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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm editor Candice Keen. You're joined by staff writer Jane

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Speaker 1: mc grab hey. Jane, do you remember a little while

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Speaker 1: ago when we did a podcast about the Navajo code

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Speaker 1: talkers and World War Two? Yeah, it was one of

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Speaker 1: your favorites in particular, and love the Navajo co talkers. Well,

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Speaker 1: there's another minority group that contributed very, very much so

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Speaker 1: to the success of the Allied forces in World War

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Speaker 1: Two that we didn't cover and that podcast, and I

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Speaker 1: believe we said we were going to save it for

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Speaker 1: another day, and that day is today, So um, buckle

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Speaker 1: up tight because we're gonna talk about the Tuskegee Airmen. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: This is a really cool African American UM Air UM

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Speaker 1: Army Air Corps and during World War Two and they

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Speaker 1: contributed a lot to the war. But to give you

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Speaker 1: some context, before that, African Americans weren't allowed to fly

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Speaker 1: at all in the military. In addition to that, the

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Speaker 1: whole military was segregated into units and throughout um World

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Speaker 1: War two and it took I think efforts like the

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Speaker 1: Husky Yarman and a lot of other African American heroes

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Speaker 1: during World War Two. To really change that policy, desegregation

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Speaker 1: was made official through executive order issued by President Harry Truman. Now,

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Speaker 1: an executive order, just to bring you up to speed,

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Speaker 1: is um a statement from the president, and they've been

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Speaker 1: in practice since George Washington's administration, and they're made constitutional

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Speaker 1: by Article to Section one. Basically, an executive order guides

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Speaker 1: federal agencies to carry out laws and policies that Congress

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Speaker 1: has passed. And I've gotten some good information about executive

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Speaker 1: orders from a website called This Nation dot com, and

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Speaker 1: the website explains that executive orders don't have to be

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Speaker 1: approved by Congress, but it is a statement directly from

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Speaker 1: the president, and what he says goes you know, the

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Speaker 1: commander in chief, and he's the chief executive, and he

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Speaker 1: lays the laws of the land. And this is a

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Speaker 1: really important point to bring up is that UM, it's

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Speaker 1: not subject to legislative vote. So when something like especially

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Speaker 1: in this case, when something will have a lot of

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Speaker 1: difficulty passing through uh Congress, the President can, in certain circumstances,

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Speaker 1: circumvent that that were by issuing the executive order. And

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Speaker 1: there's a couple of variations on the typical executive order,

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Speaker 1: and one is a statement that pertains to defense and security,

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Speaker 1: and another one is more ceremonial in nature. The example

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Speaker 1: that this Nation dot Com gave was national bring your

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Speaker 1: Kid to Work Day, which we actually had at the

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Speaker 1: House Staff Works dot Com office last week. I didn't

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Speaker 1: know that was an executive order. Apparently so apparently so.

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Speaker 1: And what you mentioned before about presidents using the executive

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Speaker 1: orders circumvent Congress, this was a really sticky issue that

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Speaker 1: came up during the Bill Clinton administration, and he was

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Speaker 1: no to pass hundreds upon hundreds of executive orders to

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Speaker 1: get by Republicans in Congress. Essentially, I think he's still

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Speaker 1: very much critiqued for doing so. But some pretty famous

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Speaker 1: ones in history are which, as we've learned, was Truman's

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Speaker 1: statement to integrate the military, and then Eisenhower's executive order

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Speaker 1: to desegregate schools, that Kennedy and Johnson error passed executive

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Speaker 1: orders to help end discrimination in federal housing, and then

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Speaker 1: Reagan actually issued an executive order to prevent federal funds

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Speaker 1: being used for campaigns about abortion, which Clinton later overturned.

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Speaker 1: So even just from these examples, you can see the

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Speaker 1: wide scope that an executive order can pertain to, and

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Speaker 1: was really really important because if you look at the

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Speaker 1: premise of World War Two, it was essentially hinged upon

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Speaker 1: the fact that Nazis were discriminating against the Jews, and

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Speaker 1: so the idea that the United States have become involved

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Speaker 1: in a war on foreign soil that was about discrimination

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Speaker 1: of an ethnic group, and yet within the United States

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Speaker 1: there were still a discrimination towards African Americans. It just

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Speaker 1: seemed really really contradictory. Yeah, and it was really shot

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Speaker 1: the arm to show Americans, I think, where racism could lead.

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Speaker 1: You know, um, certain public figures before the nineteen thirties

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Speaker 1: and the World War Two were behind eugenics, and I

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Speaker 1: think it had more acceptance at this point, but then

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Speaker 1: when you saw where that led um in Nazi Germany.

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Speaker 1: You know, you can make the point that the American

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Speaker 1: public didn't know everything that was going on during the

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Speaker 1: Holocaust until after the war, but they did know some

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Speaker 1: racist laws that were going on, discriminatory laws against the

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Speaker 1: Jews during the Nazi era. So you can definitely see

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Speaker 1: how the Americans saw where eugenics was leading. And I

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Speaker 1: think this was really a reflection it made them look

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Speaker 1: upon themselves a little harsher about their own discriminary laws

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Speaker 1: and say like, well, we can't really throw rocks, you know,

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Speaker 1: if we're in a glass half right exactly. And that's

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Speaker 1: what's their poignant about the order. And you can look

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Speaker 1: at up online. You can go to Truman Library dot

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Speaker 1: org and find a copy of the executive order. It's

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Speaker 1: from July and I'll just read part of it. It

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Speaker 1: is hereby declared to be the policy of the President

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Speaker 1: that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for

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Speaker 1: all persons and the Armed Services, without regard to race, color, religion,

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Speaker 1: or national origin. This policy shall be put into effect

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Speaker 1: as rapidly as possible, having due regard to the time

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Speaker 1: required to effectuate any necessary changes, without impairing efficiency or morale.

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Speaker 1: And a little bit later in the podcast, we're going

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Speaker 1: to get to the language that Truman us and how

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Speaker 1: people in Congress actually manipulated it to ah, I guess

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Speaker 1: prolonged integration in the military, but the executi of order

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Speaker 1: that Truman issue would not have been possible. I don't

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Speaker 1: think without the successes of the Tuskegee air Men really

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Speaker 1: proving that integration wasn't just necessary on the grounds of

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Speaker 1: your equality for all mankind, but because this group proved

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Speaker 1: that African American pilots and the military had such bravery

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Speaker 1: and valor and such skill, they could not be ignored

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Speaker 1: and treated as unequal anymore. Yeah, and we should also

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Speaker 1: mention that, you know, when you think of the civil

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Speaker 1: rights movement, it didn't really take effect until the fifties

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Speaker 1: and sixties, but you have some sort of very important

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Speaker 1: predecessors to people like um Martin, Luther King Jr. In

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Speaker 1: In A. Philip Randolph, and Grant Reynolds, and they were

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Speaker 1: really active during this time. They ended up being very

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Speaker 1: active in in in pushing for the Executive Order one.

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Speaker 1: But before that, they were very active in pushing Franklin

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Speaker 1: Roosevelt into issuing Executive Order eight eight zero two. And

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Speaker 1: this band discrimination in industries that had federal contracts, which

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Speaker 1: was very important when um the war was making breaking

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Speaker 1: out in Europe and the United States was active in

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Speaker 1: a lot of war production, and so this order made

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Speaker 1: it possible for a lot of jobs to open up

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Speaker 1: for African Americans, and this prompted a mass migration of

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Speaker 1: African Americans out of the Jim Crow South, So they

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Speaker 1: were moving to cities that you know, discrimination was still

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Speaker 1: certainly present, but not as um severe as in the South.

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Speaker 1: So we're talking about places like Los Angeless and Seattle

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Speaker 1: and yeah, so um, they're really enjoying new freedoms that

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Speaker 1: they had a sense of empowerment at this time. And

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Speaker 1: so you can see, um, with this initial FDR executive order,

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Speaker 1: things starting to change in the seeds of the civil

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Speaker 1: rights movement starting and this uh, you know, it leads

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Speaker 1: into the the idea of the Tusky Yarman because the

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Speaker 1: civil rights leaders also pushed for a change in the

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Speaker 1: rule about how African Americ because we're banned from flying

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Speaker 1: in the military. And when this change, the War Department

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Speaker 1: created the ninety nine Pursuit Squadron of the U. S.

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Speaker 1: Army Air Corps. And we should know this wasn't the

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Speaker 1: Air Force because the Air Force didn't quite exist yet.

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Speaker 1: And if you look at the history of the Tuskegee

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Speaker 1: Airmen and even history of African Americans in World War Two,

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Speaker 1: there's a lot of really, really great stories of men

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Speaker 1: who really just threw off the chains of oppression and

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Speaker 1: took the opportunity to serve their country. And one that

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Speaker 1: comes to mind and when that Jane's written about in

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Speaker 1: this fantastic article about the Tuskegee Airman is Doris Miller,

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Speaker 1: who was a cook on the USS West Virginia and

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Speaker 1: he happened to be there and Pearl Harbor the day

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Speaker 1: that Pearl Harbor was attacked and he had actually been

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Speaker 1: an order to abandon ship. He actually manned a fifty

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Speaker 1: caliber anti aircraft machine gun and shot down some Japanese

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Speaker 1: planes even though you know it had no training. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it is, It's fantastic and it was just it It's

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Speaker 1: a great story especially and this is the beginning of

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Speaker 1: American the American entrance into the war. And immediately you

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Speaker 1: see this this heroism, this valor from African American precisely,

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Speaker 1: and so um, I think that the civil rights organizations

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Speaker 1: that existed at this time would use examples like the

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Speaker 1: you know, the Doris Miller story and then other examples

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Speaker 1: of African Americans showing valor and saying, with training, imagine

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Speaker 1: what these men could do. And so this leads us

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Speaker 1: to Tuskegee, Alabama. Yeah, that's right. And so I mentioned

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Speaker 1: they created the squadron um. They decided to train them

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Speaker 1: at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, which I also had

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Speaker 1: an airfield there. It was segregated, obviously there was segregation

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Speaker 1: still going on at this point, but it was it

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Speaker 1: was a great move forward because they were finally able

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Speaker 1: to fly in the military and they started out with

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Speaker 1: single engine planes and they were led by Captain Benjamin O.

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Speaker 1: Davis Jr. And he would later become the first African

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Speaker 1: American general in the Air Force. But I think he

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Speaker 1: was known for being a real discipline arian. Yeah, and interestingly,

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Speaker 1: his dad became the first African American general in the army.

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Speaker 1: He came in with with some credit, you know, uh,

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Speaker 1: some distinguished family there's I think that family in particular

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Speaker 1: made some big strides for African Americans in in the military.

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Speaker 1: They started out with training and areas like navigation and

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Speaker 1: meteorology and there's who qualified went on to the airfield

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Speaker 1: for pilot training and they first class graduated in March

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Speaker 1: of nineteen forty two. But there was one more year

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Speaker 1: of training before they would actually get to fight in

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Speaker 1: the war. And their first real opportunity or they're entree

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Speaker 1: into the worst day was the Allied invasion of Italy. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and this happened with their first mission happened in June second,

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Speaker 1: nineteen forty three, and they flew P forty Warhawks. This

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Speaker 1: was very successful attack, and a month later they actually

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Speaker 1: successfully fought the German Air Force. So they started out

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Speaker 1: with a bang. Unfortunately, there was a lag after that

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Speaker 1: where they weren't they didn't have kills on their record

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Speaker 1: for for a few more months after that. So the

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Speaker 1: kernel of the fighter group that they were a part of,

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Speaker 1: We're really just was really satisfied with the ninety nine

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Speaker 1: Tuskegee men, and he was so upset them he actually

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Speaker 1: filed a complaint and he said that they weren't aggressive

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Speaker 1: enough in the in fighting and uh, he said that

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Speaker 1: they also like discipline, which is a real strike. I mean, obviously,

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Speaker 1: you have this experimental first African American squadron flying, and

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Speaker 1: you have their colonel immediately, you know, issuing this complain

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Speaker 1: about them. Is it really could have dissolved um the experiment. Uh,

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Speaker 1: entirely so. And I'm inclined to believe that this the

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Speaker 1: trajectory of this story of the Tuskegee Airmen isn't too

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Speaker 1: different from what we learned about with the Navajo code talkers.

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Speaker 1: The idea that these men were trained so thoroughly and

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Speaker 1: then sent to help people in the field communicate messages,

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Speaker 1: but they weren't used properly. People didn't fully understand what

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Speaker 1: their mission and their purpose there was, and so they

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Speaker 1: were deemed worthless. And I'd say that when they got there,

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Speaker 1: people had headed out for them, so maybe they started off,

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Speaker 1: you know, and until these men were really able to

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Speaker 1: prove that they knew their stuff, they were skilled, they

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Speaker 1: just needed better direction, They needed more seamless integration into

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Speaker 1: the war front. And David Davis really argued that point,

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Speaker 1: and that's really what prevented them from dissolving entirely, is

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Speaker 1: that he was able to when the complaint was filed,

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Speaker 1: he was able to argue for the Dusky gearman and

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Speaker 1: and uh, they did an investigation and found that, you know,

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Speaker 1: they were doing just as well as everybody else in

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Speaker 1: there in their circumstances, so they were able to go

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Speaker 1: back into combat. January, the squad squadron helped fight a

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Speaker 1: German air invasion and shot down twelve planes and this

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Speaker 1: was able to get them a unit get the unit

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Speaker 1: Distinguished Unit citation. So this was one of their first, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, just pst ages awards for something they had

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Speaker 1: done right. And so in some in World War Two,

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Speaker 1: there were at least nine hundred nine thousand African Americans

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Speaker 1: serving in the military, with five hundred thousand of those overseas.

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Speaker 1: So with those numbers and with the distinguished unit citation,

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Speaker 1: we have concrete evidence that these are very effectual men

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Speaker 1: and they are serving their country. And so that's when

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Speaker 1: we have the beginning of the executive Order coming into play.

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Speaker 1: To give you some more context on what was going

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Speaker 1: on in the government regarding these civil rights issues in

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Speaker 1: the military. During the forties, you see a lot of

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Speaker 1: really um monumental Supreme Court cases regarding civil rights at

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Speaker 1: the at home. At least in four they banned all

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Speaker 1: white political primaries that were occurring in the South, and

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Speaker 1: two years after that they ruled that segregation in in

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Speaker 1: interstate bus travel was unconstitutional. So you see the Supreme

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Speaker 1: Court getting in line with these civil rights issues at

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Speaker 1: this time. And also Harry Truman at this time, he

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Speaker 1: um wrote that he saw the hypocrisy going on in

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Speaker 1: the fact that his troops were overseas promoting democracy, promoting acceptance,

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Speaker 1: and at the same time his own military was segregated.

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Speaker 1: And so you have the President Supreme Court in line

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Speaker 1: with trying to push this this civil rights issue. But unfortunately,

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Speaker 1: at the time, Congress had a lot of Southern Congressmen

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Speaker 1: in it that were blocking a lot of civil rights

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Speaker 1: laws at this time, like anti lynching legislation. And that's

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Speaker 1: not to say that Southerners were the only barriers to

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Speaker 1: really fulfilling the orders of Nanny on anyone. The executive order,

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Speaker 1: I think that once it was actually put into play,

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Speaker 1: there were nearly five years is the common number that

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Speaker 1: I keep saying. Five years that passed before people really

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Speaker 1: began to fully integrate African Americans into the military and

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Speaker 1: to treat them with acceptance and with dignity and with

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Speaker 1: the camaraderie that is befitting a man of your equal

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Speaker 1: rank in the MI military. Yeah, that's a good point,

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Speaker 1: and m with the events leading up to the actual

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Speaker 1: order you have. I mentioned Randolphin Reynolds earlier, the civil

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Speaker 1: rights leader. They actually formed the committee against Jim Crow

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Speaker 1: and Military service in Training. And when they formed that,

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Speaker 1: they actually uh sent a letter to Truman threatening that

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Speaker 1: if he didn't make this order of a military integration

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Speaker 1: that the African American youth would actually boycott the draft.

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Speaker 1: And this was a huge issue for Truman, especially because

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Speaker 1: he was actually in an election year. Ninety was an

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Speaker 1: election year for him. He's coming up to re election,

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Speaker 1: so you have this situation where you know he wants

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Speaker 1: the black vote at the times, right right, I mean,

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Speaker 1: the African Americans made up about ten percent of the

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Speaker 1: population in America, so the black vote was a significant

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Speaker 1: part of his of his reelection, and this was able

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Speaker 1: to solidify it and making promises like this is um

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Speaker 1: not something that ended with Truman, if you'll recall that

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Speaker 1: and Barack Obama's campaign, he actually almost too uh overturn

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Speaker 1: the sort of don't ask, don't tell policy in the military,

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Speaker 1: because right now gays Lesbians are allowed to serve with

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Speaker 1: with full disclosure. We can we have the Clinton era

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Speaker 1: of the donas, don't tell policy, sort of a compromise,

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Speaker 1: sort of a compromise, but from what I understand, it

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Speaker 1: can be more restrictive than helpful. The idea that you serve,

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Speaker 1: you know, with a mask ever your identity, and you're

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Speaker 1: serving a little bit of fear. But now, with recruitment

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Speaker 1: and an all time low, people are willing to overlook

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Speaker 1: the donalast don't tell policy, and which anyone who's willing

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Speaker 1: to go and fight in the war is sort of

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Speaker 1: being tapped into serve us. So you can see sort

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Speaker 1: of the executive order language thing, race, color, religion, and

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Speaker 1: national origin. You can see sexual orientation and exactly. And

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Speaker 1: the donas don'tell policy is almost sixteen years old now,

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Speaker 1: if you can believe that, I can't believe sixteen years

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Speaker 1: have gone by. But on a happier note, back in

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Speaker 1: line with the valor and bravery of the Tuskegee Airmen,

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Speaker 1: George Lucas, famous of course for with thought little movie

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Speaker 1: about I think it's a star Star Wars. I think

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Speaker 1: that sounds right, Okay, Anyway, he made a movie like

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Speaker 1: Star Wars or something. Anyway, we get flak from the

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Speaker 1: tech team on that one. I really mentioned to that,

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Speaker 1: and I read on the Daily Planet that he's been

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Speaker 1: wanting to do a film about the Tuskegee Airmen for

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Speaker 1: almost twenty years and he has finally begun filming in

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Speaker 1: Europe a movie called Red Tales, and it's going to

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Speaker 1: start Cuba Gooding Junior Terrence Howard, Neo and method man. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: That's cool because Cuba Gooding Junior was actually he played

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Speaker 1: Dorris Miller in in the Pearl Harbor movie a few

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Speaker 1: years ago, talked about before, so that's really appropriate. I

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Speaker 1: think it's it's a long time coming because it's the

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Speaker 1: story is made for Hollywood, it is, and one of

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Speaker 1: the directors that he's got on board is Anthony Hemingway,

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Speaker 1: famous for his work with HBOS, The Wire and Again

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Speaker 1: entertainment years. I'm sure that some of these details are

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Speaker 1: subject to change, so an here now. When they do

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Speaker 1: come out, hopefully we'll be talking about it on our

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Speaker 1: blog as well, exactly exactly. Jane and I blow every

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Speaker 1: day about the latest in politics, uh, history, news, UH discoveries,

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Speaker 1: everything everything really, so if you haven't seen our blog yet,

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Speaker 1: you'll probably get a chuckle and maybe even learn a

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Speaker 1: little something and be sure also to send us your

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Speaker 1: feedback at history podcast at how stuff works dot com.

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Speaker 1: And if you want to learn more about the Tuskegee Airmen,

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Speaker 1: you can read the article on what this podcast is

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Speaker 1: based called what was So Important About Executive Order on

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Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com for more on this and

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Speaker 1: thousands of other topics. Because at how stuff works dot

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Speaker 1: com