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Black Pilots, The
Tuskegee Airmen Shattered The Myth In The Movie “Red Tails” By Mike Mitchell |
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January 13, 2012 - The George Lucas film, “Red Tails”, about Alabama’s Tuskegee Airmen premieres Friday, January 20, 2012. The storyline follows the lives of the 332nd Fighter Group who were called into duty under the guidance of Col. A.J. Bullard played by Oscar nominee Terrence Howard. Howard’s character is loosely based on Tuskegee Airmen Commander Benjamin Oliver Davis, Jr. who became the first African American general in the U.S. Air Force. Lucas appeared on The Daily Show and said he had trouble getting funding for "Red Tails" because of its Black cast. "This has been held up for release since 1942 since it was shot, I've been trying to get released ever since. It's because it's an all Black movie. There's no major White roles in it at all...I showed it to all of them and they said no. We don't know how to market a movie like this." The Tuskegee Airmen is the popular name of a group of African American pilots who fought in World War II and “Shattered The Myth.” Formally, they were the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group of the U.S. Army Air Corps. The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African American military aviators in the United States armed forces. During World War II, African Americans in many U.S. states were still subject to the Jim Crow Laws. The American military was racially segregated, as was much of the federal government. The Tuskegee Airmen were subject to racial discrimination, both within and outside the army. Despite these adversities, they trained and flew with distinction. |
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"Red Tails"
is a high-flying action epic about the first African American
combat pilots in the Tuskegee training program whose abilities
were called into question as a result of segregation. The airmen
were mostly untested, but proved themselves during WWII combat
missions in Sicily and throughout Italy. They also escorted
bombers across Europe. Their nickname “red tails” stems from the
red paint
they applied to the tails of their planes. |