But there he was – Lt. James Wiley – in a black and white photo. I only recall that he was looking into the camera because the documentary didn’t linger on the photo. It was chock full of images of African American pilots who trained during World War II to fight in Europe for a country that doubted their ability to even fly airplanes.

Col. Benjamin O. Davis Jr. (left), one of the first Tuskegee Airmen and later their most famous leader, and an unidentified pilot. Photo from the Library of Congress' Toni Frissell Collection.

I had learned of Wiley while trying to identify African American soldiers in two photos I had bought at auction. The photos were stamped “U.S. Army Air Corps,” so I assumed they were Tuskegee Airmen. A friend of Wiley’s family identified him as one of the soldiers.

The documentary is called “Double Victory,” in reference to their fighting for victory against racism at home and fascism in Europe. It is a prelude to the George Lucas film “Red Tails” scheduled to be released on Jan. 20, 2012. This riveting documentary is currently being shown in five cities to whip up support for the movie, which tells of the exploits of the Tuskegee Airmen of the 99th Fighter Squadron, the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group. The documentary will also be aired on Jan. 20 on the History channel.

I attended one of those screenings last night. Two airmen wearing light blue jackets and blue “Tuskegee Airmen” caps talked about their experiences as part of a panel accompanying the documentary, while others sat in a special row of chairs among a packed audience. The panelists apparently didn’t see any combat; the war ended in 1945 before they could ship out.

Lucas financed the project with his own money – $58 million to make the movie and $35 million to distribute it, according to the Wall Street Journal. The movie includes combat scenes that will remind viewers of Star Wars, the visual effects supervisor told the newspaper. I saw the trailer online, and those scenes were “wow.”

This is not the first film about the airmen. In 1995, HBO produced a TV movie titled “The Tuskegee Airmen” starring Laurence Fishburne.

A poster for the George Lucas movie "Red Tails."

The Lucas movie stars Terrence Howard and Cuba Gooding (he was also in the HBO movie), along with Method Man. The documentary starts with a few of the actors extolling the bravery of the airmen, who pressed on when many white officers and pilots refused to fly or associate with them. The men and their all-black units were thwarted at every turn, but they wouldn’t give up because as one said, this was his country, too, and his ancestors helped build it.

“We wanted to fly,” another announced succinctly in the documentary, a testament to our basic desire to aspire and succeed.

Lt. James Wiley was one of those brave souls. He was among the first 24 pilots of the 99th Fighter Squadron who landed in North Africa in 1943. They started their action with daily missions in Italy, flying some of the military’s worst planes in attacks on enemy gun sites in the Pantelleria Island campaign.

Some of the research I came across had indicated that the airmen primarily escorted bombers to their targets, but the documentary made it clear that they also participated in independent air raids. After hearing of their successful missions, some white bomber pilots even requested the Tuskegee airmen. The squadron became part of the 332nd under the leadership of Col. Benjamin O. Davis Jr., and painted the tails of their P-51C aircraft red to identify themselves. They became known as the “Red Tails.”

The documentary contained its share of the “trials and tribulations” of black men trying to become pilots in the 1940s, but I’m hoping that the movie goes beyond that. I hope that it shows the camaraderie of men helping each other – as they mentioned in the documentary – and the good times they carved out for themselves in the midst of the crazy quilt of racism.

I can’t wait to see the film, primarily for what panel moderator Ed Gordon said the documentary demonstrated: That “heroes can be black, too.” And indeed these men were.

A poster for the documentary about the Tuskegee Airmen.

Related posts:

1. Discovering the identity of a Tuskegee airman
2. Black soldiers and World War II
3. Who are these WWII black soldiers?

He was just as excited as me about what we had before us. It was a manumission document freeing a slave to join the Union army. The slave’s last name was spelled two different ways – a testament to how little worth his owners attached to something as significant as his identity.     

John H. Whitenden's manumission document.

The document had some splits at the ends of the folds, but it was in remarkably good condition for its age. Fox, who lives in the Philadelphia area, had called me after seeing an article I had written last week about the African American history items I found at auction. He wasn’t sure, but he thought he had gotten the document from his great aunt when he was 15 years old (he’s 70 now).     

The document was actually two separate papers, one glued to the bottom of the other (which, in effect, had kept them together. Click on the photo above to see both documents.). They had been signed by a woman named Elizabeth Coulbourn of Somerset County, MD, on the Eastern Shore. One was dated April 5, 1865, with Coulbourn attesting that she owned a slave named John H. Whittington or Whittenden (“a man of African descent”) who enlisted in the 9^th Regiment, United States Colored Troops, Company K on Nov. 26, 1863. The second was dated April 22, 1864, a claim she filed seeking $100 for freeing him to enlist in the army.     

According to the National Archives, these manumission papers are unique to the U.S. Colored Troops and are contained in their service files. The War Department in October 1863 agreed to pay up to $300 to citizens in Maryland and three other states who allowed their slaves to enlist in the Union army “upon filing a valid deed of manumission and of release, and making satisfactory proof of title.”     

Maryland’s citizens were torn between the Union and the Confederacy, and white men enlisted on both sides. Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s first attempt to invade the North was the 1862 Battle of Antietam in Maryland, but he was fiercely rebuffed. Soon after, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which included several southern states but not Maryland. Although it had slaves, Maryland was considered a Union state.     

John H. Whitenden's information from the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System.

I was now bent on finding out as much as I could about Whittington/Whittenden and the 9^th Regiment. Finding the regiment’s trail was easy, but finding a man whose name was spelled two different ways wasn’t. After some searching, I finally located a John H. Whitenden, Company K in the National Park Service’s Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System.     

Whitenden was one of about 180,000 slaves and free men who joined the U.S. Colored Troops – organized by the Union army in 1863 – in cavalry, artillery and infantry units. Some got manumission papers from their owners while others just left on their own or were recruited by the army right off the plantations – all with the hope that the war would free them.     

The 9^th was organized at Camp Stanton in Benedict, MD, from Nov. 11-30, 1863, three months after the camp was set up to recruit and train African American soldiers. They trained, drilled, marched and built roads and huts until March 1864.     

The men of the 9^th Regiment are credited with creating a song “They Look Like Men of War” while stationed at Benedict during the winter of 1863-64. The verses in part:     

Hark! Listen to the trumpeters,
They call for volunteers,
On Zion’s bright and flow’ry mount
Behold the officers.     

They look like men, they look like men,
They look like men of war;
All armed and dressed in uniform,
They look like men of war.     

In March 1864, they headed out to South Carolina and Virginia, where they engaged in heavy fighting at Petersburg and Richmond. They participated in the Siege at Petersburg, 10 long months of trench fighting that opened the way to the eventual fall of the Confederate capital of Richmond on April 3, 1865.     

Many black regiments were involved in the battle, and this was said to be the largest amassing of black soldiers during the war. The 9^th was among the first regiments to occupy Richmond after its fall. The regiment moved on to Texas before being discharged on Nov. 20, 1866. Whitenden was a private during his years in the military.      

From the back cover of the document. It indicates payment to the owner: "pd April 12/65"

As for Elizabeth Coulbourn, I could find little about her. I did come across someone with that name who was born in 1795 and died in 1872. Her husband had died in 1821, and they had six children, including twins who died one year after they were born in 1816.     

Fox did more than just share the documents with me. He gave them to me. He said that based on my article, he thought I would appreciate them and understand their importance. I was too happy for words. Theyare indeed two very significant documents and I am most grateful.     

A few years ago, I had bidded on the bill of sale for a slave girl, but was outbidded. Even as I stood there nodding my assent to the bids, I was conflicted. It was as if the girl was on the auction block again and this time I was bidding for her. It made me uneasy, but I knew my reasons for bidding on the document - and not her - was for its historical value.     

With John Whitenden’s documents, I plan to dig up more about him. Fox doesn’t believe that Coulbourn was one of his ancestors. His aunt was into historical documents, he said, and he believes she may have picked it up somewhere.     

Fox himself is a collector of sorts, having started with coins in high school (which he stopped collecting when he went to college). Now, he has three foreign-made antique cars that he drives around on weekends: a white 1964 Honda S600 sports car named “Minke Shrew,” a red 1967 Toyota Sport 800, a red 1947 MG called “Gatsby” and a 1955 Vespa.     

Thank you, Bill Fox, for sharing a love for history.

Related posts:

1. Pondering the Slave Coast off West Africa
2. An autobiography by a female slave?
3. Buzz is still on story of ‘rare’ slave photo

A few others were of the same black man, in handsome military officer dress, apparently at a special party or event. I wanted those photos. It’s not often that I come across photos of black people, and even rarer to find military photos.

Bidding on the photo of the officer started first. I jumped in. Then another woman bidded against me. We went back and forth for awhile, but she was determined. She got the photos, explaining to me afterward that she doesn’t often come across soldiers in dress uniform.

She was bidding on the photos to sell. I was bidding on our history.

I did get one set of photos: the 10 black men in khaki uniforms staring into the camera. Faces firm, stoic, no smiles. World War II.  A time when racism, segregation and discrimination made for a tough experience for black men in the military. Behind the faces, what horror stories do these soldiers have to tell?

There were four photos of the same group of men. On the back was stamped:

RELEASED BY ARMY AIR FORCES
If used for publication, please credit as below
OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH U.S. ARMY AIR FORCES

I believe these photos belonged to a man named Lt. Oliver Salisbury, who had written O. Salisbury in ink on the backs of two photos. Also printed on the backs of two photos were ids on all the men (apparently written by Salisbury).

The other men were Lt. William E. Williamson, Lt. Edwin A. Campbell, Lt. Dickerson, Lt. Burns, Lt. Best, Lt. Hudson, Lt. Wiley, Lt. Montrose, Lt. Johnson.

Who were these soldiers? Where was the photo taken? Were they among the black aviators who were part of the Tuskegee Experiment? Did they train in Tuskegee, or elsewhere? Why did the U.S. Army Air Force distribute this photo? Was it propaganda?

There is no date on the photo, but the U.S. Army Air Force became the U.S. Air Force in 1947. Could the photo be from the 1940s? I have all kinds of questions about these men, and I’m still looking for the answers.

We’re all familiar with the Tuskegee Airmen and Tuskegee Institute’s historic role in training black pilots during World War II.  But the so-called Tuskegee Experiment also included training for navigators, bombardiers, maintenance and support staff, instructors and others. The soldiers in my photo may not have been pilots but may have been involved in other areas of the program.  

Early on, the training was not done exclusively at Tuskegee. When the federal government first authorized flight training for African Americans in 1939, Howard University and Hampton Institute joined Tuskegee in providing some preliminary training. By 1941, Tuskegee was the one that offered advanced training and produced the pilots, becoming the main source during the war.

According to the Tuskegee Airmen website, up until 1946, when the flying school ended, 994 pilots graduated from the program. Black navigators, bombardiers and gunnery crews were trained at military bases elsewhere in the country. Mechanics were trained at Chanute Air Base in Illinois before Tuskegee took over the training in 1942, according to the site.

Despite their prowess in war and the eventual desegregation of the Air Force, the black pilots could not defeat racism at home. Do you recognize any of these men? Let’s not forget them today, of all days – Veteran’s Day.

A bit of history: Eugene Jacques Bullard was the first black military pilot in history and the only one in World War I. In 1917, he fought as an American volunteer in the French army. He was born in Columbus, GA, on October 9, 1894, spent much of his life as an expatriate in France after the first war, fought against the Germans in the French army in World War II and returned to the United States after the war. He was posthumously named a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force in 1994.

Related posts:

1. Who are these WWII black soldiers?
2. Soldiers and their keepsakes from war
3. Tuskegee Airmen: ‘Heroes can be black, too’