Tuskegee Airmen, WASP stories enlighten students

BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. (WJHL) — Chris Allen didn’t pull any punches to listening high schoolers when he described America’s discriminatory climate in the World War II era.

“The thought was that African-American males can’t fly this high-tech equipment,” said Allen, who was traveling with the “Rise Above” exhibit about the Tuskegee Airmen and the WASPS (female pilots).

“That racist strategy could not have backfired more,” Allen said while introducing a short documentary film about the Tuskegee Airmen to a group of Elizabethton High School students inside a traveling trailer outfitted as a theater at Tri-Cities Airport.

Allen said Benjamin O. Davis, the Black soldier who led the airmen and later became a brigadier general in the Air Force, fought ignorance with an indisputable weapon.

“His response to facing the racism of the day was simply to be your best,” Allen said. “To rise above that negativity. His saying … was simply this — excellence is the best response to racism.”

An hour earlier, Science Hill High School students from Jessica Connor’s Women in U.S. History class saw and heard that story and one about the WASPS (Women’s Airforce Service Pilots).

“It was great,” Connor said after emerging with her students. “Not only was it about the WASPs, but also a presentation of the Tuskegee Airmen. So just a great opportunity to learn about those pilots who faced adversity and overcame that to serve in World War II.”

The nationally known exhibit is in the region through Sunday morning, complete with a P-51 Mustang airplane like the ones the Tuskegee Airmen flew in combat missions. Area non-profit Langston Education, Arts and Development (LEAD) funded the exhibit’s visit.

“It struck me that the boys had no faith in the women because they were like, who are the pilots?” Science Hill sophomore Sam Uelhof said, describing a portion of the WASPs film in which men can’t imagine pilots were present since there were no other men.

“But the pilots were sitting right in front of them and it didn’t connect with them that they were the pilots.”

That’s the kind of eye-opening experience Rise Above’s Don Larson looks for in visitors to the exhibit.

“People said ‘women can’t fly planes, not big planes, not warplanes,'” Larson said. “‘Black pilots aren’t smart enough to do this. They aren’t dedicated enough, they don’t have the ambition to do this.’ And these two groups proved them wrong.

“Eleanor Roosevelt was the first one that pushed her husband to say, ‘hey, we’ve got a whole group of people here that should be included in the war effort and they can do the job.'”

He said adult visitors often learn new facts, even if they were already aware of the two groups that contributed to the war effort. Even Connor, the history teacher, learned something new — about the complete lack of fanfare surrounding the WASPs after the war ended.

“I knew about the WASPs and their participation in World War II, but the information about, like, they’re kind of being disbanded without any kind of military recognition, that was something that was new to me,” she said.

Uelhof said she was surprised to learn the depth of discrimination against the Black men who wanted to be — and eventually became — pilots and other aviation professionals.

“They showed that they were capable of doing it,” she said.

Larson said the determination Uelhof noticed is something Rise Above tries to pass on to students and others who view the exhibit.

“We want young people to know whatever they dream they can achieve if they work at it, aim high, have a goal and find a plan to go after it,” he said.

The exhibit is located at the airport’s General Aviation area.

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