African-Americans in WWII CAP

[RiverAux]

I was working on some CAP historical stuff this weekend and it occurred to me that I don't recall ever seeing any mention of African-Americans serving in CAP during WWII.  I'm familiar with the standard works and beyond, but nothing springs to mind.  I've read a lot of newspapers of that era looking for CAP materials and given the common practices of the time to identify African-Americans as such in news stories, I'm sure I would have made note of any in relation to CAP. 

Its not something I've researched to any extent, so probably could have overlooked it if mentioned in some of the books.

Anyone else come across anything about this subject?  Were they allowed to join CAP?  If so, were they in segregated units?  If they weren't allowed to join, when did that change?

[Rob Sherlin]

  From what I've read so far, All the volunteers for CAP at that time were private pilots who supplied their own aircraft. I could be wrong, but I would tend to think it wasn't a question of whether or not they were allowed to join. Going by the disposition African Americans had back then, I don't think many of them owned aircraft (if any at all), therefore it was probably never an issue, even though many African Americans proved beyond a doubt that they were capable of flying, even in more stressful situations such as air to air combat.
  Like I said, I could be wrong. I'd like to know if you find anything, and if I run across something, I'll be sure to give you the info.

[FlexCoder]

I have a large newspaper collection (thousands) from 1941-1946 that were not published by the CAP or military, but all of the newspapers mention CAP in articles, headlines or advertisements.  They are typical state & local newspapers from various cities in the USA that were found at your local newstands; most are rare and no other copies exist except maybe in digital format.    I noticed that less than 1% mention African American CAP involvement.  A few do mention "colored" CAP squadrons and a few squadron names are questionable as well (ex. Harlem Knights CAP Sqdn). 

And I was at an estate sale a few years back where a USAF Colonel had died and I found an old box full of papers among all the junk that was going to be tossed and purchased the box for $20.  Amazingly, it was the entire history of when this Colonel was a Lt Col, PAO in Florida Wing, CAP during 1942 to 1963.   In the box were lots of CAP & Civil Defense personally signed documents, hand signed charter letter for first CAP squadron in Rehoboth, practice "bomb' leaflets, CAP memorabilia, hundreds of photos of CAPers with movie stars, politicians and surprisingly quite a few of the photos had African American cadets wearing well-pressed khaki uniforms.  There probably were a lot of African American's that served in CAP at that time but with segregation in place and little record keeping, we may never know the extent of it all.   

[Rob Sherlin]

WOW!....That's cool!.....You should get those scanned and out there!...It's a big part of CAP history that no one knows about (not even by CAP Historians as it would seem).....Thanks for the educating info!

[Rob Sherlin]

 I started looking, and found this..............

  http://www.africanamericans.com/MilitaryChronology4.htm

[FlexCoder]

Not bad Rob.   Good piece of history that you found. 
 
Some of the Newspaper headlines include -
First CAP Airplane Flight in 1942, Indiana;
First Bivouac (FTX) in Texas Wing, 1942;
First SAR Mission in CAP, 1943
First CAP Flight to Drop Practice "bomb" leaflets, 1943;
First CAP Flight Club, 1942, Maine;
Proposal of the Civil Air Patrol Club, 1933, TN Wing;
Armed Guard Duty by CAP Seniors, 1942;
Nazi Sub spotted off of St. Simons Island by CAP plane, GA Wing, 1943;
CAP Plane spots 2 survivors in a raft on Coast from U-Boat Attack, GA Wing, 1943
and thousands more. 

Once you read the history of CAP members & units from the beginning, you get an even more appreciation and understanding of what CAP is all about.    I was a bit harsh and used the wrong choice of words in my critique of the Wing websites.  History reminds us that the members, relationships, experiences, volunteering and missions are most important anyway.     CAPers had a great PAO campaign during WWII that recruited & organized thousands of prospects in a short amount of time without any internet.   You mainly hear about the sub/plane stories but rarely the details that happened beyond that.     

[JAFO78]

Now this is the kind of History that I surly enjoy. Makes it more real to life. Sometimes just reading a text book is so dull. (Sorry Joe)

When I first talked with my High Navy JROTC instructor and found out he went through the attack on Pearl Harbor Dec. 7th, 1941, I really because interested in History.

[NIN]

Michigan Wing's WWII Group 9 was the "Parachute Group" consisting of two "parachute jumping squadrons," a parachute rigging squadron, and a "Negro glider flight" (thats the way its called out in the documents I've seen).

The Group was HQ'd in downtown Detroit, but they jumped at places which are now heavily residential, but 65 years ago were not much more than farmland.

I just thought it was an interesting "item of the times" to see the glider flight referred to as a "Negro glider flight."  How..odd.

I don't know whether or not the parachute squadrons were segregated, but I do get the impression they were not. One of the items in this monograph that I've seen has a copy of one of the officer's ID cards (a warrant officer, no less) and I believe he was a jumper, but judging by the photo, he was African-American.  I suppose I should look a little more closely.

[Rob Sherlin]

  Yeah....I don't think they were to concerned about being PC with the terms they used to describe "other than caucasian" races back then. Heck, even today I hear everyone use the word "Indian" when they talk about the Casino, which is confusing because there are a lot of people from India here as well. I usually correct them and call them Native American, and tell them the only reason why people started calling them Indians was because some Spannish guy got lost, and thought he landed in India.

[RiverAux]

Thanks guys.  It does appear then that there were African American CAP members out there, though it also looks like the history of their service may not be terribly well documented. 

Rob S -- You did not have to be a pilot to join CAP back then.  I'd bet there were as many non-pilots as there were pilots (just like it is now where we have about 5 times as many non-pilot seniors as pilots). 

[JohnKachenmeister]

Since CAP was initially formed under Civil Defense, we were not subject to the segregation rules under the military departments.

[RiverAux]

True, but this was still the 1940s....

[Capt Rivera]

hmmm it would be great if info about this, at least the first bits would come out in our February time frame of the volunteer.... [Hint hint: National PAOs & Historians]

February = Black History month for those who forget from year to year...

Does not need to be pages long... half a page to a full page, just getting info out there would be great... more can come later....

[flyguy06]

A long time ago when I first cme onto CapTalk, I tried to tell you all that Willa Brown was the first African American female pilot in CAP but I was ignored.

[RiverAux]

Ignored?  I just did a search and you had about as many replies to that thread as this one.  However, you might have done better if you had explained a bit about the story rather than just posting a link and leaving it at that in your introductory post.

[JAFO78]

^^^ knit pick.. some times people don't want to spend a lot of time typing. I know I type slow. or maybe they are not sure if anyone is interested in the topic.

[RiverAux]

Ah, don't worry.  take it from someone who has dropped more than few topics that bombed on this board -- some work and some won't.  No skin off anyone's nose if there isn't any interest in a topic.