Freedom Flyers

J. Todd Moye is an Associate Professor of History and the Director of the Oral History Program at the University of North Texas. A historian of the American civil rights movement, he directed the National Park Service's Tuskegee Airmen Oral History Project from 2000 to 2005. He served as a consultant for the George Lucas-produced film Red Tails, about the Tuskegee Airmen.

• Prologue: "This is Where You Sit" ; Chapter 1: The Use of Negro Manpower in War ; Chapter 2: The Black Eagles Take Flight ; Chapter 3: The Experiment ; Chapter 4: Combat on Several Fronts ; Chapter 5: The Trials of the 477th ; Chapter 6: Integrating the Air Force ; Epilogue: "Let's Make it a Holy Crusade All Around" ; Notes ; Note on Sources ; Bibliography

"[A] superb job in presenting the history of the first African-American military pilots...quite gripping." --ARMY"Excellent history of the first African-American military pilots...Moye's lively prose and the intimate details of the personal narratives yield an accessible scholarly history that also succeeds as vivid social history." --Publishers Weekly"A scholarly but accessible treatment of a significant forerunner of the civil-rights movement." --Kirkus Reviews"In several particularly moving passages, veterans recall the heavy load they carried to attain not only personal success but also achievement for their entire race...The personal nature of the examples Moye cites make it a far deeper and richer narrative than typical WWII fare...As both civil rights and U.S. military history, the Tuskegee Airmen comprise a worthy subject , while the author's friendly style should open the title up to even casual readers."--Booklist"This book is an important contribution that will be enjoyed by general readers and historians." --ForeWord Reviews"Moye, a history professor at the University of North Texas, directed the National Park Service's five-year Tuskegee Airmen Oral History Project. He draws on those interviews to inject a first-person, insider feel into his exhaustive study of the Tuskegee program." --The Dallas Morning News"Moye draws on three elements to set his book apart as the best overall account of how blacks aspired to fly for the Army Air Corps were accepted into an experimental program at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama starting in 1941, and then amassed a remarkable wartime record that ultimately led to the integration of the U.S. armed forces." -- Aviation History"[An] enriching, deeply humane, and academically rigorous volume." -- CHOICE"J. Todd Moye's Freedom Flyers: The Tuskegee Airmen of World War II is the best book yet written about the total experience of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African American or black pilots in the Army Air Forces, and their support personnel...The book is valuable not only for its wealth of information about the Tuskegee Airmen groups and squadrons, but also for placing them in the broader context of American history, including the sociological and political forces that pressured the War Department and the Army Air Corps, and later the Army Air Forces, to include blacks among its pilots, not only for fighters but also for bombers." --Daniel Haulman, H-Net