Governor honors WV's Tuskegee Airmen

Gov. Joe Manchin's weekly email column:

West Virginia's African-Americans Have Made a Big Impact on U.S. History

This week I joined hundreds of area students and representatives from West Virginia State University in Institute to unveil a marker recognizing the contributions of 14 African-Americans who were trained at the university during World War II. Those West Virginians were among a distinguished group of men who defied those who doubted them and helped bring about great changes toward racial equality in the military and furthered civil rights across the United States.

The story of the Tuskegee Airmen is one of the most inspirational of World War II. Nearly 1,000 African-American pilots and more than 10,000 support personnel received segregated training at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and at other locations, including West Virginia State College. The U.S. Army ran these experimental training units from 1940 to 1946. Prior to the group's formation, no U.S. military pilots were African-American, however, two pilots trained at West Virginia State were among the first five Tuskegee pilot cadets.

Some military leaders believed the project would fail because they thought black pilots lacked the intelligence to fly combat missions. They couldn't have been more wrong. The Tuskegee Airmen flew more than 1,500 missions and destroyed almost 500 enemy aircraft. They never lost a bomber they escorted -- a record no other fighter group achieved.

Despite the airmen's successes in battle, they continued to have to fight against discrimination when they returned home after the war. Their struggle prompted President Harry Truman to desegregate the military and thrust forward the movement toward racial equality in America nearly 10 years before Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous march in Washington.

The Tuskegee Airmen's link to West Virginia State is just one example of the many great contributions to our nation and world from black West Virginians. February is Black History Month, a nationwide celebration of the contributions of African-Americans. The father of Black History Month is Carter G. Woodson, a West Virginian who attended a segregated high school in Huntington of which he would later become principal. He also taught in Fayette County and was dean of West Virginia State College. He became the second African-American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University and he published several influential journals before he launched "Negro History Week," which eventually became Black History Month.

This month we take time to recognize African-American contributions. Let us not forget that African-American history is American history. Their commitment and accomplishments benefit us all, and there is no greater example of that than the Tuskegee Airmen.

Photo of unidentified Tuskegee airmen from the Library of Congress