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| Freeman AAF in Seymour | |
| Denied access to the base's officers club on account of their race, approximately sixty officers from the all-black 477th Bombardment Group, (the "Tuskegee Airmen") which was receiving bomber training at Freeman Field, were arrested on April 3, 1945, when they attempted to enter the officers club. Three officers -- Roger C. Terry and Marsden A. Thompson, both of Los Angeles, and Shirley R. Clinton of Camden, New Jersey -- faced a court-martial, and approximately 100 men from the air group (including Detroit Mayor Coleman Young) were jailed at Godman Field in Kentucky. In attempting to keep black and white officers from using the same facilities, Colonel Selway, with the support of AAF Major General Frank Hunter, took advantage of a loophole in AR 210-10 by designating one officers' club at Freeman for supervisory personnel and a second one for trainees, which resulted in "de facto segregation." The issue came to a head on the night of April 5, 1945, when 19 black officers, disregarding an assistant provost marshal's orders to leave, entered the whites-only club. Shortly afterwards, two other groups of blacks totaling 17 officers joined the original group; all 36 were put under arrest by the provost marshal. The next day, an additional 21 African-American officers were arrested when they tried to enter the club. Despite its crucial role in training aircrews for combat, perhaps Freeman's greatest contribution to America's fight against fascism was the incident with the black officers. In July 1948 President Harry S. Truman issued Executive Order 8891 that mandated the armed forces to integrate. Though Truman's order could not instantly strip away the legacy left by the years of discrimination in the military it was the beginning. | |
| The above information is provided courtesy of Chris West, for any Indiana Military history information visit IndianaMilitary.org |
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