Capitol Words a project of the Sunlight Foundation

Rep. Steve Cohen

Madam Speaker, this weekend a movie opened in America that is really unlike any other movie. It is a significant movie because it is about a group of gentleman who won the Congressional Gold Medal, the Tuskegee Airmen. They were the first black airmen in the United States military history.

It's part of black history; but beyond black history, it's American history. Because as I watched the movie yesterday in Memphis, in a largely African American crowd, I realized this was a story about America's progress and fulfilling its promise and about the problems we've had and have had to overcome.

The Tuskegee Airmen were men that wanted to fight for their country in World War II, but they weren't allowed to because of segregationist policies that we had at the time. The military wasn't integrated, and they didn't think African Americans were capable of serving as pilots and weren't allowed to do so. They had an experimental group set up in Tuskegee, Alabama, the Tuskegee Institute, to train black Army personnel who wanted to be pilots. They succeeded, and they formed the Tuskegee Airmen. They had many obstacles, but they beat the odds and they succeeded. They rose to the challenge. They dispelled myths that African Americans weren't courageous enough, weren't skilled enough, weren't smart enough.

On Friday, at the request of the family, I spoke at the funeral of Lieutenant Colonel Luke Weathers, Jr. Lieutenant Colonel Weathers was from Memphis originally and died in Tucson, Arizona, at age 90. He was one of the first Tuskegee Airmen. He was buried on Friday at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors, family present, seven horses--six drawing the carriage and the riderless horse--a military flyover, 21-gun salute passed, an American hero being laid to rest in hallowed ground, sacred ground, Arlington National Cemetery.

Lieutenant Colonel Weathers not only had to fight the Germans and fight for his country, he had to fight his country to be accepted and benefit in the basic rights that we all take for granted. To learn about Lieutenant Colonel Weathers and the Tuskegee Airmen is inspiring. And during Black History Month, we will reflect and we celebrate other struggles and accomplishments of many African Americans in our history, African Americans who came here in about 1620 as slaves and didn't get freedom from slavery until 1865, and then didn't get real freedom until Jim Crow laws were overturned in the 1960s. The vestiges of slavery and Jim Crow still live with us. Those who overcame those obstacles and broke down barriers were heroes and need to be recognized in the middle of month of February.

At one time, they said African Americans couldn't play baseball, and Jackie Robinson showed them wrong. They said African Americans couldn't be quarterbacks, and Doug Williams and others showed them wrong. They couldn't be coaches. Bill Russell took the Celtics to championships, and Tony Dungy in 2007 won a Super Bowl championship. They couldn't be pitchers and certainly couldn't play tennis. Well, Arthur Ashe showed them wrong. In golf, there is nobody in the world better than Tiger Woods.

And, you know, it's amazing that in this day and time, there are still barriers to be broken. At one time, people thought that an African American couldn't be President of the United States, wouldn't be capable of such. Well, we know that's wrong; but, unfortunately, there are still people in this country who think that the President can't be their President because of his race. Some even refer to him as a ``food stamp President.'' We know that code is wrong. I would ask anybody who thinks that way or has those thoughts to know that they are backwards thinking, just like the people were in the 1940s who said that black people couldn't participate in our military and couldn't fly for our country and that the Red Tails couldn't shoot down the Germans and protect our bombers, as they did. Those days are past.

I would ask everybody to see the movie, remember the Tuskegee Airmen, realize how far our country has come, and get beyond any bigotry that we have in ourselves. This is a Nation of tolerance and diversity, and we must celebrate it. I encourage everybody to learn about black history and the Tuskegee Airmen, our great vehicle.