The Tuskegee Airmen, the nation's first military pilots of color, fought two wars: against fascism in the skies over Europe, and against Jim Crow racism at home. This history of civil rights pioneers is the first to include material from the 800+ interviews from the Tuskegee Airmen Oral History Project. It depicts the Tuskegee Airmen experience as a microcosm of the African American experience during World War II, and focuses on the changes that the war wrought in the lives of African Americans. It explores the ironies and contradictions that were inherent in fighting a war against fascism with a Jim Crow military force.

• Prologue: "This is Where You Sit"


• Chapter 1: The Use of Negro Manpower in War


• Chapter 2: The Black Eagles Take Flight


• Chapter 3: The Experiment


• Chapter 4: Combat on Several Fronts


• Chapter 5: The Trials of the 477th


• Chapter 6: Integrating the Air Force


• Epilogue: "Let's Make it a Holy Crusade All Around"


• Notes


• Note on Sources


• Bibliography

J. Todd Moye is an Associate Professor of History and the Director of the Oral History Program at the University of North Texas. A historian of the American civil rights movement, he directed the National Park Service's Tuskegee Airmen Oral History Project from 2000 to 2005. He served as a consultant for the George Lucas-produced film Red Tails, about the Tuskegee Airmen.