Tuskegee Airmen Museum Dedicated in Detroit Michigan

DETROIT, MI—Founded in 1941 and activated by

President Franklin Roosevelt, the legendary Tuskegee Airmen are marking their 80th anniversary this year and celebrating the opening of a new home for the Tuskegee Airmen National Museum. The World War II fighter squadron’s artifacts and exhibits will now be housed at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit.

This national museum provides a place to recognize, display, and celebrate the contributions of the Tuskegee Airmen to the defense of the United States during a period in our history when Black people were not thought of as equals to their white counterparts. The military record of the famed World War II Black fighter squadron is worthy of public recognition. It is legendary!

Trained at the segregated Tuskegee Army Airfield in Alabama, these aviators, nicknamed the Red Tails because of the color painted on the tail of their aircraft, flew more than 15,000 individual sorties overseas. They safely escorted and protected numerous American bombers against the German Air Force and had one of the lowest loss records. Their courage and skills resulted in them earning and being awarded Purple Hearts, Bronze Stars, and an airplane full of Distinguished Flying Crosses. They also had a significant impact on the effort to integrate and desegregate the U.S. Armed Forces. The Wright Museum is named for a Detroit African American physician who opened a museum there to promote the preservation of Black history. Among some of its most wellknown and popular collections are those dedicated to the Underground Railroad and Harriet Tubman. The museum houses more than 35,000 artifacts pertaining to the experience and culture of Black people. The expanded exhibits and historic artifacts will be housed inside the Coleman A. Young Gallery at the Wright Museum. The gallery is named after Detroit’s first African American mayor, who was also a second lieutenant, bombardier, and navigator as a Tuskegee Airman. Prior to the move to the Wright Museum, the Tuskegee Airmen National Museum had been located at Historic Fort Wayne in the Southwest area of the city.

Omega Psi Phi salutes those brave men who were pioneers for Black pilots during World War II and since. Many of them achieved very honorable accomplishments while nobly serving their country. Among the ranks of the brave and courageous men who wore the Tuskegee Airmen uniform were, of course, many sons of Omega.

Charles H. DeBow, Jr. was born on February 13, 1918, in Indianapolis, IN. He developed an interest in flying at a young age. After graduating from high school, he enrolled at Indiana University. He was initiated into the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., through Zeta Phi Chapter in Indianapolis, in 1941. He transferred to Hampton Institute in Virginia, where he learned how to fly aircraft. He loved flying so much that he decided to drop out of college. He worked various jobs to save money while continuing to pursue his passion for flying. He eventually enlisted in the United States Army. Not long thereafter, the U.S. War Department announced its acceptance of applications from Black people interested in the Air Force. He knew that joining the Air Force could be his chance to fly full time. Brother DeBow eagerly applied and was accepted into the Tuskegee Army Air Corps pilot training program. He was a member of the first aviation cohort that began with 13 cadets. Training began on July 19, 1941, with ground school training in subjects such as meteorology, navigation, and instruments. Eight months later, on March 7, 1942, DeBow was one of five of the 13 cadets in this cohort to complete the pilot training program. They earned their silver wings, becoming the nation’s first Black military pilots. He flew with the 99th Fighter Squadron, and eventually DeBow was promoted to lieutenant. He commanded the 301st Fighter Squadron. In 1943, the 301st Squadron was assigned to Italy where they flew 52 combat missions in the European Theater, including support for D-Day.

One of his greatest military achievements was participating in the North African Theatre. The Tuskegee Airmen provided air support for General George Patton’s tank corps. Much has been recorded about the Tuskegee Airmen flying support for bombing missions, but their expertise in dive bombing is a lesser known part of their history. When General Patton began the invasion of Sicily, his troops were being battered by German artillery. They were stuck on the beaches, unable to move forward. General Dwight Eisenhower ordered the Tuskegee Airmen based in North Africa to fly over to the mountains overlooking Sicily and knock out the German artillery. Lt. Charles DeBow led the dive bombing mission in this battle. They were victorious and saved the invasion of Sicily. One of Patton’s generals publicly thanked the Tuskegee dive bombers, saying “Tell those colored pilots thanks for us. They saved the mission.”

Lt. DeBow was interviewed for a feature article in the August 1942 issue of American Magazine. It was titled, “I Got Wings.” In it, he told the story of being asked by a civilian who stopped him on the street in Montgomery and asked “You one of those new colored fliers over at Tuskegee?” When DeBow replied proudly, “Yes, sir,” the man went on to query “What do you boys want to fly for, anyhow?” The pilot recounted his response. “First of all, I’m flying for Uncle Sam. We’re in a war for the future. Our democracy isn’t perfect, but I want no part of fascism. Maybe tomorrow, maybe months from tomorrow, I might be shipped off for combat duty. East or West, I don’t care which.

“I’m flying for Dad and Mom, too. Dad’s a porter in a white barbershop in Indianapolis, making $30 a week, and Mom used to earn $20 more as a maid in a department store. Both of them gave up comforts and vacations to see me through school. I can’t let them down. Finally, I’m flying for every one of the 12,000,000 Negroes in the United States. I want to prove that we can take a tough job and handle it just as well as a white man. God didn’t fit me to be a great educator like Booker T. Washington, or a great scientist like George Washington Carver. But maybe I can fly so that nobody can ever again say, ‘Oh, Negroes are all right as janitors and handymen, but they can’t learn to fly, or fight, or be good officers.’”

I think all of us at Tuskegee feel that way. We’ve got double duty–to our country and to our race. That goes not only for the fliers, but for the ground crews, and doctors, and executive officers, and radio specialists, and supply men . . . everybody. We’ve all got a job to do–and we’re going to see it through!

After the war ended, DeBow returned to Indiana, earned a Master’s degree from Butler University in Indianapolis, and a second one from Indiana University in Bloomington. He taught high school English and was an Associate Lecturer in English at Indiana University and Purdue University. Brother Charles DeBow entered Omega Chapter on April 4th, 1986, at the age of 68.

George S. “Spanky” Roberts was born September 24, 1918, in London, WV, a small town in Kanawha County. Brother Roberts graduated from high school prior to his 16th birthday and matriculated to West Virginia State College, now West Virginia State University. According to records, he was initiated into Omega through Theta Psi Chapter in 1935. In 1941, Brother Roberts became the first African American cadet accepted for pilot training in the Army Air Corps. He was also a member of the first graduating class. He was appointed the second commander of the 99th Fighter Squadron, succeeding General Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., another member of that initial class. During the war, he commanded the 332nd Fighter Group, which consisted of four fighter squadrons. In 1948, after desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces, Brother Roberts became the first Black commander of an integrated U.S. Air Force unit. He retired with the rank of Colonel in 1968 after 27 years of active duty. Brother George Roberts entered Omega Chapter on March 8, 1984 at the age of 65.

Luke J. Weathers, Jr, was born December 16, 1920, in Grenada, Mississippi. He was studying biology at Lane College in Jackson, TN, when he was initiated into Omega in 1940 through Epsilon Phi Chapter in Memphis. He later attended Xavier University in New Orleans, where he learned about the Tuskegee Airmen. He enlisted in 1942.

He rose to the rank of Captain, during which time one of his assignments was to escort a crippled bomber back home, after a raid over Austria. During the escort, he encountered eight German Messerschmitts fighter craft. They were set to finish off the bomber. Captain Weathers courageously ordered two fighters under his command to continue escorting the bomber, which left him to face the eight German fighters alone. He aimed straight at the enemy and quickly shot down two of them, disrupting their formation, which caused the remaining German pilots to turn tail and retreat.

It was that type of bravery during his storied career that earned Brother Weathers both a Purple Heart and the Distinguished Flying Cross with seven clusters for the dozens of missions he flew over Europe and North Africa during World War II. In 1960, after strenuous testing, Brother Weathers was accepted for employment in the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) as an Air Traffic Controller. Then in 1965, after achieving the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, he became the first African American Air Traffic Controller in Memphis, TN.

Bro. Luke Weathers entered Omega Chapter on October 15, 2011, at the age of 90, and was laid to rest in Section 64 of Arlington National Cemetery. Dr. Lincoln J. Ragsdale Sr., was born on July 27, 1926, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was trained as one of the pioneering African American fighter pilots of World War II. Later he became a civil rights leader and entrepreneur in Phoenix and the Southwest. After graduating from the Tuskegee Army Air Corps pilot training program, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army Air Corps in 1945. He was then relocated to Luke Air Field in Arizona. He was part of the government’s first steps to integrate the armed forces, becoming one of the first Black pilots to serve at that location.

Brother Ragsdale was initiated into Omega through Phi Iota Chapter in 1948. He graduated from Arizona State University, and later received a Doctorate of Business Administration from Union Graduate School. After settling in Phoenix, he became one of the leaders of the local NAACP, Phoenix Urban League, and other civic organizations fighting racism in Phoenix. In 1953, Brother Ragsdale helped desegregate Phoenix’s most affluent and segregated neighborhood, as well as helped desegregate Phoenix high schools, one year before the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education.

Brother Ragsdale also helped desegregate Phoenix’s most influential corporations as early as 1962, including Motorola and General Electric. Between 1963 and 1992, he fought for diversity in Phoenix’s public and private sectors, and for entrepreneurial opportunities for people of color in Arizona. Brother Ragsdale also played a major role in the Martin Luther King Holiday movement in Arizona, an effort that ended after twenty years of struggle to get the state to recognize the federal holiday.

In a 1983 interview with The Arizona Republic about his experience as a Tuskegee Airman, 2nd Lieutenant Ragsdale described the psychological lift the squadron provided for African Americans. “I remember when we used to walk through Black neighborhoods, right after the war, and little kids would run up to us and touch our uniforms, and they’d ask ‘Mister, can you really fly an airplane?’ The Tuskegee Airmen gave Black people a reason to be proud.” In a subsequent interview in 1990, he stated, “I wanted to be a pilot because I wanted to prove something. The papers said that Blacks could not do it . . . I wanted to prove that we could do it. We were very segregated; the Army was segregated . . . the Navy was segregated. We couldn’t use any of the facilities. We were treated as second-class citizens, but the only way

to change something is to prove that you can do something.”

Brother Ragsdale entered Omega Chapter on June 9, 1995, at the age of 68. His name lives on throughout the state that he called home for 50 years. Arizona State University established the Dr. Lincoln J. Ragsdale Memorial Scholarship, named in his honor. The local Phoenix chapter of the Tuskegee Airman is co-named after him, and the Executive Terminal at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport also bears his name.

Jerry T. Hodges, Jr. - All of these stalwart Omega men were contemporaries of Brother Jerry T. Hodges, Jr., who will be 96 years old this year and still maintains his active membership with Omega. Brother Hodges was born in Arkansas on June 29, 1925. After his high school graduation, he enrolled in Hampton Institute in 1943. The U.S. was engaged in World War II at the time, so Brother Hodges enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1944. In September of that year, he was shipped to Tuskegee with about 60 other cadets, for preflight training and cadet corps. With all Black instructors in primary and basic training, his was the first class to fly B-25 twin engine bombers solo without an instructor. He graduated in 1945 as a 2nd Lieutenant in a class of 37, which originally had 70 cadets. It was the largest class at that time to graduate from Tuskegee. As a Tuskegee-trained pilot, he accumulated about 560 hours of flying time, including approximately 400 hours flying the B-25 bomber.

He was discharged from the service at the end of 1946 and decided to go back to Hampton for spring semester 1947. He arrived on campus just after Omega had chartered Gamma Epsilon at Hampton in the fall of 1946, and in April 1947, Brother Hodges became a member of the first pledge class initiated after the chapter was chartered.

It was around that time, Brother Hodges admitted, that he realized he didn’t much care for the east coast. He had family living in California at the time, so he decided to apply to business school at the University of Southern California (USC), where he was accepted and enrolled as a sophomore in the fall of 1947. He graduated in the spring of 1950 with a Bachelor’s Degree in accounting. Brother Hodges reflected on both his tenure in Omega, as well as his experience as a Tuskegee Airman. When he arrived in Los Angeles, there were only two chapters throughout the greater metropolitan area. When he joined Lambda, for undergraduates, there were approximately 100 brothers active in the chapter.

Upon his graduation from USC, he then affiliated with the graduate chapter, Lambda Omicron. There, he would become Keeper of Records and Seal, and eventually Keeper of Finance. During his tenure, the Grand Basileus visited Los Angeles and heard Brother Hodges give his chapter KF report. The Grand was so impressed with his presentation, he asked him to serve as chairman of the International Budget and Finance Committee. At that time, national dues had been $8 ever since they were established. He made a recommendation to increase dues to $15. He was concerned that the increase might have a negative impact on membership; thankfully it did not. He recalls that there were about 10,000 financial brothers at the time.

Brother Hodges joined the Los Angeles chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen about two years after it was started. Given the leadership skills that he displayed in Omega, it is not surprising that he eventually became vice president of the local chapter of the Tuskegee Airman.

He was also a member of the board of directors for the Tuskegee Airmen Scholarship Foundation, and subsequently became its chairman. Its assets totaled around $800,000 when his tenure as chairman started; over a period of 12 years, he helped build the budget to $2.3 million! The

money raised by the Foundation is awarded for scholarships to freshmen attending any two year college or four year university. The study of aerospace is emphasized, however, scholarships are awarded for any field of study.

When asked what he would like our current and future generations to know about the Tuskegee Airmen, Brother Hodges talked about the difficulty in getting the Tuskegee Airmen training program started. During the war, some pilots were shot down in enemy territory in Germany and Northern Italy, and others were even lynched! Nonetheless, he is proud of the history and success of the fighter group that proved Black people could be excellent pilots. He added that originally fighter squadrons escorted the bombers to the target and were supposed to then leave the squadron on their own. However, then-Colonel Benjamin O. Davis changed that practice and commanded them to stay with the bombers over the target until they got back home safely, which is what endeared the Tuskegee Airmen to the bomber squadrons.

Brother Hodges feels very fortunate to have had the life experience of a Tuskegee Airman, and has already contributed to the new museum home. He thinks it is a great idea to help perpetuate the name and careers of the famed Tuskegee Airmen. It is fitting that the history and accomplishments of the Tuskegee Airmen, many of whom also happened to be Omega Men, will be chronicled and displayed in a museum founded by, and named after, Dr. Charles H. Wright, who himself was an Omega Man. He was an active member of Detroit’s Nu Omega Chapter, which provided some of the public funding for the establishment of the museum in 1965. It was the largest collection of its kind in the United States, until it was surpassed by the Smithsonian Museum of African-American History in Washington DC.

Now, the Wright Museum has another storied history to tell . . . that of the brave and courageous Tuskegee Airmen.