Tuskegee Airmen Activated: First All-Black Pursuit Squadron
The military told them they lacked the intelligence to fly complex aircraft. So on this day in 1941, the War Department created the 99th Pursuit Squadron at Tuskegee—not to prove Black pilots could fight, but to prove they couldn't. They'd wash out, the thinking went, and the "experiment" would quietly end. Instead, Captain Benjamin O. Davis Jr. and his men completed the same training as white pilots, then flew 1,578 combat missions over North Africa and Europe. They never lost a single bomber they escorted to enemy fighters. Not one. The unit designed to demonstrate inferiority became so effective that bomber crews specifically requested them. Turns out the experiment worked—just not the way anyone planned.
March 19, 1941
85 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on March 19
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