It's up, up, and away with the Tuskegee Airmen, a heroic group of African American military pilots who helped the United States win World War II. During World War II, black Americans were fighting for their country and for freedom in Europe, yet they had to endure a totally segregated military in the United States, where they weren't considered smart enough to become military pilots. After acquiring government funding for aviation training, civil rights activists were able to kickstart the first African American military flight program in the US at Tuskegee University in Alabama. While this book details thrilling flight missions and the grueling training sessions the Tuskegee Airmen underwent, it also shines a light on the lives of these brave men who helped pave the way for the integration of the US armed forces.

The Tuskegee Airmen not only flew 1,500 successful missions in World War II,but also laid the groundwork for an end to unfair practices banning black menfrom certain military professions.While playing at their grandparentshouse one day, Joshua and Kristadiscover a World War II uniform, helmet, and medals. Their grandfather shareswith them the story of his proud days as a member of America�s first all-blackflying squadron.When the Tuskegee Experience began in 1931, officials believed black peoplewere incapable of learning to fly an airplane. The Tuskegee airmen proved themwrong, and served as a sterling example of what a people--thought best suited tojanitorial work, cooking, and manual labor--could do.About The IllustratorIllustrator Rosalie M. Shepherd is a landscape and portrait painter, workswith oil, charcoal, and watercolor, and has worked extensively as a graphicdesigner.

Chronicles America's first African American military pilots, who fought againt two enemies, the Axis powers of World War II and Jim Crow racism in the United States.

Many documentaries, articles, museum exhibits, books, and movies have now treated what became known as the Tuskegee Experiment involving the black pilots who gained fame during World War II as the Tuskegee Airmen. Most of these works have focused on the training of Americas first black fighter pilots and their subsequent accomplishments during combat. This publication goes further, using captioned photographs to trace the airmen through the stages of training, deployment, and combat actions in North Africa, Italy, and Germany, in an attractive coffee-table-book format. Included for the first time are depictions of the critical support roles of doctors, nurses, mechanics, navigators, weathermen, parachute riggers, and other personnel, all of whom contributed to the airmens success, and many of whom went on to help complete the establishment of the 477th Composite Group. The authors have told, in pictures and words, the full story of the Tuskegee Airmen and the environments in which they lived, worked, played, fought, and sometimes died.

Through veteran interviews, this illustrated history explores the contributions, experiences, and legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen from 1941–1946. What became known as the Tuskegee Experience began in 1931 with a letter from the head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to the War Department asking that blacks be allowed to join the military. The efforts of early African American aviators, the struggle of organizations and individuals against the military's segregation policies, and the hard work of thousands of young men and women, military and civilian, black and white, all combined to make the Tuskegee Airmen an important but often overlooked part of America's military history. Through fascinating interviews with veterans and historical photographs, Black Knights tells the story of the men and women who served in the training program at Tuskegee Army Air Field from 1941 to 1946. The pilots' stories are here, but so are the experiences of the mechanics, band members, armorers, staff officers, nurses, and more who proved that they had courage and perseverance, not only in war, but in peacetime as well.

"This book is a masterpiece. It captures the essence of the Tuskegee Airmen's experience from the perspective of one who lived it. The action sequences make me feel I'm back in the cockpit of my P-51C 'Kitten'! If you want to know what it was like fighting German interceptors in European skies while winning equal opportunity at home, be sure to read this book!" —Colonel Charles E. McGee, USAF (ret.) former president, Tuskegee Airmen Inc. “All Americans owe Harry Stewart Jr. and his fellow airmen a huge debt for defending our country during World War II. In addition, they have inspired generations of African American youth to follow their dreams.” —Henry Louis Gates Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard University He had to sit in a segregated rail car on the journey to Army basic training in Mississippi in 1943. But two years later, the twenty-year-old African American from New York was at the controls of a P-51, prowling for Luftwaffe aircraft at five thousand feet over the Austrian countryside. By the end of World War II, he had done something that nobody could take away from him: He had become an American hero. This is the remarkable true story of Lt. Col. Harry Stewart Jr., one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen pilots who experienced air combat during World War II. Award-winning aviation writer Philip Handleman recreates the harrowing action and heart-pounding drama of Stewart’s combat missions, including the legendary mission in which Stewart downed three enemy fighters. Soaring to Glory also reveals the cruel injustices Stewart and his fellow Tuskegee Airmen faced during their wartime service and upon return home after the war. Stewart’s heroism was not celebrated as it should have been in postwar America—but now, his boundless courage and determination will never be forgotten.

Inspiring memoir of Colonel Harold H. Brown, one of the 930 original Tuskegee pilots, whose dramatic wartime exploits and postwar professional successes contribute to this extraordinary account. Keep Your Airspeed Up: The Story of a Tuskegee Airman is the memoir of an African American man who, through dedication to his goals and vision, overcame the despair of racial segregation to great heights, not only as a military aviator, but also as an educator and as an American citizen. Unlike other historical and autobiographical portrayals of Tuskegee airmen, Harold H. Brown’s memoir is told from its beginnings: not on the first day of combat, not on the first day of training, but at the very moment Brown realized he was meant to be a pilot. He revisits his childhood in Minneapolis where his fascination with planes pushed him to save up enough of his own money to take flying lessons. Brown also details his first trip to the South, where he was met with a level of segregation he had never before experienced and had never imagined possible. During the 1930s and 1940s, longstanding policies of racial discrimination were called into question as it became clear that America would likely be drawn into World War II. The military reluctantly allowed for the development of a flight-training program for a limited number of African Americans on a segregated base in Tuskegee, Alabama. The Tuskegee Airmen, as well as other African Americans in the armed forces, had the unique experience of fighting two wars at once: one against Hitler’s fascist regime overseas and one against racial segregation at home. Colonel Brown fought as a combat pilot with the 332nd Fighter Group during World War II, and was captured and imprisoned in Stalag VII A in Moosburg, Germany, where he was liberated by General George S. Patton on April 29, 1945. Upon returning home, Brown noted with acute disappointment that race relations in the United States hadn’t changed. It wasn’t until 1948 that the military desegregated, which many scholars argue would not have been possible without the exemplary performance of the Tuskegee Airmen.