Political Pressure In the late 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt anticipated that the U.S. could be drawn into a war in Europe. His administration began a pilot training program in 1938 to create a reserve of trained civilian fliers in case of a national emergency. African American leaders argued that blacks should share with whites the burden of defending the United States, and the government opened the program to African Americans. In 1940, the Selective Training and Service Act banned racial discrimination in conscription, clearing the way for blacks to be trained for U.S. Army Air Corps service. Tuskegee Institute, a black college founded in Alabama in 1881 by Booker T. Washington, participated in the Roosevelt administration's pilot training program, and graduated its first civilian-licensed pilots in May 1940. Tuskegee Institute and the flying school at Tuskegee Army Air Field were the main sources of black military pilots in WWII (nine others were trained as liaison pilots at Fort Sill, Okla.). Click here to return to the Tuskegee Airmen Overview. Find Out More Other Resources Tuskegee University Note: The appearance of hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by the National Museum of the USAF, the U.S. Air Force, or the Department of Defense, of the external website, or the information, products or services contained therein.