Speaking of Remarkable Aviators, Can You Help Connect a Tuskegee Airman?

Question

The Tuskegee Airmen, comprised of the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group, were the first African American military pilots in the United States Armed Forces. This is notable because at this time, the American military was racially segregated and many African Americans were still subject to Jim Crow Laws. They were subjected to discrimination, both in the military and outside the Army. During World War I, African Americans had sought to become aerial observers, but were rejected. This led to twenty years of advocacy by African Americans who wished to train as aviators and by civil rights leaders such as Walter White of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), labor union leader Asa Philip Randolph, and Judge William H. Hastie.

So far, only THREE of the Tuskegee Airmen is even connected. Only about 40 even have profiles. Can you lend a hand?

Here are some Airmen who are not connected. Even just finding one or two immediate relatives can help get them connected:

• Cleophus Walter Valentine (1925-2006)
• Leonard O. Vaughan (1924-1987)
• Frederick Elmer Velasquez (1920-1969)
• Hilton Forrest Carter Jr. (1928-2020)

Here is a link to a free space with a list of pilots who need profiles and then connecting:

Tuskegee Airmen

Answer 1

Finally!  After completing 63 Tuskegee Airmen profiles, I have managed to find one connected to the family tree!  Woo hoo! 2nd Lt. Carroll Napier Langston, Jr.  (Langston-2195).

Answer 2

I'd love to help! I'll be creating a profile for Harold H. Brown.

Answer 3

I have created a profile for Purnell Goodenough (#0814191) and will be working on him/his family 

Update: Connected

Comments

Beautiful work! And fast!

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Thank you so much Maxx!

Answer 4

I decided to undertake this challenge...

I noticed that "Cole, Robert A" wasn't on WikiTree so I had chosen to create and build upon this individual.

I just created the profile for "Robert Arthur Cole" (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cole-23375).

It's still under construction and I have him as "Still Living" until/unless I locate a source for his Passing.

Anyway... It's Under Construction/A Work in Progress.

~Brian Kerr

Comments

He could still be living. I found this with a quick search:

• "The group could confirm that that as of September 18, 2018 that there are 13 living Tuskegee airmen off the 355 Tuskegee Airmen single engine pilots who served in the Mediterranean theater operation during WWII. In addition, they could confirm two of 32 Tuskegee Airmen single engine pilots who were prisoners of war (POW) are still living." - "Living Tuskegee Airmen (2019)" History on the Net © 2000-2020, Salem Media. December 16, 2020 <https://www.historyonthenet.com/living-tuskegee-airmen>

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I found this article that asserts that Cole' father Alonzo died tragically when his children were young:

Flight Records: Finding a Tuskegee Airman From Vermont | Live Culture (sevendaysvt.com)

It also says that Cole left Vermont in the mid-60s and no one knows where he went or what happened to him. It speculates that he went to Georgia.

Answer 5

Another one created and connected: Arnett Starks

Answer 6

I am working on William V Bibb. I am not very familiar with military stickers. I copied one from another profile for WWII, but Bibb was killed in action in 1955 and I am not sure if there is more that should be done. Please feel free to make any edits to the profile. 

I will try to work on his parents later today.

Comments

I have not connected him to the global tree and am giving up. However, I did connect him to Lulu Merle Johnson, one of the first African American to get a masters degree at the University of Iowa and the namesake of Johnson County, to Dick Culberson, the first black man to play Big Ten basketball, to the actor Hattie McDaniel, and to Hezekiah Harding, a 1st sergeant in the 40th US Colored Infantry, Company B. He is almost connected to Des Moines businessman, Jefferson Logan, and his brother, mine owner Moses Rodgers. (I can find the Johnson family staying with Jeff Logan for a funeral, but not yet a Wikitree connection). I will now try to get this cluster connected to Duke Slater, football player, lawyer and judge who is said to be related to the Johnson/Culberson family.

Answer 7

I'm working on family and connections of Edward C. Gleed. Haven't found a connection yet, but I'm finding some fascinating people; he has a second cousin, Valaurez Spratlin, who was the first African American to get a PhD in Spanish.

Comments

I have what I believe to be the connection; waiting to hear back from the profile manager to see if they agree that the potential connection's linked mother is actually her stepmother.

Another interesting connected person to Edward C. Gleed: Augustus Hawkins, first African American elected to the House of Representatives from California.

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And in the meantime I found a second relative and was able to link! (Murphy's Law of WikiTree Connections: I built out a slew of relatives on his mother's side, and then found that his father's sister was already on WT.)

Answer 8

I put together a profile for Col. John Benjamin Roach (1925-2005). He had a long career after WW II with the U.S. Air Force Reserve and the FAA. I knew him and his wife in Woburn, Massachusetts where his wife and I participated in the same choral group. The Profile is not connected to any others yet, but it includes the names of his parents and children.

Answer 9

Is there a category for the Tuskegee Airmen, or do they get categorized in some other way?

Comments

Yes, there is a "Tuskegee Airman" category

Answer 10

I would love to know some info about Major Cleophus Valentine. I grew up in Michigan and in my junior year of high school I had a Major Valentine as my English and speech teacher. He is my most remembered h.s. teacher as he was remarkably intelligent and made a indelible mark on me, I learned so much from that truly fine man. I lost track of him after I graduated as I also joined the USAF (Vietnam) but I can never forget Mr. Valentine. I truly hope this is the same man.

Charles Patterson

Answer 11

I'm confused by what you mean by "Connect".  I've made up several bios of Tuskegee airmen, mostly those still listed as MIA, and I actually did quite a bit of work on one yesterday.  But, I am limited in how far back I can go since this man (as most are) was descended from slaves.  I can find no more information to go back another generation.  So, I have a long list of siblings as well as parents documented with sources, but they do not extend into other families that are on wikitree.  Can you please specify what you mean by "connect".  Thank you!

Comments

Connected, as opposed to small-c connected aka attached means the relationship/connection finder links are at the bottom of a profile.

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Barbara, in order to connect descendants of slaves, we usually have to go sideways, adding siblings, spouses, their children, etc. Then up the spouses lines and down again until we find someone who is already on WikiTree and can connect them to the global Tree. As we are adding more and more African-American profiles to WT, this is going to get easier. Every family member you have added helps!

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Perfect answer to my question!  Thank you!  I have done exactly what you have suggested, to no avail.  It just might be that at this time, many of these won't be able to be connected.  But hopefully they will be sometime in the future.

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Never give up, Barbara.  I have two USBH families (both with enslavement higher in their lines) on which I work, seeking that elusive Connection to the Tree.  I haven't created hundreds of profiles (yet), mostly because I triple check names in the hope that one of them will already have a profile.  (It may yet come to those hundreds of profiles, though!)

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I became super excited (briefly) last evening when I was entering a sibling and a possible connection came up.  Then, I realized that it was a twin brother that I had already entered. They had similar first names and the same birthdate.  So much for that!

Answer 12

I posed this question in reply to a Tuskegee fun fact, but then noticed that it was "closed".  Not knowing what that meant, I thought it wouldn't hurt to repost here. 

I have a profile completed for Jenkins H Bluitt, (Bluitt-5) who was a trained Tuskegee armorer assigned to the 301st Fighter Squadron, 332nd Fighter group.  He is not listed in the table that is under the Tuskegee airmen.  

My questions are:  May I add him to that table, and link his profile as I have been doing as I complete the MIA/KIA profiles for these men?

Is it appropriate to link him to the 301st emblem?

May I place the Tuskegee sticker on his profile?

And, I'm presuming he would warrant being added to the Black Heritage Project similar to the Tuskegee airmen.

Please advise, and let me know if I should post this somewhere else.

Thanks!