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President Roosevelt expands the civilian pilot training program in the U.S. in 1938
This expanded the civilian flight training to allow black pilots to be trained as due to certain laws they were unable to in the past -
President Roosevelt went against the NAACP’s wishes to train black pilots with whites and trained them in their own 99th Pursuit squadron in 1940
The NAACP originally wished for black pilots to be trained with white pilots. The black pilots were not trained with white pilots and ended up in their own regiment -
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The black pilots were trained on the Tuskegee Army Airfield home to the Tuskegee institute founded by Booker T Washington
This was when they were trained until being deployed -
The black Pilots of the 99th Pursuit Squadron were deployed to North Africa in second hand P-40 planes
This was their first deployment after having been trained for two years. This was the first time where they could prove their skill as pilots -
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In early 1944 the Tuskegee Airmen shot down 12 german planes in 2 days
This proved to those who did not believe a black squadron would be good in war how good one was. -
In 1944 they combined with two other black squadrons being the 100th, 301st, and 302nd fighter squadrons
Due to their skill and the skill of other black squadrons, they combined and received better planes for their escorts. Not only this but their success rate as a squadron was better than many white squadrons