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Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
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In August 1908, a white mob attacked Springfield, Illinois’s Black community, destroying homes and businesses and lynching two Black men. National outrage over the violence helped spur the movement that created the NAACP the following year.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
Halbert Alexander | |
|---|---|
 Official U.S. Army Air Forces portrait (1944) | |
| Born | Halbert Leo Alexander June 12, 1922 North Carolina, US |
| Died | March 25, 1953 (aged 30) |
Resting place | Georgetown Cemetery, Georgetown, Illinois |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1944–1953 |
Halbert Leo Alexander (June 12, 1922 – March 25, 1953) was an officer in the U.S. Army Air Forces and U.S. Air Force and a fighter pilot with the all-African American 332nd Fighter Group's 99th Fighter Squadron and 300st Fighter Squadron, colloquially known as the Tuskegee Airmen. He was one of the 1007 documented Tuskegee Airmen Pilots.[1]
Halbert Leo Alexander was temporarily posted to England in 1945 before serving in Italy.
Alexander is noteworthy for winning the U.S. Air Force's 1949 inaugural "Top Gun" team competition with his all-African American 332nd Fighter Group Weapons pilot team.
Halbert Alexander was born on June 12, 1922, in North Carolina.
On November 20, 1944, Alexander graduated from Tuskegee's Class 44-I-S, receiving his wings and commission as a second lieutenant. He was assigned to the 99th Pursuit Squadron.[2][3]
In January 1949, the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force sent out a directive to each Air Force group requesting their participation in an aerial weapons competition. Four months later in May 1949, Alexander was selected as an alternate pilot for the 332nd Fighter Group Weapons three-member pilot team that won the U.S. Air Force's inaugural "Top Gun" team competition held at the Las Vegas Air Force Base (now Nellis Air Force Base).[4][5][6][7]
A grueling 10-day event, the competition comprised six events: aerial gunnery at 20,000 feet, aerial gunnery at 12,000 feet, dive bombing, skip bombing, rocket firing, and panel strafing. Alexander and his team led from start to finish.[3][8]
Alexander's 332nd Fighter Group team included the 100th Squadron's First Lieutenant Harry Stewart, Jr., the 99th Squadron's James H. Harvey, the 300th Squadron's Captain Alva Temple, and Staff Sergeant Buford A. Johnson (August 30, 1927 – April 15, 2017) as aircraft crew chief.[9][10] Harvey and his team competed in obsolete P-47N Thunderbolts.[11][3][12]
The results and the three-foot-tall silver winning trophy, stashed in a Wright Patterson Air Force Base Museum storage area for 55 years, were absent from the U.S. Air Force archives until 1995. Flying F-47Ns, a variant of the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, Temple and his team defeated U.S. Air Force fighter group teams in far more advanced aircraft. His teammate, James H. Harvey remarked, "They knew who won, but did not want to recognize us."
On March 25, 1953, Alexander, then 30 years old, was killed instantly when his F-51 Mustang nosedived out of a seven-plane formation and exploded in a heavily forested area near Chelmsford, Massachusetts. His plane tore through the treetops for almost 100 yards before exploding and strewing over a half-mile. Police authorities who found his body identified him as 1Lt Halbert Alexander, a married pilot from Plymouth, Ohio.[13][3]
Media related to Halbert Alexander at Wikimedia CommonsSource: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
Halbert Leo Alexander (June 12, 1922 – March 25, 1953) was an officer in the U.S. Army Air Forces and U.S. Air Force and a fighter pilot with the all-African American 332nd Fighter Group's 99th Fighter Squadron and 300st Fighter Squadron, colloquially known as the Tuskegee Airmen. He was one of the 1007 documented Tuskegee Airmen Pilots. Halbert Leo Alexander was temporarily posted to England in 1945 before serving in Italy. Alexander is noteworthy for winning the U.S. Air Force's 1949 inaugural "Top Gun" team competition with his all-African American 332nd Fighter Group Weapons pilot team.
William Tell is a biennial aerial gunnery competition with fighter aircraft held by the United States Air Force (USAF) in every even-numbered year. In the competition, teams representing the various major commands of the USAF compete in live-fire exercises, using towed banner targets for gun engagements, and obsolete fighters converted into unmanned target drones (currently QF-4 Phantoms) for air-to-air missile engagements. The competition is held in even-numbered years, while the similar Hawgsmoke competition is held in odd-numbered years; Hawgsmoke replaced the earlier Gunsmoke. The William Tell competition in 1972 was held at Tyndall AFB in Florida. Twelve teams competed: three F-101 Voodoo teams, three F-102 Delta Dagger teams, and six F-106 Delta Dart teams. 1972 was also when the first "Top Gun" award was won, by a Royal Canadian Air Force team from the first French-Canadian fighter squadron, the 425 All Weather Fighter Squadron "Les Alouettes". The recipients were Capt. Lowell Butters (Pilot) and Capt. Douglas Danko (Navigator), flying the McDonnell CF-101 Voodoo. The first competition was held in 1949 at a test airfield outside of Las Vegas, NV, now called Nellis AFB. The winner was the 332nd Fighter group of Capt. Alva Temple, Lt. Col James Harvey III, Lt. Col. Harry Stewart, and alternate 1st Lt. Halbert Alexander. Post-Cold War budget cuts ended William Tell after 1996, although a commemorative 50th anniversary competition was held in 2004. After a 19-year hiatus, William Tell returned in 2023 with nine teams: three F-22 Raptor teams, three F-35 Lightning II teams, and three F-15 Eagle teams; the overall winner of 2023 was the 1st Fighter Wing flying the F-22.
Alexander Jefferson (November 15, 1921 – June 22, 2022) was an American Air Force officer, famous as one of the Tuskegee Airmen, the 332nd Fighter Group. He served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. His book, Red Tail Captured, Red Tail Free: Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman and POW, is a personal memoir of those who served America in World War II and after.
Coleman Alexander Young (May 24, 1918 – November 29, 1997) was an American politician who served as the 66th mayor of Detroit, Michigan from 1974 until 1994. A member of the Democratic Party, Young was the first African-American mayor of Detroit, and has been described as the "single most influential person in Detroit's modern history." Young had emerged from the far-left element in Detroit, but became an advocate for business interests after his election as mayor. He called an ideological truce and gained widespread support from the city's business leaders. The new mayor energetically promoted downtown redevelopment with major projects like the Joe Louis Arena and the Renaissance Center. Facing intense manufacturing flight, Young worked to keep major plants in the city, most notably General Motors' Poletown project and Chrysler's Jefferson North assembly. Some opponents said that he pulled money out of the neighborhoods to rehabilitate the downtown business district, but he said "there were no other options." In 1981, Young received the Spingarn Medal for achievement from the NAACP.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.
