Black Knights: The Story of the Tuskegee Airmen

Rating:
Summary: Good job, could have been better......
Review: "As an original Tuskegee Airman, I considered myself knowledgeable about the Tuskegee Experience. 'Black Knights: The Story of the Tuskegee Airmen' reminded me of events both sad and enjobable that have been forgotten for more than fifty-five years. Meticulously researched and thoughtfully written, the book also provided a wealth of detailed information with which I was unfamiliar."

Rating:
Summary: review for my class, part 2
Review: The middle of the book is a detailed record of significant air battles in which the Tuskegee Airmen were involved. At this point, the reader becomes less compelled to read every sentence of every page as the book makes a transition from being a presentation of the Tuskegee Experience's fight for existence to more of a day-by-day record of many of the missions the airmen flew. Certain phrases become cliché in the telling of each story, and the reader gets somewhat lost in the seemingly endless listings of names and how many kills were becoming associated with each. While the special care taken to preserve detailed historical accuracy is impressive, the book could greatly benefit from including more personal accounts by the airmen themselves. The preface tells of the many interviews that the authors conducted to gather information for their project; the reader is disappointed to find out that virtually none of these interviews are described in detail, let alone even directly quoted. Including detailed firsthand accounts of the pilots' individual experiences would certainly have helped to break the monotony of this part of the book, and unquestionably would have made it more interesting.
One thing that the book does very well is to give credit not just to the pilots who saw combat action in the war, but also to all of the people that made it possible for them to get there. It should be noted that, although initially it was not the case, the Tuskegee Army Air Field was staffed almost entirely by black soldiers at every level. Everyone from mess hall workers, to entertainers, to mechanics, to weather observers was black. White soldiers only held assignments there temporarily while black soldiers were being rotated into their positions. Chapter XVII, titled "The Unsung Warriors," is dedicated entirely to presenting the foundation of the Tuskegee Experience. This is a very important piece of the Tuskegee puzzle because, for example, if there were no ground crews, the planes would never have flown. Other works tend to give all of the glory to the combat-seasoned pilots, while this book does a very complete job of evenly distributing the credit. Another example of the completeness of Black Knights is Chapter XIII, which deals with the 477th Bombardment Group (Medium). Although these bomber crews never saw combat, they were another part of the on-going story of blacks' struggle for equality. Lastly, the roster of Tuskegee graduates in the appendix of the book further supports the authors' mission to create a concise historical record of the Tuskegee Experience.
Black Knights also gives a clear view of the original intent of the Tuskegee Experiment. For the most part, the higher powers responsible for the creation of a black training facility approved the program with the intent of proving its failure. The book does a good job of showing how certain people at the slightly-lower levels were the saviors of the whole program. Besides the efforts of Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. to promote the program, certain other benefactors are given appropriate mention as well. Colonel Noel F. Parrish is one such example, who, after taking over command of Tuskegee Army Air Field, did so much to boost morale at the base that he is given almost as much recognition as Colonel Davis for helping to save the program.
The book's timeline seems to break up in the last chapter of the book. In Chapter XIX, entitled "Black Birds," a brief overview of the history of black fliers is given. While one can appreciate the contribution those pilots made to aviation, it did not have a direct effect on the creation of the Tuskegee Experience. The authors would have done well to simply omit the last chapter; placed at the end of the book, it seems out of place and its spotty detail is a bit awkward to follow simply because it seems out of sequence. This material would carry more meaning if it was instead placed at the beginning of the book, and also perhaps if it was simply integrated into the first chapter.
All in all the authors did a fine job of recounting the story of the brave men who came to be known as the Tuskegee Airmen. As the title suggests, Black Knights: the Story of the Tuskegee Airmen accurately illustrates the fierce crusade that was fought against racism and segregation. While certainly a very complete work, Black Knights is not about drama. It presents the facts for what they were; for that, it deserves appreciation, but it has little to offer as far as gripping tales of fast-paced dogfights and personal experiences.

Rating:
Summary: review written for my class, part 1 of 2
Review: Well, I had to review it for my class so I thought I'd put it up here too(broken in half to stay in the 1K word limit).

Black Knights: the Story of the Tuskegee Airmen is a concisely written historical account of the struggles faced by young black men during World War II to establish themselves as pilots in the U.S. Army Air Corps, though it leaves something to be desired. The concise details and statistics show an obvious effort to preserve the accuracy of the records kept of the events surrounding the Tuskegee Experience. With that in mind, it should also be noted that when describing certain controversial issues, the authors offer a mostly unbiased perspective. However, certain areas of the book are somewhat lacking. Some elements seem slightly out of place, almost as if they were thrown in solely for the purpose of increasing the bulk of the book. It can be appreciated that the authors took considerable effort to give credit not just to the fliers that saw combat, but also to the entire support structure that gave them that chance. On the other hand, this may have been slightly overdone. Overall, Black Knights is good source of factual history, but is not an overly compelling piece of literature.
The authors, Lynn Homan and Thomas Reilly, wrote this book as a sort of rewrite of a previous work of theirs, The Tuskegee Airmen, with the intention of creating a more complete historical account. Out of respect for the airmen, the Tuskegee Experience is a term used throughout the book in reference to the social experiment that was formulated by the United States War Department to prove that black men could not fly advanced warplanes. Having previously been referred to as the Tuskegee Experiment, the term Tuskegee Experience has been requested by the airmen themselves as an alternative to the former term which has been confused with an unrelated government medical research project, as explained in the preface. This is the ninth book that Homan and Reilly have written together during their time together in which they have traveled across the country giving lectures and organizing museum exhibits on the Tuskegee Experience. Black Knights is simply an extension of their work, intended to present the Experience as a whole.
The first part of the book is a chronological account of how the Tuskegee Airmen came to be. Two distinct views are presented; while blacks were finally being given the chance to fly, there were some who were against the idea of an all-black flight training facility. Besides the obvious racist opponents, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was among those who did not want to see a segregated airfield. The supporters of the idea believed that the young black soldiers would thrive in an environment of their own, kept isolated from the hardships that would be imposed upon them in an integrated military. If segregated, they would not have to be subject to cruelties dealt them by fellow soldiers that would have been detrimental to their morale. Others argued that it only added to the problem of ending segregation and opposed the creation of an all-black airfield on the grounds that separate training facilities and unit organizations would be more costly than an integrated military.
The authors seem to express a slight leaning towards being in agreement with the NAACP's standpoint on the issue, that is, anti-segregation. What they fail to point out, however, is that while segregation is inherently evil, the effect it had actually benefited the outcome of what was to become the Tuskegee Experience. An analogy can be made to illustrate this point. A wall representing racial segregation had to be taken down to make integration possible. If the military integrated black fliers into the white ranks, they would have been subject to unknown cruelties by racist whites and would have had nowhere to turn. One could compare this to attempting to disassemble the aforementioned wall piece-by-piece. On the other hand, as one united, all-black unit, all obstacles in their way were faced by the group as a whole. By having been given the chance to prove themselves in war, they acted as a battering ram to demolish the barrier of segregation. The authors seem to present the arrangement as a failure as far as the battle for integration was concerned; rather, the Tuskegee Experience provided unmistakable proof that black pilots could perform admirably, and effectively paved the way for future desegregation.

Rating:
Summary: review for my class, part 2
Review: You have to appreciate the amount of effort that went into assembling this book. Even the casually interested reader will finish "Black Knights" with a greater appreciation for the young men who completed the Tuskeegee Experience and went on to serve their country in WWII and beyond. Archival detail is impressive, down to an appendix that offers a roster of all Tuskeegee graduates. Can a future reprint offer the service history of each individual as well?

The book itself presents exhaustive research into the the origins of the program, testimony for and against its development, and records of Tuskeegee-trained airmen in combat and in the post-war USAF. But two-thirds of the way into the book, once the title material is exhausted, it begins a survey of pre-WWII black aviation pioneers. This material is also well-researched, but a bit awkward in its sequence and given the title. Should this have been published as two separate books?

Voluminous research presented the authors with a great challenge: how could all the information be made readable? The authors often succeeded at this task. Note the story of the 99th squadron's first air-to-air kill, and how that is woven back into the discussion of the Army Air Corps' resistance to establishing the squadron in the first place.

This is a good read, if not always compelling. Youth in search of heros need to look beyond the sports and recording industries to discover the Tuskeegee Airmen. Excerpts from this book may provide that introduction.

Rating:
Summary: Depth of research: 5 stars. Quality of editing: 3 stars.
Review: You have to appreciate the amount of effort that went into assembling this book. Even the casually interested reader will finish "Black Knights" with a greater appreciation for the young men who completed the Tuskeegee Experience and went on to serve their country in WWII and beyond. Archival detail is impressive, down to an appendix that offers a roster of all Tuskeegee graduates. Can a future reprint offer the service history of each individual as well?

The book itself presents exhaustive research into the the origins of the program, testimony for and against its development, and records of Tuskeegee-trained airmen in combat and in the post-war USAF. But two-thirds of the way into the book, once the title material is exhausted, it begins a survey of pre-WWII black aviation pioneers. This material is also well-researched, but a bit awkward in its sequence and given the title. Should this have been published as two separate books?

Voluminous research presented the authors with a great challenge: how could all the information be made readable? The authors often succeeded at this task. Note the story of the 99th squadron's first air-to-air kill, and how that is woven back into the discussion of the Army Air Corps' resistance to establishing the squadron in the first place.

This is a good read, if not always compelling. Youth in search of heros need to look beyond the sports and recording industries to discover the Tuskeegee Airmen. Excerpts from this book may provide that introduction.