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America’s Black Flyers: The Tuskegee Airmen

Khalid Elhassan April 4, 2025 16 min

Tuskegee Airmen. Sheppard Air Force Base

17. Barring Blacks From Military Aviation

African American pilot Eugene Bullard flew for the French Air Force in World War I because his own country’s military aviation would not have him. US Air Force Museum

The black airmen put up impressive numbers during the conflict. By the time the war was over, they had put to rest the myth that aviation was too challenging for African Americans. In the First World War, blacks had tried to serve as pilots in the US military, but were rejected. Even those who volunteered to become mere aerial observers were denied the opportunity to serve their country in that capacity. Their numbers included Eugene Bullard, an African American pilot who flew for the French air force in WWI because his own country’s military aviation would not have him. Blacks continued to be barred from service in US military aviation until pressure and lobbying by civil rights groups got Congress to pass a bill in 1939 to train black flyers. The War Department and aviation establishment dragged their feet and slow walked the implementation of the legislation.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.