Eleanor Roosevelt went flying with Chief Anderson....

So the other day Stephanie wrote a short blog that mentioned Marion Anderson and how she was denied the right to sing at Constitution Hall in DC because it was segregated in the late 1930's. Eleanor Roosevelt arranged for her to sing from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and the world was awed by Mrs Andersons singing ability.

Eleanor Roosevelt was always trying to get her husband,Franklin D Rooselvelt, to be more aggressive towards civil rights. She was in favor of full intergration many many years before most people were comfortable with the idea.....

This brings me to the topic of my blog and Eleanor Roosevelt's weird connection to my family

In the late 1930s it was a common belief among many that blacks could not be taught to fly planes for the military. There were many "Negro Flight Schools" around the country but none gave out credentials that allowed the men to then fly in the military....

Letters were sent out to the White House asking that President Rooselvelt come down to Tuskegee Alabama and see first hand that not only could black men fly ...they could fly like white men . FDR decided against going but sent Eleanor Roosevelt instead...She went and flew with Chief Anderson(no relation to Marion Anderson). After she returned to DC she told her husband that he had to allow these men to fly in the army air corps and as a result the first military school to teach black men to fly fighter planes was established in Tuskegee Alabama .

In 1940 the school opened to its first cadets.

My grandfather was born and raised in rural Watauga County in North Carolina. He went to school in Boone and never had any real drive to move away. Then he needed a job.

He joined the army in the early fall of 1941 and since he had trained to be a pilot with his cousin the sent him into the Army Air Corps.

He was assigned to Macon Field in Tuskegee Alabama and spent the entire time of World War 2 in Tuskegee. He helped train the men who became known as THE BLACK AIRMEN. THE REDTAILS.

In the summer of 1942 he met Maude Godfrey they fell in love and were married in October of 1942. My Dad was born in 1945.

Ok...now bear with me ....but in some weird far out way... I am here today because of The Roosevelts. Eleanor to be exact.....If she had not come to Tuskegee,the flight school might never have happened, my grandad would not have moved here and met my grandmother, my dad would not have been born......etc etc etc ...

Not to mention that ER helped pave the way for future generations of men and women to be in the military.

Pretty cool I think ....