Article and photos by Fatima Black
LINCOLN UNIVERSITY- Author and LU alumni Michelle Brooks recently visited Lincoln University. Brooks discussed her recent book, The Jefferson City Civil Pilots, a historical account of Lincoln University’s World War II black pilots. In this book, she highlighted the history of the Tuskegee Airmen out of Lincoln University.
Lincoln was the only college west of the Mississippi River to offer a Civilian Pilot Training program for black pilots. There were 50 trained pilots out of LU’s CPT program before World War II began. Tuskegee was the first airfield for African Americans, and they had to build the program up from scratch.
“Discrimination kept most from going further than watching the skies. In 1939, only four African-American pilots held commercial licenses, 23 held private licenses, and 82 were students,” said Brooks.
Richard Pullum and Wendell Pruitt are two notable pilots who successfully graduated from the CPT program. The two pilots were the first out of Lincoln to earn their wings from the Tuskegee Army Airfield. More than a dozen Lincoln students and professors were in the program.
“Many of these Lincoln airmen broke racial barriers in military and civilian worlds,” Brooks said. Others impacted their communities and the nation with their skills, knowledge, and compassion, and their lives by success and character helped gradually overcome racial mythology in their workplaces, communities, and the nation.”
Myclarionnews.com 