[Eoscstudents] Black History

[Levenia Carey]

Good Afternoon:
Today our 1st spotlight in on a group of men who made a major 
contribution to our country during World War II.  Tuskegee Airmen:  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, Benjamin O. 
Davis, Jr., 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.  As a bomber escort group on 200 bomber 
missions, the 332d won fame for not losing a single U.S. bomber to enemy 
aircraft.  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. 

Our 2nd Spotlight is on Mr. Booker Taliaferro Washington (1856-1915).  
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.
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.
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.
In an effort to encourage the development of more black-owned business, 
Washington established the National Negro Business League.  His 
autobiography, Up From Slavery,  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.
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