Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site at Morton Field

Tuskegee, Alabama

Site of African-American pilot training during World War II.

In the early 1940s, the leaders of the United States Army Air Corps did not believe that African Americans had the intellectual capacity to become successful military pilots.  After succumbing to the pressure exerted by civil rights groups and Black leaders, the army decided to train a small number of African-American pilot cadets under special conditions.  

Here at this National Historic Site, you will learn the remarkable story of these nearly 1,000 pioneer aviators.  Two airplane hangars house aircraft, exhibits, and artifacts from the “Tuskegee Experiment.”  In addition to the museum, visitors can walk around the grounds and see some of the remaining buildings from the Airmen era.

Also here is the Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site which tells the story of two remarkable men - Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver.  In 1881, Booker T. Washington arrived in Alabama and started building the Tuskegee Institute both in reputation and literally brick by brick.  He recruited the best and the brightest to come and teach here including George Washington Carver, who arrived in 1896.  Carver’s innovations in agriculture, especially with peanuts, expanded Tuskegee’s standing throughout the country.

The Tuskegee University campus features the George Washington Carver Library and Booker T. Washington’s home, “the Oaks.”  The tour includes buildings that were built by Tuskegee Institute students and designed by Robert R. Taylor, the first African-American graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  Stories of other Black heroes are also told such as Dr. Robert Moton, who provided health care for America's Black veterans.

The Oaks, Home of Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee, Alabama.