Charles F Wilson's Letter To The Tuskegee Airmen

Charles F. Wilson wrote a letter to the President, his Commander in Chief, to question why America could fight for equality of others yet mistreat African- Americans. Before Charles wrote this letter the Tuskegee Airmen (officially known as The Tuskegee Air Squadron) was created in the Army. He recognizes that while America did give African- Americans the right to vote, removing segregation, taking away the poll tax African- Americans had to pay to vote, etc. they were still mistreated even in the military. During this time segregation was illegal and Jim Crow was no more but people still had hard hearts towards African-Americans and Charles saw this manifests in the military through them having the less paying jobs and them being segregated from

the white soldiers (buildings).

Although laws were changing the people weren’t, African-Americans were still expected to follow the old rules and ways that society had lived by or they were killed.
Charles F. Wilson was right about how treatment of African- Americans had not changed. Laws didn’t mean anything to racist people because they knew in court they could get away with it. The legal system was formed to protect Caucasians (in lighter sentencing, a non-diverse jury, using words to describe African-Americans that aren’t entirely accurate) and it did just that. The color of your skin has been important to America since the beginning and it is still that way today. For African-Americans it created a target for them to be demeaned and killed even when they did nothing wrong. Finding employment was usually as a cook, janitor, construction worker, etc. because it was hard to find someone willing to employ them for something higher than that. Most

African-Americans who were extremely successful during this time was because of the arts (writing, acting, etc), teaching or because of the armed forces. Through this diversity they still overcame the challenges and eventually were rewarded for their work. African-Americas experienced massive hatred and segregation and still faithfully fought for their country. In the armed forces because they did lower jobs they did not receive training to do things such as gunning, pilots, bombing squads, etc. (unless it was a specific group like the Tuskegee Airmen), then they would turn around and say that “‘Negro units… have been unable to master efficiently the techniques of modern weapons.’” (Primary 205). I disagree with that previous quote because it is unfair, how were they expected to perform well compare to a well-trained group when no one trained them? It was almost like they sent them to die because they could not properly defend themselves or their Nation.
During the 1940s and WWII it was still a struggle of inner nation hate towards African- Americans while trying to fight for other freedoms. Charles F. Wilson was right when he wrote this letter and stated his confusion and argument. They were willingly to go to war for others yet waged a war on African-Americans for simply existing and something because they knew they could and nothing would happen. Charles wanted them to honor the statement they made at the United Nations by treating African-Americans fairly and not to based their choices off the color of their skin .