The legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen continues in Central Florida

ORANGE COUNT , Fla. — In 1941, a group of young Black men were training for combat in Tuskegee, Alabama, not knowing that when they returned from war, they would help break down even more barriers.

Retired Air Force Lt. Colonel Toby Hubbard, president of Central Florida’s General Daniel “Chappie” James Tuskegee Airmen chapter, said Black people were not allowed to fly because the government did not think they were “capable of handling complex machinery.”

“There was actually a document and it basically said Negroes were inferior beings, incapable of handling complex machinery and in fact they would cower and run in the face of war,” Hubbard said.

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The men in Tuskegee more than answered the call from the Department of War when they took the the sky to escort bombers over Europe during WWII.

“On the first mission that the Tuskegee Airmen took the bombers on, all bombers returned, that had never happened,” notes Hubbard.

In the years that followed, the story of the Tuskegee Airmen helped break down other barriers as the pilots returned home to share their stories in a still-segregated United States.

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“The Tuskegee Airmen, what they did was they broke down the barriers of segregation,” says retired Marine Corps officer Frederick Robinson of Brevard County’s Tuskegee Airmen Chapter. “They were the ones who opened the door and let people know what could be done, and they didn’t waver from their mission.”

The mission of the Tuskegee Airmen chapters is to preserve the stories of the airmen and help inspire the next generation. In Florida, there are only three chapters, and two are in Central Florida.

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For people like Hubbard and Robinson, that means going into schools and holding events to share the stories of the pilots, mechanics and crews that paved the way for equality.

“To understand who they are and treat them as though they are heroes,” says Hubbard. “The story is too important not to be told.”

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