Members of the Tuskegee Airmen, George “Spanky” Roberts Chapter, presented a program at the Rancho Cordova Library on April 29 to a standing room only audience. Perry Woods, vice president of the Chapter, and Vice Commander of American Legion Post 709, served as master of ceremonies. The group honored original Tuskegee Airman Boyd Taylor, 95, who was present with his wife, Gloria.

The Tuskegee airmen became the first black servicemen to serve officially as military aviators in the United States armed forces, in World War II. According to history.com, “The 996 pilots and more than 15,000 ground personnel who served with the all-black units would be credited with some 15,500 combat sorties and earn over 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses for their achievements.” In 2007, President George W. Bush awarded the Tuskegee Airmen the Congressional Gold Medal, which is on display in the Smithsonian Institution.

“They not only overcame a lot, but they also gave a new dimension to the U.S. Air Force,” said Rancho Cordova resident Bud Turner after attending the event. “Let’s get these pages back in the history books!”

As main speaker, retired Col. James C. Crump, Jr., USAF, told about the Tuskegee Airmen and added stories of his own experiences. In the early 60s as a student at Alabama State College, Crump was on his way back to college in Montgomery, Alabama, and found himself in front of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was pastor. When he saw King himself coming down the steps, on an impulse Crump asked King if he would give him a ride to the college. He fully expected a “no” from such a famous man. But King told him, “Yes, you can get a ride. Get in.”

While King was driving, with only the two of them in the car, Crump asked him a question. “You don’t really believe in that foolishness – nonviolence – do you?” Personally, Crump said, he would fight back.

Crump said that King answered him immediately. “Young man, I couldn’t use you in the program, you stay right where you are. That is not the way we are going to accomplish the goals and objectives that I have in mind.” Continuing, King told him why. “We’re going to do that by not only getting most of the people in the United States on our side, we’re going to get most of the world on our side. By being docile, by being passive, that’s the way to do that, because we’re outnumbered, and we’re outgunned. If we did it your way, we would be annihilated.” Standing at the podium in front of the group at the library, Crump said, “And he was correct.”

Crump later actively demonstrated that belief in his own life and career when he encountered discrimination and hostility. The example of the Tuskegee Airmen taught an important principle, Crump said: not to believe when someone tells you that you are not capable of accomplishing something.

Several stories from Crump’s own life served as examples. Though he was an enlisted man in the United States Air Force, through hard work and study he passed the test to be admitted to Officers Training School. “We were broken up into groups of 17 people,” Crump said, “and they asked you to tell a little bit about yourself. In my class, people got up saying that they were a graduate of MIT, one guy had a PhD and so forth. When I introduced myself and said, ‘I’m a graduate of Alabama State College,’ they broke out laughing. I said, ‘Well it took me 10 years to get here, and if there is one of us out of this 17 that’s going to graduate in August, it’s going to be me, because I don’t intend to fail.” And he didn’t fail, though some of the others did.

The point, Crump said, is that you shouldn’t quit because you feel you are too far behind others for whatever reason. “If you put the effort in it and it’s God’s will and you’re not trying to do something illegal or immoral, you still can make it, and accomplish something.”