Love Is . . .Courage

"I want to fly!" [Tuskegee Airman C. Nappier, as a young boy].

In the United States, February is Black History Month. This is a month-long celebration of black Americans, who made an indelible contribution to this country. In the month of February, we commemorate the strength of African Americans, who for over 200 years in America, never had an accurate recorded history.

I was talking to my young son recently, after the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day holiday. He asked me, "Mommy, after all that Martin Luther King did for this country, is there still racism?" I said, "Sadly, yes." He replied softly, " Then I want you to go on your blog and tell the world about this!"

In his writings entitled "Strength To Love" in 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers."

I had the opportunity this month to attend a talk by one of the surviving Tuskegee Airmen, that elite, all African American flying team, which ran cover missions for Allied bombers during World War II. My son had heard of them in school. I said, "They were at first told that they could not fly because they were black." My son said, very quietly, "That's the same thing they did to Amelia  Earhardt."

This talk was held in a town meeting room. The room was filled beyond capacity, standing room only. The audience was black and white, young and old. A group of kids was bused in from the city to hear this man talk, because he is living history.

His name is Connie Nappier --and his account was riveting. He remembers that when he was a tiny boy, he was walking hand in hand with his father. He looked up at the sky and saw a plane. He exclaimed, "I want to fly!" This drive to conquer the skies never left him.

At that time, blacks were considered physically and intellectually inferior, as well as cowardly. Numerous bogus studies had "proved" this. It took a lawsuit against the War Department in 1941 to force the issue of allowing blacks into the Air Force.

Meanwhile, in Europe, Hitler was strengthening his might and over-running entire countries. Young Connie Nappier had many Jewish friends in high school. His school was at least 70% Jewish students. He said to himself, "What that man [Hitler] is doing is crazy! What the Air Force is doing to bar blacks from service is just as crazy!"

After the 1941 lawsuit, The Tuskegee Experiment was born. It was entirely run by black trainer pilots and staff. Mr. Nappier said that the experiment was "designed to fail".

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited Tuskegee in 1941. Despite desperate pleas from her body guards, she insisted on taking a test flight with a black instructor pilot, one of those men believed by definition to be unfit to fly. She overrode her security detail and went for the test flight. She left the Tuskegee campus, determined to convince the President to support the Experiment.

Shortly after, the Tuskegee Institute was born. Many barriers to entry existed. Applicants needed at least a high school degree and ideally some college, at a time when education for blacks was restricted or unavailable. Mr. Nappier tells the story of taking and passing the entrance exam, only to be told that he had failed. He went back to the Captain at the recruitment center to protest. Mr. Nappier recited the exam line by line from memory to the Captain. Finally, he was allowed to re-take the test. And he passed.

In flight school, the Airmen taught themselves dog-fighting. No one trained them in this! They painted the tails of their aircraft brilliant red, to signal to friend and foe alike, 'We have arrived!'  Before the Tuskegee Airmen began to fly cover missions for WWII bombers, 30-40% of U.S. bombers were lost in crashes. Each crash meant the loss of 10-12 men. Once the Tuskegee Airmen began their missions, bombing pilots began to routinely request cover from them.

Last month, reknowned film maker Stephen Spielberg released his new movie, "Red Tail" about the Tuskegee Airmen. He requested funding from many film studios, all of whom turned him down. He decided to finance the making of this picture himself. The man who could get funding to make the movie "E.T.", and a movie about a horse in WWI, "War Horse", could not get funding for "Red Tail"?!

Which leaves me with the ultimate question? WHY did Mr. Nappier and his classmates argue so forcefully to be admitted to the Air Force? Why did these men take the risk to teach themselves dogfighting, and to engage in dangerous cover missions against a determined and cruel enemy, so far from home?

I say that their determination was fueled by the power of Love! Each of these men knew that the only powerful response to hate is to love and to love fiercely. They chose to put their lives on the line for this, and for their fellow Jewish men and women in Europe who were being annihilated by Hitler.

Love is not only refusing to accept what is wrong. Love is taking brave action against all that is hateful and evil in the world!

(c) The Spiritual Devotional 2012. All Rights Reserved.