Actors Terrence Howard And Nate Parker Share Some Thoughts On Their New Film ‘Red Tails’

Actors Terrence Howard and Nate Parker sat down with “Good Day New York”  to talk about their pilot roles in the upcoming film, “Red Tails.”  Aside from it’s historical value the role this film plays in the forward progress of collective understanding around race relations and the innate self determination of black folks is significant.  There were a couple of lines in the trailer that stood out to me:

-COURAGE HAS NO COLOR.

-WE COUNT OUR VICTORIES BY THE HUSBANDS WE RETURN TO THEIR WIVES…BY THE FATHER’S WE GIVE BACK TO THEIR CHILDREN.

Check out the trailer below.  Check out the brief history of the Tuskegee Airmen below. Check out the movie when it arrives in theaters on January 20th 2012.

HISTORY OF THE MEN WHO INSPIRED THE RED TAILS FILM

In 1939, the government began establishing flight schools at colleges around the nation but refused to do so at any of the Black colleges believing black men didn’t have the calibre to be fighter pilots.

But with mounting pressure from black newspapers, pressure groups and a few sympathetic government leaders including President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor it was decided to try the “Tuskegee Experiment”. So on July the 19th 1941 a flight school was established at the historic Tuskegee University in Alabama

In June 1943, the Tuskegee Airmen entered into combat over North Africa. The airmen showed courage, skill and dedication in combat. They flew more than 15,000 sorties, completing over 1,500 missions during the war.

They never lost an escorted bomber to enemy fighters. No other escort unit could claim such a record.
When the war ended, the Tuskegee Airmen returned home with 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses, Legions of Merit and the Red Star of Yugoslavia. The group was disbanded in May 1946 but its success contributed to blacks men and women been fully integrated into the military.