAACP demanded that there should be a test done to assess the abilities of African-Americans in terms of aviation. Jessie Smith says so in one of his references, saying” Because the military expected—and hoped—that these men would fail, the training program was called the ‘Tuskegee Experiment’…In military aviation, however, they would be highly visible and would prove that they could master complex machinery.”(Carney 191). With the help of the NAACP, African Americans were permitted to begin aviation training in Tuskegee University. Still, the African-Americans faced difficulties along the way in training. McLaurin Melton supports this by writing, “At home, segregation continued to affect the efficiency
Mrs. Reed
Composition and Reading
21 February 2012
The Red Tails: Their influence from the ground and up. Being the first of anything is never easy, especially when you are representing a whole race. Knowing this, it was difficult for the Tuskegee Airmen, a.k.a. Red Tails for the red mark on the tail of their aircraft, to participate in World War II as the first African-American pilots in history. They served from 1943-1945, collecting marvelous records and earning great respect for their performance. But most importantly, the Red Tails helped attain equal rights for African-Americans. The Tuskegee Airmen showed persistence in the struggle to participate in the war, which set a precedent for colored-people, they showed that African Americans can do anything any other people can do, and their remarkable performance gave the army a reason to involve African-Americans in the war. Despite the arduous obstacles they had to face, the Tuskegee Airmen showed a great amount of determination and perseverance to play a part in World War II. Firstly, the Tuskegee Airmen encountered many political difficulties to even be allowed to train in aviation. Before 1940, African-Americans were considered incapable of using airplane machinery. In January 15 1941, the NAACP demanded that there should be a test done to assess the abilities of African-Americans in terms of aviation. Jessie Smith says so in one of his references, saying” Because the military expected—and hoped—that these men would fail, the training program was called the ‘Tuskegee Experiment’…In military aviation, however, they would be highly visible and would prove that they could master complex machinery.”(Carney 191). With the help of the NAACP, African Americans were permitted to begin aviation training in Tuskegee University. Still, the African-Americans faced difficulties along the way in training. McLaurin Melton supports this by writing, “At home, segregation continued to affect the efficiency