Mutiny at Freeman Field: The Tuskegee Airmen on Trial, Part 2

The group’s commander, Col. Robert Selway, upon arrival at Freeman in March 1945, ordered the creation of two separate officers’ clubs. Segregating the clubs by race would have been a direct violation of AAF regulations that demanded officers’ facilities be open to all officers. Selway indicated that one of the clubs was designated for “trainees,” and the other for “instructors.” It just so happened that all the trainees were African American and all the instructors were white, despite the fact that many of the African American “trainees” already had logged significant combat hours and outranked some of the white officers. Furthermore, transcripts of telephone calls with Selway and Hunter revealed that the trainee/instructor scheme was merely a cover for race, as both of them repeatedly referred to the instructor club as the “white” club, making sure that the official orders “don’t say anything about color, race, or creed.” Hunter hoped that the growing resentment would give him a pretext for further action, telling Selway “I’d be delighted for them [the African American officers] to commit enough actions that way so I can court-martial some of them.”

Civil disobedience

On April 5, 1945, the African American officers began a pre-planned display of resistance. In small groups of just a few officers at a time, they began entering the white “instructor” club, 36 of them getting arrested in the process. The next night the same tactic played out again, with another 25 arrested. The club was then closed, and 110 officers wrote to the Army Inspector General to request an investigation into the arrests. The complaint specifically noted the inherent hypocrisy of U.S. racial policies in the context of the struggles of World War II, stating: “The continuance of this policy can hardly be reconciled with the world wide struggle for freedom for which we are asked, and are willing, to lay down our lives.”

Selway and Hunter, under the advice of the Judge Advocate, released all the arrested officers except three, who they claimed had used physical force to push their way into the club. Selway then drafted a new regulation outlining his policy of assigning trainees and instructors to different facilities and assigning those designations by race—against the objection of the First Air Force Inspector General, who noted that approximately 20 of the African American officers were not trainees in any sense. Selway, working with Hunter, then ordered all of the officers to read the new regulation and sign a statement certifying that they understood it, under penalty of the 64th Article of War, which directed that refusal to obey a direct order would result in punishment up to death. Of the 422 African American officers assigned to the 477th, 101 of them refused to sign and were arrested.

Many of these officers drafted and signed separate statements outlining their reasons for refusing to sign the racially discriminatory order, most of which are stark and powerful. One officer wrote that obedience “would have done violence to the conscience of the undersigned; it would have constituted moral conduct less than that required of an officer and a gentleman in the Army of the United States.” Another stated: “The undersigned wishes to indicate over his signature his unshakable belief that racial bias is Fascistic, un-American, and directly contrary to the ideals for which he is willing to fight and die.”

Under pressure

The 101 officers who refused to sign were sent back to Godman Field, Kentucky, and the rest of the 477th followed shortly thereafter. This was a brazen attempt to eliminate the program of African American pilots altogether. In a phone conversation to the First Air Force’s chief of training, General William Welsh, the chief of staff of the Air Force for training said of the move: “If we can stave it off in some way for a period of time… maybe we can eliminate the program gradually and accomplish our end.” But the officers of the 477th had planned carefully. Not only did they write formal complaints through official channels to their command structures, but they had communicated with organizations like the NAACP and tipped off a local reporter so that the incidents were documented in the public press. This, combined with Selway and Hunter’s transparent actions, drew the attention of the highest authorities in the nation.

Courts-Martial

Nevertheless, after significant debate, the AAF Chief of Justice Col. R.E. Kunkel, who argued for the release of all the arrested officers, compromised with Hunter, who wanted them all tried, settling on courts martial for the three officers accused of a physical altercation with the white officer blocking the door when they had entered the club. Lt. Marsden Thompson and Lt. Shirley Clinton were tried together while Lt. Roger Terry was tried separately. The NAACP sent a legal team led by Ted Barry, president of the organization’s Cincinnati branch. The board judging over the trial consisted of six African American officers, whom every single white officer called to testify refused to salute. In each case the proceedings came to a halt so each white officer could be reminded that a salute was the military custom.

The testimonies revealed inconsistencies in how admittance to the club was allowed. It became quickly obvious that skin color was the determining factor. Selway’s testimony was the most dramatic, as he objected to every question, arguing that they were “irrelevant and immaterial.” After being repeatedly reminded that witnesses do not have the right to object to questions, Selway was labelled a hostile witness. His testimony also contradicted what had been recorded in his own telephone transcripts. In the final verdict, Thompson and Clinton were both acquitted. Terry was found not guilty of disobeying an order, but guilty of “jostling a superior officer.” The prosecution had asked for the death penalty. Instead, Terry was fined $150. The fee was paid via a collection from his fellow officers.