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WASHINGTON - Congressman Charles Rangel's bill honoring the Tuskegee Airmen with the Congressional Gold Medal neared passage this week as Republicans in Congress responded to an unusual alliance between the New York Congressman and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
Rangel mobilized his staff in a six week campaign of phone calls and letters to other Members in an effort to enact the legislation during February, Black History Month. By Thursday, February 2, the effort had expanded the list of cosponsors to 275, 16 short of the 291 needed to qualify for a vote by the House of Representatives. A version of the bill introduced by Senator Carl Levin was passed last fall by the Senate.
Bipartisan support of the bill to date includes the entire caucus of 205 House Democrats and 72 Republicans, or roughly one-third of the Republican conference. GOP support was encouraged by Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld who, last December, released a letter urging all Members of Congress to support the Rangel initiative.
"I don't agree with Secretary Rumsfeld on too many things. But when it comes to the Tuskegee Airmen we stand shoulder to shoulder," said Rangel who in May 2004 urged Rumsfeld's impeachment for his conduct of the war in Iraq.
The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of more than 1,000 African American pilots, bombardiers and navigators, along with 16,000 support personnel, who served in the segregated Army Air Corps during World War II. Renowned for their exploits in protecting American bombers from enemy fighter planes in raids over Europe, the group collected nearly 1,000 military awards while losing 60 of its members in combat.
Approximately 140 Tuskegee Airmen pilots survive along with hundreds of other former members of the unit, including Rangel associates, former Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton, educator Roscoe Brown, and business executive Lee Archer. Two Tuskegee Airmen achieved general officer rank: Lt. Gen. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., was a member of the unit's first graduating class in 1942, and Gen. Daniel "Chappie" James II, became the first Black four-star general in U.S. history.
Such was the racial climate in the 1940's that even as they prepared to risk their lives for their country, Airmen training in the South were subjected to racism. In one incident three members of the unit were court-martialed and prevented from serving overseas after their arrest for attempting to integrate an officers club at Freeman Field in Indiana. But racism did not diminish the heroism of the Tuskegee Airmen and other Black soldiers, a record that contributed to President Harry Truman's decision--in the face of growing protests--to desegregate the military at the end of WWII.
The Congressional Gold Medal is the highest expression of national appreciation for distinguished achievements and contributions. Since 1776, it has been awarded to fewer than 1800 Americans and other individuals of the highest distinction, including: Roberto Clemente (1973), Marian Anderson (1977), Joe Louis (1982), Roy Wilkins (1984), Jesse Owens (1988), Colin Powell (1991), Nelson Mandela (1998), The Little Rock Nine (1998), Rosa Parks (1999), and Dorothy Height (2003).
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