Flying on the Wings of Heroes

A full 70 years ago the first group of African American men gathered at the Tuskegee Army Air Field to begin combat-flight training. It was 1941, at the onset of World War II, and these men were fighting racism and ignorance in the halls of the Pentagon and Congress and on Main Street long before they could battle the forces of fascism in Europe. The Tuskegee Airmen staffed four B-25 bomber squadrons and four fighter squadrons who were eventually assigned to combat missions in the Mediterranean and European theaters. On the battlefield and at home, the Tuskegee Airmen fought the perception that they lacked the intelligence, aptitude and courage to serve with honor, valiantly persevering to prove that excellence educates the ignorant and beats back the tides of racism.

The Boulé Journal Celebrates Its 100th Anniversary

In the first issue of the Boule Journal it is the desire of the Grand Boule to extend to all members of this fraternity the heartiest felicitations upon the character and promise of this body. Unique in its origin, slow but sure in its growth, unrivalled in the high material, intellectual and spiritual character of its membership, its influence in the world of Negro-manhood is assured.

At the dawn of the twentieth century black men of distinction had long functioned in various leadership posts, especially in the churches and benevolent association movement. Some, notably Frederick Douglass among them, had even served in high government posts. But by and large they lived lives separate from those of the black masses and the white professionals. In 1904 a small group in Philadelphia set out to create an organization that would provide a vehicle for men of standing and like tastes to come together to know the best of one another.

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