“Never let the odds keep you from pursuing what you know in your heart you were meant to do.”                                                        Satchel Paige

April 11, 1941 – Tuskegee Institute – Tuskegee, Alabama: First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited the Moton Airfield, with a goal in mind. She was determined to prove that African Americans could be pilots. She told Charles “Chief” Anderson, the flight instructor for civilian pilots, “I always heard that colored people couldn’t fly, but I see you’re flying all around here.” Anderson responded, “Mrs. Roosevelt, certainly we can fly. We fly every day here. We train fine pilots.”

She smiled, “I wonder if you would mind taking me up.” Caught off guard, Chief turned to two secret service agents. They nervously stared at the First Lady. One whispered, “Should we call the President?” The other shrugged, “He can’t control her either.” After a moment, the first agent told Anderson, “Well, she’s the boss.”

Chief Anderson fully realized the consequences if something went wrong with the flight. Still, he chose to throw caution to the wind, and take the free-spirited First Lady up in a Piper J-3 Cub. They flew for 30 minutes around Tuskegee and Macon County. Mrs. Roosevelt had a wonderful time. Upon landing, a newspaper reporter snapped a photo of the smiling African American pilot and his distinguished rear-seat passenger. The picture ran in most of America’s largest newspapers.

Born four years after the Wright Brothers’ historic flight, Charles Anderson grew up in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. The first time he saw an airplane fly overhead, he was 12 years old. He chased the plane until it was out of sight. That night, he dreamed of flying. At 18, Charles saved up enough money for flying lessons, but no one would teach a young Black man to fly. He hung around airports picking up information from white pilots.

Realizing the only way to learn to fly was to own a plane, Charles borrowed money from family and friends and purchased a Velie Monocoupe. This wooden-framed, fabric-covered, single-wing plane sat two people side-by-side. Ernest Buehl, a German WWI aviator who had come to America to fly mail across the country, taught the young pilot to fly.

At age 22, Charles Anderson earned his pilot’s license. Three years later he became the first African American to receive a commercial transport pilot’s license. In July 1933, Charles and Dr. Albert Forsythe, a Black surgeon and pilot, flew from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Los Angeles, California, and back, completing the first transcontinental round trip by African Americans.

In 1940, Tuskegee Institute, now Tuskegee University, hired Charles to develop a training program to teach civilian pilots to fly. He became affectionately known as “Chief” by the men he trained. During the flight on that beautiful April afternoon in 1941, Eleanor Roosevelt was sold on Chief Anderson’s flight training program. She shook his hand when they landed and told him, “You can fly, alright! I’ll talk to the President. Get your squadron together.”

Later that month, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order directing the War Department to establish the 99^th Fighter Squadron, the world’s first African American military flying unit at Moton Field.

Chief Anderson trained 1,000 pilots during WWII. The airmen, who formed the 332^nd Fighter Group and the 477^thBombardment Group came to be known as the Tuskegee Airmen. The all-Black flying unit consisted of 47 officers and 429 enlisted. They deployed to North Africa in April 1943 and later to Sicily, Italy, and Germany.

The Tuskegee Airmen initially flew Curtiss P-40 Warhawks, P-47 Thunderbolts, and later P-51 Mustangs as they escorted bombers over enemy territory. When pilots began painting the tails of their planes red, the nickname ‘Red Tails’ was coined. Red bands on the plane noses and tails distinguished the Tuskegee Airmen.

Because of their excellent combat record, bomber crews often requested to be escorted by the African American squadron. They flew 1,500 combat missions and 15,000 sorties while shooting down or disabling 400 enemy aircraft. Among their awards were eight Purple Hearts, 14 Bronze Stars, 96 Distinguished Flying Crosses, and 744 Air Medals. Sixty-six Airmen were killed in combat.

In 2013, Charles Anderson, the Father of Black Aviation, was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame, joining the Wright Brothers, Amelia Earhart, and Charles Lindberg. His historic and memorable flight with the nation’s First Lady in the spring of 1941 garnered support for the President’s program and debunked the myth that African Americans could not fly.