History of African Americans in Flight Leading up to the Tuskegee Airmen
 

"She [Eleanor Roosevelt] told me, 'I always heard Negroes couldn't fly and I wondered if you'd mind taking me up".... When we came back, she said, 'Well, you can fly all right.' I'm positive that when she went home, she said, 'Franklin, I flew with those boys down there, and you're going to have to do something about it.'"                                             - C. Alfred Anderson
 
Following the precedent established by the Europeans, the CPTP was established as a civilian program but its potential for national defense was undisguised. A place where you can easily order term papers and have them done in a matter of days. The program started early in 1939, with the government paying for a 72-hour ground school course followed by 35 to 50 hours of flight instruction at facilities located near eleven colleges and universities. It was an unqualified success and provided a grand vision for its supporters to greatly expand the nation's civilian pilot population by training thousands of college students to fly.

The United States was initially slow to respond but the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938 contained language authorizing and funding a trial program for what would evolve into the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP). President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveiled the program on December 27, 1938, announcing at a White House press conference that he had signed off on a proposal to provide a needed boost to general aviation by providing pilot training to 20,000 college students a year.

After the Nazi invasion of Poland in September 1939 triggered World War II, the military value of the CPTP became obvious, even to the program's detractors. The United States started to evaluate its ability to fight an air war and the results were appalling. Pilots, instructors, and training aircraft were all in short supply. Acknowledging the shortage of trained pilots, both the U.S. Army and Navy reluctantly waived certain "elimination" courses for CPTP graduates and allowed them to proceed directly into pilot training.

In the face of strong resistance from the military establishment and most officials in the War Department, a relentless effort was carried on by a number of Black organizations and individuals, including sympathetic Whites, to persuade the government to accept Blacks for training by the Air Corps in military aviation. After considerable debate on the subject, the government agreed to establish a program in which African American applicants would be trained in all aspects of military aviation and sent into combat as a segregated unit.

In1941 though, at the urging of the African-American press and with the support of the Roosevelt administration, a segregated fighter unit with openings for 429 enlisted men and 47 pilots was announced. The pilots would come from the segregated Civilian Pilot Training Program and be trained at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama
 
 
The U.S. Army (which included the Air Force at the time) deemed the situation to be so grave it proposed that private aviation be suspended and all pilot training (most notably the CPTP) be brought under the control of the military. The December 13, 1940, issue of American Aviation Daily carried this account of the Army's intentions:

"Preliminary plans are understood to be already drafted by the Army to ground all private flying in the U.S. for the duration of the national emergency.  The Army will take over all training (including CPTP)."

The Army's proposal met with stiff resistance. Just two weeks after the American Aviation Daily article appeared, 83 companies with a vested interest in general aviation organized the National Aviation Training Association (NATA). The NATA members recognized that, if left unchallenged, the Army plan would, for all practical purposes, ban private aircraft from the nation's skies. The NATA and other aviation interests blunted the Army's bid with an effective lobbying campaign in Congress. Their actions not only saved the CPTP, they may have saved the entire general aviation industry in the United States.
 
The Civilian Pilot Training program's mission was to provide a pool for civilian pilots for wartime emergency. Six black colleges in the eastern United States, including Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, and one non-college flying school in the Midwest, the Coffey School of Aeronautics, were authorized to train black pilots. Despite the modest funds allocated for these segregated training programs, the number of licensed black pilots grew dramatically.

The CPTP/WTS program was phased out in the summer of 1944 but not before 435,165 people, including hundreds of women and African-Americans, had been taught to fly. The CPTP admirably achieved its primary mission, best expressed by the title of aviation historian Dominick Pisano's book To Fill the Skies with Pilots.

  National Negro Airmen Association of American

During the mid 1930’s and prior to World War II a group of foresighted, concerned, and dedicated individuals came together in the Chicago area to form an organization that actively pursued and set the stage for the participation of African-Americans in the realms of aviation and aeronautics.

Under the leadership of Cornelius R. Coffey, Willa B, Brown, and Enoc P. Waters, the National Negro Airmen Association of American was formed with the express purpose.......to further stimulate interest in aviation, and to bring about a better understanding in the field of aeronautics. Shortly thereafter Claude Barnett, director of the Association of Negro Press (ANP), with strong backing from

 Chauncey Spencer and Dale White, suggested that the word Negro be dropped and the organization renamed the National Airmen Association of America. The proposal was adopted maintaining the original objectives.

 On August 16, 1939 application for Certificate of Incorporation was filed in Cook County with the Illinois Secretary of State listing as Directors the following: Cornelius R. Coffey, Dale L. White, Harold Hurd, Willa B. Brown, Marie St. Clair, Charles Johnson, Chauncey E. Spencer, Grover C. Nash, Edward H. Johnson, Janet Waterford, George Williams, and Enoch P. Waters.

 A few months prior to the incorporation, the organization had undertaken a most profound and optimistic mission. With borrowed funds and donations, two members were chosen to take a goodwill tour to stimulate interest in the “first national Negro airshow to be held in Chicago,” and stop in Washington to communicate with lawmakers regarding inclusion of African-Americans in the government sponsored flight training and other aviation related programs. Enoch P. Waters, Jr., a member of the organization and city editor of the Chicago Defender, also suggested that the tour include a stop in Washington, D.C. to urge Congressional representatives to push for inclusion of the Negro in the Army Air Corps.

A few months prior to the incorporation, the organization had undertaken a most profound and optimistic mission. With borrowed funds and donations, two members were chosen to take a goodwill tour to stimulate interest in the “first national Negro airshow to be held in Chicago,” and stop in Washington to communicate with lawmakers regarding inclusion of African-Americans in the government sponsored flight training and other aviation related programs. Enoch P. Waters, Jr., a member of the organization and city editor of the Chicago Defender, also suggested that the tour include a stop in Washington, D.C. to urge Congressional representatives to push for inclusion of the Negro in the Army Air Corps.

One thousand dollars was donated by the Jones Brothers, Ed and George, of Chicago who controlled the “policy,” a form of the numbers game, and also owned the Ben Franklin Department store on 47th Street. With five hundred dollars that Chauncey Spencer had saved, the organization was able to rent a Lincoln-Paige bi-plane from Art LaToure. Donations were sought from other organizations that refused, many stated that the proposed “mission was fool hardly and foolish.”

Dale White, a pioneer flyer and the holder of an aircraft engine mechanic’s certificate, and Chauncey Spencer had met a few years earlier and had become close friends. The two were chosen to undertake the history making mission.

Dale White and Chauncey departed Chicago’s Harlem Airport on May 9, 1939 enroute eastward, and approximately three and one-half hours later were forced to land in a farmer’s field near Sherwood, Ohio due to a damaged crankshaft. Sherwood is located 15 miles west of Defiance and approximately 15 miles east of the Indiana-Ohio border. Repairs were made after a new crankshaft was delivered by Cornelius Coffey, a licensed aircraft mechanic, and Clyde Howard, also an avid aviator.

After a two and one-half day delay at Sherwood, the two departed for Morgantown, West Virginia where they were allowed to refuel the aircraft, but was refused hangar rental space. As night was approaching, they departed Morgantown enroute to the Pittsburgh area with no lights on the aircraft. The beacon at Allegheny County Airport was spotted and they followed a Pennsylvania-Central Airlines transport to a safe landing.

The Civil Aeronautics Inspectors were very upset and temporarily grounded the daring flyers for flying too close and endangering the lives on a commercial airline. Robert L. Vann, Publisher of the Pittsburgh Courier, appeared on their behalf the next morning at a hearing where they were cleared. Mr. Vann then donated five hundred dollars to their cause along with letters to influential representatives.

Spencer and White departed Pittsburgh and flew directly to Washington where they were met by Edgar Brown, National Airmen’s Association lobbyist, and also the president of the Negro Federal Workers Employees Union. While accompanying Mr. Brown to the Capitol and Congressional offices, they happen to come in contact with Senator Harry S. Truman, Democrat from Missouri, who was intercepted and introduced to White and Spencer along with an explanation of their mission to Washington.

Senator Truman asked, “What do you do?” They explained that both worked for the WPA. “So what are you doing here? Why aren’t you working today?” They explained that they had taken time off because they felt a need to dramatize the need for the inclusion of the Negro in the Army Air Corps. Truman seemed surprised and asked, “Why aren’t you in the Air Corps? Can’t you get in?” Edgar Brown explained that Negroes were not accepted.

“Have you tried?” asked Truman. The reply, “No sir, but others have tried and have been embarrassed. They have been turned away without regard for their training or ability. Only the color of their skin mattered.” “Well, I think you should try,” Truman stated. Dale White replied, “We’d like to try but we’d also like for you to help us open the door. We haven’t been able to break down the barriers ourselves. Mr. Truman, you don’t know what it means to be embarrassed. I’ve tried these things before. There’s just no use.” “I’ve been embarrassed before,” stated Truman. The reply, “Not like this, Mr. Truman. Not like we are.”

Senator Truman had spoken in his normal blunt way and wanted to see the aircraft. Later that afternoon he arranged to visit the airport and climbed up on the wing in order to look in the cockpit. He asked, “How much gas can this carry? How much did it cost to rent? Do you have insurance?” He was enthusiastic, however, he did not want to go for a ride. He stated that, “If they had guts enough to fly this thing to Washington, he’d have enough guts to back them.” Shortly afterwards, he helped put through legislation in the Senate insuring that Blacks would be trained along with whites under the Civilian Pilot Training Program.