Question

What is the main idea of this paragraph?

The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of African American fighter pilots and bomber pilots, including their support crew, who trained at the Tuskegee Air Fields in Alabama during World War II. They became the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group1 in the U.S. Army Air Forces at the height of the war, and their missions were some of the most successful in the American military.

During World War I, several decades earlier, African Americans were denied the ability to become fighter pilots and help the war effort. This sparked a growing controversy in the African American community. In April of 1939, after a 20-year battle, Congress finally allocated funds to set up a special division to train African American pilots to fly fighter planes.

Most people were highly skeptical of the new unit. Racism was still very present in and out of the military, and many Army officials did not believe African Americans had the skills or the intelligence to learn everything a pilot needs to know.

Answer 1

The paragraph discusses the Tuskegee Airmen, who were a group of African American fighter and bomber pilots, as well as their support crew, trained at Tuskegee Air Fields during World War II. It also mentions the controversy surrounding the exclusion of African Americans from becoming fighter pilots during World War I and the skepticism towards the Tuskegee Airmen unit due to prevalent racism in and out of the military.