A Time to Fight, Part 7 - Tuskegee | South Carolinians in WW II

The Tuskegee Airmen were African-American pilots during WWII. Before the war, the Army thought African-Americans could only be used as laborers. African-Americans faced all sorts of prejudice and discrimination.  When African-Americans were allowed to become pilots during World War II, they proved many critics wrong, with their P-40 Warhawk, and P-51 Mustang fighter planes.  They earned the nick-name “Red Tails,” for the distinctive red color painted on the tails of their aircraft.  Several Army Air-Corps veterans talk about their experiences in the skies over North Africa.

Standards

• Along with the rest of the world, the United States and South Carolina experienced economic instability during this period. As a result, political instability and worldwide conflict consumed the world in the 1940s. Following World War II, the United States emerged as a world leader through political policies and economic growth.
  • 5.3.E Analyze multiple perspectives on the economic, political, and social effects of World War II and its aftermath using primary and secondary sources.
  • 5.3.CE Analyze the cause and effect of government-sponsored policies within the United States and Europe related to the status of different groups, to include the Holocaust.
  • 5.3.CX Contextualize the technological and geographic influence on military strategies in the Pacific and European theaters of war of World War II.
• This indicator was designed to promote inquiry into military and economic policies during World War II, to include the significance of military bases in South Carolina. This indicator was also developed to foster inquiry into postwar economic developments and demographic changes, to include the immigration of Jewish refugees following the Holocaust.
  • 8.5.CO Compare South Carolina and U.S. wartime contributions and demobilization after World War II.
• This indicator was constructed to facilitate inquiry into how economic conditions prompted an evolution of fiscal and monetary policy featuring significant turning points. This indicator also supports inquiry into the laissez-faire policies of the 1920s, the balance of free markets and government intervention of the 1930s, and the command economies during World War I and World War II.
  • USHC.4.CC Examine the continuity and changes on the U.S. homefront surrounding World War I and World War II.

Resources