Hampton's Heroes - Hamptonian Tuskegee Airmen and the History of Hampton's Influence on Tuskegee
The U.S. government sponsored African-American flight training in 1939 with the Civilian Pilot Training (CPT) Act. Administered by the Civilian Aeronautics Association (CAA), the Act authorized selected schools to offer CPT primary flight training for pilots in case of a national emergency. Schools for African-American candidates included Tuskegee Institute, Howard University, Hampton Institute, and the Coffey School of Aeronautics. The government paid for ground and flight school instruction. Colleges provided instructors, physical examinations for potential students, and transportation to approved flying fields. Tuskegee Institute originally offered elementary or primary CPT courses. In July 1940, the CAA authorized Tuskegee Institute (founded by Booker T. Washington (1875 Hampton grad) to provide advanced CPT courses. Robert Muss Moton (1890 Hampton grad) - Robert Moton was the second president of Tuskegee University. Moton retired from Tuskegee in 1935 and died at his home, Holly Knoll, in Capahosic, Virginia, on the York River, on May 31, 1940. He was buried at the Hampton Institute. Moton Field at the Tuskegee Institute, where the black pilots known as the Tuskegee Airmen trained during World War II (1939-1945), was named for him in 1941. Moton Field was the only primary flight facility for African-American pilot candidates in the U.S. Army Air Corps (Army Air Forces) during World War II. Moton Field was built between 1940 and 1942 with funding from the Julius Rosenwald Fund to provide primary flight training under a contract with the U.S. military. http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Moton_Robert_Russa_1867-1940
The first class graduated from Tuskegee on March 7, 1942 and earned their wings. They were Lemuel Curtis, Charles DeBow, Mac Ross, George S. "Spanky" Roberts, and Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. Other classes soon followed and the Tuskegee Airmen flew into their place in history.
Charles H. DeBow, a Hampton grad, was a poor boy with a dream of flying. After finding a flying school that would accept him, he worked day and night at odd jobs to pay for his lessons. Earning a civil pilot’s license was one of Charles’ many educational achievements before attending Hampton Institute. After graduation he taught school for a short time. After an announcement of a Negro flying unit had black men lined up at recruiting offices, Charles applied to the Army Air Corps. They selected the brightest and the best, he was among them. This first class was taking advanced training when Japanese forces bombed Pearl Harbor. Of the original thirteen men selected only five graduated. They received their wings before the statue of Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee Army Air Field on March 7th, 1942. Later, DeBow was stopped in a Montgomery street by a white citizen asking, "Why do you boys want to fly anyhow?" He thought over the question several days and replied in a news paper article: "....first, I was flying for my parents who had worked hard at menial jobs to give me an opportunity. Second, I was flying for my race, to prove myself as Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver had in the field of science. Third, I was flying for my country, however imperfect, it could open doors and was a much better option than Nazism." The American Magazine.
Additional Hamptonian-Tuskegee Airmen (just to name a few include): Caesar Bassette ’37, George "Richard" Bolling ’40, Roscoe Draper ‘40, Lt. Col Willis J. Hubert ’40 , William Hudgins ’40, Philip Lee ‘40, William R. Thompson ’40, Alexander Wilkerson ‘4X, William Neal Brown ’41, Ernest Henderson ’41, Washington Dubois Ross ‘41,William Streat ’41, Vernon Haywood attended ’38-’41 (Class of ’42), Milton Holmes ‘42, Percy Sutton ’43, Augustus Palmer ’47, Jerry Hodges attended ’43-’44 (Class of ’47),Walter Tucker ’49, Henry Bohler ’50, Lt. Col (Ret.) Francis Horne Sr ‘51, James M. Dillard ‘51, and Alfred Bailey '53. (There maybe more Hamptonians that were not mentioned)
