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Good Afternoon:<br>
Today our 1st spotlight in on a group of men who made a major
contribution to our country during World War II. <b>Tuskegee Airmen:
</b>this is the term used to describe four all-black World War II
squadrons - the 99th, 100th, 301th, and 302d. Nine hundred twenty-six
pilots earned their pilot's wings under the Army Air Force Aviation
Cadet program, which began in 1941 at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
Although the program's first students graduated three months after the
bombing of Pearl Harbor, the army refused to deploy the Tuskegee pilots
outside the United States until 1943, when the 99th was shipped to
North Africa. Racial hostility in the military almost led to its
recall, but the squadron was saved thanks to the testimony of its
commander, <b>Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., </b>who later became the first
African-American Air Force general. IN 1944, the 99th merged with the
other three black squadrons to form the 332d Fighter Group. <b>As a
bomber escort group on 200 bomber missions, the 332d won fame for not
losing a single U.S. bomber to enemy aircraft.</b> In 1,578 combat
missions, the Tuskegee Airmen shot down 111 enemy planes, destroyed 150
others on the ground, and sand a German destroyer. Tuskegee Airmen saw
action in Africa, Sicily, Italy, France, Germany, and the Balkans; 66
were killed in action. Members of the 332d won more than 100
Distinguished Flying Crosses, and the group won three Distinguished
Unit citations. <br>
<br>
Our 2nd Spotlight is on <b>Mr. Booker Taliaferro Washington (1856-1915)</b>.
He was an educator and founder of Tuskegee Institute. Washington was
nine years old when the Civil War ended. He and his family moved to
Malden, West Virginia, and Washington went to work in a salt furnace.
After a workday that began at four in the morning he would sit up at
night teaching himself to read. At age 14, he left home on foot to
attend Hampton Institute in Virginia. There, he came under the
influence of General Samuel Armstrong, the school's founder. Armstrong
believed in manual labor in order to promote honesty, discipline, and
intelligence, and Washington took these concepts as the basis of his
own educational philosophy.<br>
In 1881, the Alabama state legislature decided to establish Tuskegee
Institute to train African-American teachers, and Washington was chosen
to head the new school. Two thousand dollars had been appropriated for
Tuskegee, but this money was just for faculty salaries. Washington
began by locating "a dilapidated shanty." Its condition was so bad
that whenever it rained, one of the students would have to hold an
umbrella over Washington's head as he taught. Since there were no
funds for land, buildings, books, or supplies, Washington borrowed
money to purchase an abandoned plantation. There his students built
classrooms, dormitories, and a chapel. They also produced their own
food. By 1888, thanks to Washington's determination, Tuskegee owned
540 acres of land and had a student population of 400.<br>
Following Armstrong's ideas, Washington focussed on teaching vocational
skills rather than traditional college subjects. In order to raise the
living standards of black farmers. He promoted black land ownership,
and in 1892, he established the annual Tuskegee Negro Conference to
which thousands of African Americans were invited to learn better
farming methods. He also managed to persuade Dr. George Washington
Carver to join the faculty at Tuskegee. Carver introduced concepts of
fertilizer, crop rotation, and multi-crop farming, and developed new
products for farmers.<br>
In an effort to encourage the development of more black-owned business,
Washington established the National Negro Business League. His
autobiography, <i>Up From Slavery, </i>became a best-seller and was
translated into a dozen languages. He persuaded many white businessmen
to make substantial contribution to Tuskegee and advised Presidents
William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt on political appointments of
importance to the African-American community. The vast majority of
African Americans looked to him for leadership until his death in
1915. His accomplishments were long-enduring, and he remains the
primary black leader of the post-Reconstruction period.<br>
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