At the Educator Preview workshop on April 23, Bill Terry recounted some of his experiences as a Tuskegee Airman. Born in 1921, Roger C. “Bill” Terry grew up in Compton, California. His father Joseph, a post office worker, and mother Edith Frances Ross, raised four sons. In 1940, Bill had been studying and playing basketball for the University of California, Los Angeles. Bill had seen an advertisement in the Daily Bruin, asking for candidates for the Air Force.
Bill was accepted into Tuskegee Institute to become one of the first black pilots in the U.S. Air Force. These men trained in segregated facilities with separate mess halls, barracks, and recreational clubs. While training at Freeman Field, Indiana, Bill was one of sixty-one officers to take part in a non-violent protest of the racist segregation policies and entered the base white officer’s club on April 5, 1945. Bill was arrested for “jostling an officer” while opening the door of the club. Although Bill never touched the officer, he was imprisoned for three months. On July 3, 1945, Bill was court-martialed and found not guilty of “disobeying an order,” but guilty of “jostling a superior officer”--a felony offense.
Three years after the Freeman Field Incident, President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981, which ended segregation in the U.S. military. But it would not be until 1995 that Bill was granted a pardon, not eligible to vote or hold office until over 50 years later. Ten years before Rosa Parks refused to sit at the back of the bus, the officers of Freeman Field refused to accept second-class citizenship and live with segregation at the base.
Do you believe in civil rights for all Americans?
