Tuskegee Airmen

Eleanor Roosevelt and “Chief” Charles Alfred Anderson in 1941. Roosevelt convinced the Rosenwald Fund to expand the pilot training program at Tuskegee. Early in the year, Roosevelt visited the Tuskegee Institute's Moton Airfield, asking the chief flight instructor, "Chief" Charles A. Anderson if he would take her flying. Despite extreme objections from the Secret Service, Roosevelt spent more than an hour flying over the Tuskegee airfield, which was possibly the first time a black man had ever flown a plane with a white woman as his passenger. (Air Force Historical Research Agency photo)

Tuskegee Airmen

Capt. Charles B. Hall (left), the first Tuskegee Airman to shoot down an enemy plane, is congratulated by Maj. Gen. John Kenneth Cannon. (U.S. Air Force photo)

Tuskegee Airmen

Pilot trainees get physical instruction at Tuskegee Army Air Field. (U.S. Air Force photo)

Tuskegee Airmen

Armorers and other ground personnel were trained at Chanute Field, Ill. (U.S. Air Force photo)

Tuskegee Airmen

Fliers of a P-51 Mustang Group of the 15th Air Force in Italy "shoot the breeze" in the shadow of one of the Mustangs they fly. Left to right: Lt. Dempsey W. Morgan Jr., Lt. Carroll S. Woods, Lt. Robert H. Nelson Jr., Capt. Andrew D. Turner and Lt. Clarence P. Lester. Ca. August 1944. (Courtesy National Archives photo no. 208-NP-6XXX)

Tuskegee Airmen

Members of the 99th Fighter Squadron of the Army Air Forces, the famous all-Negro outfit, who are rapidly making themselves feared by enemy pilots, pose for a picture at the Anzio beachhead. In the foreground, head bared, is 1st Lt. Andrew Lane. Ca. February 1944. (Courtesy National Archives photo no. 80-G-54413)