The Tuskegee Airmen — Part 3 – Jim Crow’s Graveyard. Shooting down German airplanes, rather than effectively carrying out the assigned duties of close ground support and bomber escort, emerged as the criterion for the judgment of combat performance for the 99th. Ironically, at the height of the controversy stateside, the 99th received a reassignment…
Criticism of the 99th’s overseas combat record was instantaneous and virulent. After only a few months in combat, the Commander of the 12th Air Support Command assailed the performance of the Black pilots. “Officers of all professions,” he said, felt that “the Negro type has not the proper reflexes to make a first-class fighter pilot.”…
The Tuskegee Airmen — “America’s Black Air Force” in WWII The pilots of America’s WWII armed forces were highly skilled flyers who became the stars of war stories and the ingredients of legends. These Black pilots were and are the first line of defense, the protectors of our fleets and the rulers of the skies…
“JAZZ LEGEND: DONALD BYRD” Guest Donald Byrd shares his jazz career with Tony Brown and a live studio audience. As a sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd was known as one of the only bebop jazz musicians who successfully pioneered the funk and soul genres while remaining a jazz artist. As…
“The hunt for ancestral talent or character that might explain the birth of a genius is usually futile. In the case of Benjamin Banneker, however, it has intriguing aspects that refuse to be ignored,” writes Charles A. Cerami in “Benjamin Banneker: Surveyor, Astronomer, Publisher, Patriot.” Banneker’s maternal grandmother, Molly Welsh, was originally identified as a…
Doug Williams was the first Black quarterback to win a Super Bowl, but before Doug Williams there was Sandy Stephens. Stephens, a second-round pick in the 1962 draft had the opportunity to play in the NFL – just not as a quarterback. “Sandy Stephens was a pioneer,” Tony Dungy said. “Sandy quarterbacked at a time…
This 1989 program features National Football League (NFL) Hall of Famer football player Jim Brown. It has been said by many sports observers that Jim Brown is one of the greatest football players that have ever lived. However, depending on your location around the country, being the greatest football player is highly debatable. This program…
California educator Millie McGhee, author of “Secrets Uncovered: J. Edgar Hoover, Passing for White,” talks about her research into her family genealogy and her revelation that Hoover was her grandfather’s second cousin. If these allegations are true, was J. Edgar Hoover, according to American Common Law, an African American? By American cultural standards and practices,…
Who should take responsibility for the condition of African-Americans? Dr. Khalid Al-Mansour, author of “Betrayal By Any Other Name,” accuses both yesterday’s and today’s Black leadership. Dr. Al-Mansour says there is a historic pattern “to trace the extent to which our traditional leaders have participated in the process of the destruction of the Black masses.”…
“HOLY OR HISTORY: HOW DO YOU READ THE CHRISTIAN BIBLE?” (TBJ show #2418) Gary Greenberg, president of the Biblical Archaeology Society of New York, has written two powerful books that examine the foundations of Judaism and Christianity. Mr. Greenberg discusses the influence of Egyptian history on the Christian Bible. Greenberg is also the author of…
