For Black History Month – Southern Civil Rights Sites – Part 2

Moton Airfield

Tuskegee, Alabama (20 May 2024)

Just a few miles from the Tuskegee University campus is Moton Airfield. Now a National Historic Site, Moton is where the famous Tuskegee Airmen trained.

Imagine the nation at war. Black servicemen had this crazy idea they could support the effort as more than porters and truck drivers. They wanted to fly fighter planes but had to go into the deep South to learn the skills. They did and they succeeded in the war, memorably escorting bomber missions and engaging German fighters in Europe.

So, the war ends. We win. A few years later, President Truman ends segregation in our military. Four Tuskegee Airmen stayed in the service and eventually achieved the ranks of general, Benjamin O. Davis and Daniel James being among the more notable.

Grave of General Daniel James

Arlington National Cemetery (3 April 2011)

After graduating from the Tuskegee Institute, ‘Chappie’ James 

trained the Tuskegee Airmen fighter pilots before flying many 

combat missions in the Korean and Viet Nam wars. He was the 

first African American officer promoted to the four-star rank.

News stories recently reported the death of Lt. Colonel Harry Stewart. We will soon no longer have any living Airmen as time continues to sweep up all those who survived fighting in World War II. Stewart loved airplanes and flying since he was a kid. While that TV tribute made the point that Stewart’s attempt to be a commercial airline pilot was rejected “because of his race”, the Washington Post obituary was more succinct. Applicant Stewart was told…in so many words, “You have to understand. What are all the (White) passengers going to think when they see a person who looks like you flying the plane.”

Instead of being thanked for their service, Black vets returned to the Exceptional U. S. of A. to be the same second-class citizens they were before. Fast forward 80 years and we must note the recent bonehead stunt to remove any mention of the Tuskegee Airmen in Air Force training programs…because some idiot thought that was too WOKE/DEI and Trump wants all DEI to disappear. Thankfully, even MAGA faithful in Alabama (where the Air National Guard F-18’s still have red tails) protested and the training references were restored.

For Black History Month – Southern Civil Rights Sites – Part 1

It being February and I just posted the grave of VP # 13 in the Confederate bastion of Selma, Alabama, it seems appropriate to stay there and show a few of the historic places that factored into our nation’s long struggle for equality. This is especially appropriate in 2025 given we are going to hear nothing from the current administration on the subject.

While I complained about the oppressive heat in the South, the Great Sweaty Drive-away of 2024 brought us to a number of important historic sites…places that anyone interested in our nation’s history should visit…and appreciate…and pause to absorb their significance.

Edmund Pettus Bridge

Selma, Alabama (20 May 2024)

Edmond Pettus, like his Senate mate, J.T. Morgan, was also a former Grand Dragon of the Klan. He is memorialized on the bridge that crosses the Alabama River in Selma. The bridge that some want to re-name for John Lewis is famous as the site of the ‘Bloody Sunday’ violence in 1965 when civil rights marchers were attacked by Alabama police and Klan friends who welcomed the chance to legally attack Black folk in broad daylight

Just off Interstate 85, between Auburn and Montgomery, is the small City of Tuskegee. The entire campus of Tuskegee University, formerly the Tuskegee Institute, is now a National Historic Site. Founded in 1881 as a quid pro quo when the White state senator needed the votes in a majority Black county and promised to build a school for Black education. That was before the former Confederates made it easier to forget promises of Black improvement and just prevent Blacks from voting at all.

 
(Let the ‘You-Must-Not-Erase-Our-Heritage’ folk understand this is the history I want everyone to know.)

‘Lifting the Veil of Ignorance’ [1922]

By Charles Keck

Tuskegee University (20 May 2024)

The star of the Institute and one of the few Black Americans I recall learning about in school was Booker T. Washington. The founders of the new Tuskegee Normal School for Colored Teachers brought in Washington, only 25 at the time, to run the place. The new Principal stressed academic learning along with technical skills and moral fitness. In 1901, the Institute’s success led to Washington being the first Black citizen invited to the White House to dine with the president. Teddy Roosevelt caught some shit for that.

(Southern leadership’s repugnant reaction to the event should give you pause and remind you of our nation’s racist roots.)

Grave of Booker T. Washington

Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Alabama (20 May 2024)

The founding Principal is buried near the campus

chapel not far from the grave of a famous faculty member,

agricultural scientist George Washington Carver.