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Training Prepares Black
Pilots for War “She [Eleanor Roosevelt] told me, ‘I always heard Negroes couldn’t fly and I wondered if you’d mind taking me up’.... When we came back, she said, ‘Well, you can fly all right.’ I’m positive that when she went home, she said, ‘Franklin, I flew with those boys down there, and you’re going to have to do something about it.’” — C. Alfred Anderson
Despite demonstrating their flying prowess, black aviators in the 1930s still faced many obstacles to flight, including segregated facilities, hostile and unpredictable receptions at airfields, and the refusal of some airports to service aircraft flown by blacks. The year 1939 became an important milestone for black involvement in aviation. That year Dale L. White and Chauncey E. Spencer made a roundtrip-trip flight from Chicago to Washington, a long-distance flight sponsored by the National Airmen’s Association (NAA) and the Chicago Defender newspaper. Later in 1939, the U.S. Congress approved the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPT) which funded a national campaign of flight training. Eventually, predominately black colleges participated in the CPT program. READ MORE | VIEW IMAGES FROM THIS SECTION |
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