They were turned down because all of the Air Corps units were white only. Training began at Tuskegee in December 1939, and by the spring of 1940, the first graduates of the program attempted to join the Army Air Corps (before 1947, the Air Force was not a separate branch of the military). One of the schools selected for the training program was the Tuskegee Institute, an all-black college in Alabama. However, in April of 1939, Congress amended the law to include blacks as well. At first, the plan only considered white students. In 1938, Congress established the Civilian Pilot Training Program to provide flight instruction to college students. NARRATIVEīy the late 1930s, it was becoming clear that war was coming in Europe, and the United States began making plans to recruit and train more pilots. They sought to be respected for their abilities, not shunned for the color of their skin. The Airmen believed they had a responsibility to both destroy the fascist regimes of Italy and Germany and to challenge the system of segregation which rested on the idea of black inferiority. The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of black pilots and ground support personnel who flew combat missions against Germany and Italy during World War II.

Resisting the efforts of Germany were the Allied Powers of Great Britain, France and, later, the Soviet Union and the United States. Germany was attempting to establish its position as the dominant power in Europe. In September 1939, World War II broke out in Europe when Germany, along with the Soviet Union, invaded Poland. The idea that black officers would command white troops was utterly unacceptable. A second study in 1937 conceded that blacks could serve in combat positions, but only in segregated units. In 1925, a study by the War Department concluded that blacks were inferior soldiers to whites, being both less intelligent and more likely to panic in combat. The policy of segregation was formalized in the early twentieth century. In most of those conflicts, however, black soldiers participated in black-only units, isolated from white soldiers. Black Americans have been involved in every military conflict in American history, beginning with the American Revolution.

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