Freedom Flyers

The Tuskegee Airmen, the nation's first military pilots of color, fought two wars: against fascism in the skies over Europe, and against Jim Crow racism at home. This history of civil rights pioneers is the first to include material from the 800+ interviews from the Tuskegee Airmen Oral History Project. It depicts the Tuskegee Airmen experience as a microcosm of the African American experience during World War II, and focuses on the changes that the war wrought in the lives of African Americans. It explores the ironies and contradictions that were inherent in fighting a war against fascism with a Jim Crow military force.