Before 1941, there weren’t any African American pilots in the United States armed forces. The Tuskegee Airmen changed that. With the United States’ entry into World War II imminent, the U.S. Army Air Corps (the predecessor to the U.S. Air Force) decided to offer training to African Americans as pilots and mechanics. Called the Tuskegee Airmen because they trained in Tuskegee, Alabama, these airmen made a pioneering contribution to the war and the subsequent drive to end racial segregation in the American military. This episode of STEM in 30 will look at the role African Americans played during the war and how World War II changed aviation history.

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