Eugene Richardson on the Tuskegee Airmen

https://youtu.be/dOShJtuX3_I

Watch video of Eugene Richardson of the Tuskegee Airmen.

Their stories dramatized in George Lucas’ current film, Red Tails, the Tuskegee Airmen were an all African American pursuit squadron formed in 1941 and based in Tuskegee, Ala. Before 1940, African Americans were barred from flying for the U.S. military, but pressure exerted by civil rights leaders and the black press resulted in the Army choosing Tuskegee Institute, a black college founded in Alabama in 1881 by Booker T. Washington, to train African American pilots. Eugene Richardson was one of those pioneers and he shared his story at Vanderbilt Jan. 30.