Roscoe Brown: A Tuskegee Airman Speaks

Roscoe Brown: A Tuskegee Airman Speaks

And there were black pilots to look up to, he recalls, including Bessie Coleman, who learned to fly in France and became a great stunt pilot. Before that, there was Julian Boyd, who flew for the Canadian air force in World War I. There was also Albert E. Forsythe, who flew across the country in 1933.

But during World War II, the NAACP, the Pullman Car Porters Union and other civil rights groups forced the U.S. military to create an experimental group called the 99th Fighter Squadron, which was trained at an airfield in Tuskegee, Ala., Brown said. Eventually the military built a $1 million airfield to train blacks under segregated circumstances. An estimated 1,000 pilots were trained, and about 12,000 workers received technical training, Brown said.

Double Victory:
Double Victory: Two Warriors in the Fight for Civil Rights During WWII is 13 years in the making. Many people along the way were of great assistance, from the nameless secretary who gave the first lead, to people who donated their time and resources.

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