Amended in Assembly March 17, 2016

California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

House Resolution No. 41

Introduced by Assembly Member Burke

(Coauthors: Assembly Members Brown, Cooper, Gipson, Holden, Jones-Sawyer, McCarty, Ridley-Thomas, Thurmond, begin delete and Weber end delete begin insert Weber, Achadjian, Alejo, Baker, Bonilla, Brough, Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chu, Cooley, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Irwin, Jones, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte, Olsen, Patterson, Quirk, Rendon, Rodriguez, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Wilk, and Williams end insert )

March 1, 2016

House Resolution No. 41—Relative to Tuskegee Airmen Day.

WHEREAS, The Tuskegee Airmen is the popular name of the
very first group of African-American military aviators in the United
States Armed Forces, and they went on to earn distinction for their
demonstrated skill as part of the 332nd Fighter Group and the 99th
Pursuit Squadron of the United States Army Air Corps; and

WHEREAS, Prior to the Tuskegee Airmen, the United States
military did not allow African-Americans the opportunity to
become aviators; and

WHEREAS, In 1941 Congress forced the Army Air Corps to
form an African American combat unit, despite the reluctance to
initiate any form of substantive integration; and

WHEREAS, In June 1941, the Airmen were transferred to
Tuskegee, Alabama where they received training before they were
deemed ready for combat in 1943 and deployed to North Africa
to join the 33rd fighter group; and

WHEREAS, In the first battle, the Airmen attacked the island
of Pantelleria, effectively clearing a path for the Allied forces to
invade Sicily where the Italian population was forced to surrender;
and

WHEREAS, The Tuskegee Airmen broke barriers by working
under the exceptional leadership of Benjamin O. Davis Jr., the first
black man to hold the rank of general in the United States Air
Force; and

WHEREAS, The arrival of more African American aviators
strengthened the decisive impact of the Tuskegee Airmen despite
a scientific report by the University of Texas detailing that African
Americans were of low intelligence and lacked the competency
to handle complex situations, such as air combat; and

WHEREAS, The Tuskegee Airmen earned their place in history
further by flying over 15,000 combat sorties on 1,578 missions
during World War II, proving instrumental to the liberation of
oppressed groups abroad while African Americans still faced their
own form of oppression in the United States; and

WHEREAS, After receiving the P-51 Mustang fighters with red
paint on the tail section of their aircraft, the pilots of the 332nd
became known as the Red Tails; and

WHEREAS, After segregation in the military was ended in 1948
by President Harry S. Truman through Executive Order, the veteran
Tuskegee Airmen went on to share their knowledge by teaching
civilian flight to other groups such as the black-owned Columbia
Air Center in Maryland; and

WHEREAS, The Tuskegee Airman broke boundaries for their
brave efforts not only in the Air Force, but for the United States
more broadly; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, That the
California State Assembly designates the 4th Thursday in March
as Tuskegee Airmen Day in California; and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies
of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.