Students dive into aviation history
February 14, 2012, 11:11 am
The Thurgood Marshall Learning Center in Rock Island, Illinois, has a wing set aside to commemorate African-Americans in the aviation industry. These pioneer aviators broke racial barriers in the industry and helped the Allied Forces win World War II.
The first African-Americans to be trained as pilots in the U.S. Army Air Corps during the war were the Tuskegee Airmen. The learning center has a hallway of artwork honoring these veterans, as well as a comprehensive academic program for 120 students who struggled in other high schools in the area. The program was based on a Black History Month project that began a few years ago, in which students discussed the Tuskegee Airmen and created World War II aircraft replicas, the Quad-City Times reported.
Rather than limiting coursework on these topics to Black History Month, Phillip Ambrose, the principal at the learning center, decided to focus on the Tuskegee Airmen as an important part of American history and developed a curriculum around them. The school created the hallway of artwork honoring the airmen to join an earlier mural created by students in honor of the Quad Cities and the Mississippi River Valley region, the source reported.
To create the Tuskegee Airmen mural, Ambrose asked Jesse Adams, a retired art teacher, to work with students. The mural was designed to tell the story of the airmen as well as add appealing artwork to the center's decor. The focal point of the piece is a portrait of General Benjamin Davis Jr., one of the first Tuskegee Airmen to receive his pilot's wings. He was the commander of the 332nd fighter group and became the first African-American general in the U.S. Air Force, the source reported.
The Tuskegee Airmen were not used only for artistic inspiration, but also to form the basis of many classroom discussions at the center. In a recent class, one teacher asked her students to imagine they were a young minority college graduate at the onset of World War II. She asked her students how they would view military service when segregation was still ingrained in society, the source reported.
Many students said they would not allow racial discrimination to prevent them from serving their country, and many would find a way to fight or serve as nurses to the servicemen. A major motion picture depicting the bravery and history of the Tuskegee Airmen is set to be released soon, and the class plans to attend the movie and then participate in a panel discussion organized by African-American professionals in the Quad Cities to discuss the airmen's role in black history, the source reported.
During the premiere of the film, "Red Tails," many audience members cheered and others were brought to tears. Produced by George Lucas, the film tells the story of the African-American fighter pilots and mechanics who, in the face of adversity, racism and segregation, became war heroes. The movie takes audiences through aviation's rise in the United States and the role it played in World War II.
The federal government launched programs starting in 1938 to help African-American college students earn their private pilot's license. When the draft came in 1940, all American males between 21 and 35 had to register to fight in the war, and many African-Americans were able to join the U.S. Air Force due to the educational programs created, the source reported.
Racism and segregation, however, forced the African-American soldiers into separate units, and the army created an aviation service specifically for these pilots. The racism did not deter the African-American pilots from fighting for their country. Many young men came from big cities to be trained as pilots, navigators, bombardiers, mechanics and other aviation professions at the Tuskegee Institute before going to war.
George Lucas spent 23 years collecting the stories from surviving Tuskegee Airmen, who paved the way for future African-Americans in the U.S. Air Force. Lucas believed in the story of the airmen so much that he funded the entire $58 million project himself to ensure the history was shared with the public, according to the Sacramento Bee.
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