By Julian

Main idea

The Tuskegee airmen were the first ever Air Force pilots of color in the US military. The first graduating class of Tuskegee airmen were: Benjamin O. Davis Jr., Mac Ross, George S. Roberts, Charles H. Debow, and Lemuel Custis. The pilots went to Berlin, Germany to protect the bombers.

Background information

Black people were treated badly by Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow laws were made a couple of years after slavery was abolished. Black people were segregated from white people. Black people could not do the same things as white people. Shops had signs that were mean to Black people like “whites only”.

Challenges/obstacles

White people thought that black people could not be airplane pilots. Black people were segregated from white people even in the army. In the army, Black people had to sleep in different places and they had to eat under tents with mud floors.

Fun facts

The Tuskegee airmen were nicknamed the Red Tails.

Eleanor Roosevelt gave $175,000 to build a bigger airfield at Tuskegee.

If there is a question I would ask the Tuskegee airmen it would be: How do you fly an airplane?