The Tuskegee Airmen Oral History Project and Oral History ...

The Tuskegee Airmen Oral History Project and Oral History in the National Park Service Author(s): J. Todd Moye Source: The Journal of American History, Vol. 89, No. 2, History and September 11: A Special Issue (Sep., 2002), pp. 580-587 Published by: Organization of American Historians Stable URL: Accessed: 16/02/2010 11:41 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@.

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The Tuskegee Airmen Oral History Project and Oral History in the National Park Service

J. ToddMoye

In 1998 PresidentBill Clinton signedinto law a bill directingthe National ParkService (NPs) to createa nationalhistoricsite at Moton Fieldin Tuskegee,Alabama.The sitewill honor the TuskegeeAirmen,as the firstAfricanAmericanmilitaryaviatorsmen who trainedto fly airplanesat segregatedfacilitiesin Tuskegeeduring World WarII-were latercalled.When Congressappropriatedfunds for the creationof the site, it authorizedthe NPS to conduct an oral history of survivingTuskegee-trained pilots and the thousandsof people who supportedthem duringWorldWarII. The resultingTuskegeeAirmen Oral History Projectis but one of the hundredsof ways that the National ParkServicehas embracedthe possibilitiesof oralhistory.

About a third of the 384 units in the National ParkSystemreportthat they have undertakenoralhistoryprojects.1ParkServicehistorians,anthropologists,ethnographers,and naturalresourcespecialistshavelong understoodthatoralhistorycan help them document important American experiencesin rich detail. They have then sharedthose storieswith parkvisitors.Consequently,the NPS hasbeen responsiblefor a significantportionof all the oralhistoryconductedin the United States.

The National Park Service is likely to expand its oral history program in the future. In 2001 the National ParkSystemAdvisoryBoard,chairedby the eminent historianJohn Hope Franklin,suggestedthat the ParkService'sfirstpriorityfor the twenty-firstcenturyshould be accepting"itsmission, as educator,to become a more significantpart of America'seducationalsystem."The boardproposedthat the NPS should "encouragethe study of the Americanpast, developing programsbased on currentscholarship,linkingspecificplacesto the narrativeof our history,and encour-

J. Todd Moye is the director of the Tuskegee Airmen Oral History Project and a historian in the Southeast RegionalOffice of the National ParkServicein Atlanta,Georgia.

If you know of a participantin the TuskegeeAirmen experiencewho should be consideredfor an interview,or if you would like more informationon the TuskegeeAirmen Oral History Project,pleasecall the project'stoll-free number, 1-866-294-2914.

Of the 384 units in the National ParkSystem, 147 respondedto a 2001 questionnairefrom the Office of the Chief Historian of the National ParkService.Of those 147 respondents, 118 reportedthat their parkshad conducted oral histories. See Office of the Chief Historian of the National ParkService, OralHistoryin theNational ParkServiceJ, anuary2002 (Washington,2002).

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aginga publicexplorationanddiscussionof theAmericanexperience."O2ralhistory is uniquein itsabilityto fulfillthosemissions.

Yetthereis greatvarietyin the conditionandsizeof the oralhistorycollections producedbyNPSemployeesS. omecollectionscontainonlyfieldnotesfora handful of untranscribedev, enunrecordedin, terviewsO. thershavehundredos f impressively catalogedinterviewasndfindingaids.Forexamplet,heoralhistorycollectionat San FranciscoMaritimeNationalHistoricaPl arkdatesbackto the 1940sandis one of thenation'slongest-runninogralhistoryprogramsI.tsmorethan600 interviewasre catalogedandavailableto researcherWs. ithcloseto 2,000 interviewst,he oralhistorycollectionattheEllisIslandImmigratioMn useumatEllisIslandNationalMonument is among the nation'slargestand most important.The collection is impressivelcyatalogedandwidelyaccessiblteo parkvisitorsT. housandos f NewYork Cityschoolchildrens,cholarsc, uriousvisitors,anddescendantosf intervieweehsave listenedto the collection'rsecordingisn thesite'sresearchlibraryT. he archiveof the NationalPrisonerof WarMuseumatAndersonvillNe ationalHistoricSitein Georgia includesvideo historiesof morethan 900 AmericanPows,veteransof every AmericanconflictsinceWorldWarI.3

Unfortunatelyo,ralhistoryin the NPShasnot alwaysreachedits fullpotentialA. recentsurveyconcludedthat"oralhistoryefforts[in the NationalParkService]are oftenlooselystructureds,poradica, ndproject-drivena,ndimplementedin a piecemealfashion."F4oreveryEllisIslandImmigratioMn useumw, hichemploysfull-time oralhistoriansa, rchivistsa, ndaudiotechniciansand hasa state-of-the-arot,n-site recordingfacilityt,hereareseverasliteswithuntrainedt,houghdedicatedp, arkrangers and volunteerswho recordinterviewson outdatedequipmentand storethe recordingisn uncontrolledenvironmentsF.ewof theinterviewasreevertranscribed ormadeavailablteo researcherSso. meservelittlehistoricapl urposeB. uthundredos f otherinterviewus ndoubtedlsyhedlighton unstudiedcornersofAmericansocialhistoryandwillprovevaluableif theyareprocessedaccordingto professionasltandards andmadeavailablteo thepublic.

Historiansandculturarl esourcemanagerws ithintheNPSarerespondingto those needs,actingon the advisoryboard'srecommendatiotnhat"budgetsp, olicies,and organizationasltructureshould reflectthis commitment[to education]."T5heir effortsshouldsparknew partnershipwsith universityoralhistoryandpublichistory programtshatsharethe ParkService'ms ission.The backlogof uncatalogedu,nused interviewaslreadyin parkcollectionscouldkeepstudentinternsfromacademicoral history,publichistory,and museumstudiesprogramsbusy for the next several years-to themutualbenefitof individuapl arks,thestudentsp, arkvisitorsa, ndthe researcherwshowillusetheinterviewisn thefuture.

2 National ParkSystemAdvisory Board, "Rethinkingthe National Parksfor the 21st Century,"Aug. 9, 2001

(April 15, 2002). 3 For more information on these parks and projects, see ;;and (April 15, 2002). The Andersonville

site offersresearchgrantsto promote use of the prisonerof war video history collection.

4 Office of 5 National

the Chief Historian, OralHistoryin theNationalParkServiceJ, anuary2002, 4. ParkSystemAdvisoryBoard,"Rethinkingthe National Parksfor the 21st Century."

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The National ParkServicegenerallyconductsoralhistoryprojectswith threeuses in mind. Oral histories most commonly document the administrativehistories of individual parks and park structures.The archivesof many national parks and nationalhistoricsitescontaininterviewswith pastparksuperintendentsand influential local citizensand, in some cases,with local peoplewho once livedwithin or near the park. Those oral historiesseek to document the historiesof the national park units themselves. Ideally,park superintendentsand planners use the information fromthe interviewsto informtheirdecisionsaboutresourceprotection.

Relatedoralhistoryprojectsdocument the experiencesthat the parksand historic sites commemorateor the ethnographicimpact parkshave had on local communities. Ongoing oral historyprogramsat Cane RiverCreoleNational HistoricalPark, New RiverGorgeNational River,LowellNationalHistoricalPark,the National Park of AmericanSamoa,KeweenawNational HistoricalPark,the U.S.S.ArizonaMemo-

rial, and hundredsof other NPSunits attest to the rich diversityof experiencesthat oralhistorydocumentsfor the ParkService.

Finally,the NPSuses oral history in museum interpretation.At sites such as the EllisIslandImmigrationMuseum,ParkServicepersonneluse interviewrecordingsto allowvisitorsto learnhistoryfromthe peoplewho madeit. Visitorsto EllisIslandare invariablymovedby the storiesthey hearfromimmigrantsto the United Statesin the museums exhibits and in Islandof Hope, Islandof Tears,the award-winningdocumentaryfilm shown at the historic site.6 Oral history allows a historicalfigure to speakto a museumvisitoracrosstime, as one living humanbeing to another.

The recordingsfromthe TuskegeeAirmenOralHistoryProjectwill be put to each of those threeuses.The projectis an exampleof the National ParkService'sgrowing commitment to systematic,adequatelyfunded, and professionallyadministeredoral history research.In addition to the projectdirector(myself), the TuskegeeAirmen Oral History Project employs four experienced,full-time historianswho arrange, conduct, and edit the oralhistoryinterviews.This team of historians-Lisa Bratton, Judith Brown, Worth Long, and Bill Mansfield-has made the project one of the most activein the nation and is responsiblefor its successto date. Basedin the Park Service'sSoutheastRegionalOffice in Atlanta,Georgia,we had recorded450 interviews in thirty-twostatesand the Districtof Columbiaas of April2002.

The project centers on the pilots who graduatedfrom Moton Field, a primary flight-trainingfacility operated by Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) under contractwith the United StatesArmy Air Corps/ArmyAir Forcesbetween 1941 and 1945, and went on to basicand advancedtrainingat the nearbyTuskegee ArmyAir Field.7Manyof the 996 who completedthat trainingto earntheirwings as officer-pilotsin the ArmyAir Forcesservedoverseaswith greatdistinction as mem-

6 Island of Hope, Island of Tears,dir. Charles Guggenheim (Guggenheim Productions, 1990) (Videotape, 1 tape7;TGhuegAgernmhyeAimirPFroordcuecsrtiaoznesd)T. uskegeeArmyAir Fieldsoon afterthe war.TuskegeeUniversitydonated the historic Moton Field site to the National ParkService in 2000, and stablizationof historic structuresbegan soon thereafter.In addition to preparingthe Moton Field historic complex for visitation, the National ParkService plans the eventual construction of the TuskegeeAirmen National Center, a multimillion-dollar public-private museum and conference facility.

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Pilots of the 332nd FighterGroup discussa combat mission alongsidea "red-tail"P-51 Mustang, August 1944. Left to right:Lt. Dempsey W. Morgan,Lt. CarrollS. Woods, Lt. RobertH. Nelson, Capt. Andrew W. Turner, and Lt. Clarence D. "Lucky"Lester. CourtesyAir Force Historical ResearchAgencyPhotoCollection(usAFNegativeNumber53690 AC).

bersof the 332nd FighterGroup.Among other assignments,the fighterpilots of the 332nd escortedAllied bombers on hundredsof missions in the Europeantheater. They have been creditedwith having neverlost a bomber under their protectionto enemy planes.No other unit in the war could makesuch a claim. It is importantto commemoratethe TuskegeeAirmen for that reasonalone, but the story of the airmen involvesmuch more than the pilots'excellentrecordin combat.8

The story of the TuskegeeAirmen involvedthousandsof people besidesthe pilots who havejustly begun to win fame for their wartimeservice.To keep a single pilot flying during the war requiredabout a dozen support personnel on the ground.

8 On the creationof the TuskegeeInstitute aviation program,see RobertJ. Jakeman, TheDivided Skies:Establishing SegregatedFlight Trainingat TuskegeeA, labama, 1934-1942 (Tuscaloosa, 1992). For the history of the 332nd, see Benjamin O. Davis, Benjamin0. DavisJr., American:An Autobiography(Washington, 1991); Charles W. Dryden, A-Train:Memoirsof a TuskegeAe irman (Tuscaloosa,1997); and StanleySandler,SegregatedSkies:AllBlackCombatSquadronsof WorldWarII (Washington, 1992). For the recognition the fighterpilots of the 332nd have receivedfrom the all-white bomber crewsof the 15th Air Force,see Stephen E. Ambrose, The WildBlue: The Men and BoysWhoFlew theB-24s overGermany(New York,2001). On racismand discriminationin the ArmyAir Corps, see LawrenceP.Scott and William M. Womack Sr.,Double V: The Civil RightsStruggleof the TuskegeAe irmen (EastLansing, 1994); Alan L. Gropman, TheAir ForceIntegrates,1945-1964 (Washington, 1998); and MorrisJ. MacGregorJr.,Integrationof theArmedForces,1940-1965 (Washington, 1981).

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