Veteran now fights with educatio:
WWII pilot maintains optimism despite lifetime of racism \
ADAMS from page 1
justice.
But all was not well in America.
Adams, now a well-respected
leader in the Lincoln community,
was returning from a distinguished
record of service in the war.
Based in Italy, he had served as
an intelligence officer of the 332nd
fighter group, an all-black group of
airmen who had been trained at
Tuskegee Air Base in Tuskegee,
Ala.
Their success had been aston
ishing.
In more than 1,500 missions
flown over Europe and North
Africa, the Tuskegee airmen lost
just 98 pilots. And of the bombers
who flew missions under the
group’s escort, not one was lost.
The Tuskegee airmen were the
only group to achieve the latter dis
tinction.
“We were determined, and we
wanted to fly,” Adams said. “It was
something they tried to keep us
from having, but we were good at
it; we were darned good.”
But when Adams and the rest of
the Tuskegee airmen returned to the
United States, they encountered the
effluvium that permeated
American society and threatened to
undermine its democratic ideals:
racial prejudice.
Upon his return, Adams report
ed to Fort Shanks, N.Y., for logis
tics duty. Despite their wartime
success, he said, black officers
were treated like second-class citi
zens on the base.
White and black officers were
segregated. Black officers were not
allowed in the white officers’ club
and were assigned to separate mess
halls. And black officers at Fort
Shanks and around the country
were unhappy.
“We were saying, ‘German bul
lets were shooting at us like anyone
else.’”
But in response to protests by
black officers at other U.S. bases,
military leaders only tightened
restrictions.
Blacks were confined to parts
of the base surrounded by barbed
wire fences. Although white offi
cers were free to roam, black offi
cers were quarantined.
And most humiliating of all,
Adams said, he and other black
officers were placed under the
guard of German prisoners of war.
The German POWs were allowed
freedom of movement on the base
jg» ll
§ Diversity in Historv
i Editor’s note: Each day during Black History Month, fie Daily Nebraskan
, will tell fie story ofa minority who made an important contribution in
lam-? .Amep&aflistory. v.,
Beo«4i*evtHs fasnWynvae the only black family on 1
his Cairo, Ga., residential block;
i r 'Becsiite he went on to become the first black
athlete at the University of California Los Angeles to
£-< • win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, basketball,
g1 2^ football and track;
Because, in 1947, he took a chance and challenged
the deeply rooted racial hatred in both the North and
the South by simply playing a game for the Brooklyn
Dodgers;
Because opposing players against the integration
of black baseball players tossed black cats on the
_ field in front of him;
Because, in the same year, he broke the Major
^ • League Baseball’s color barrier and was named
National League Rookie of the Year;
Because the Rev. Jesse Jackson said, “When Jackie
took the field, something within us reminded us of our
birthright to be free;’
Because his former teammate Duke Snider said,
i “He was the greatest competitor I have ever seen”;
Because, in 1997, Major League Baseball honored
him by agreeing to never give another player his
# jersey number, 42;
Jack Roosevelt Robinson not only opened the door
for blacks to play Major League Baseball in the United
States, but also helped all young black men and women
***** who dreamed of playing professional sports achieve
ttreir dreams.-:---——h
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a--- I
-,, ‘ jj
We used to say, when we were up in the air, ‘I’m free.’”
Paul Adams
WWIl veteran
and were even treated to nights on
the town by United Service
Organization workers, Adams said.
“We were prisoners.”
Not just for black people
Adams’ treatment upon his
return from World War II was one
of many experiences that could
have left him an angry, embittered
man.
But those who know Adams
said he is quite the opposite: a pos
itive, charismatic leader steadfast
in his devout Christianity and dedi
cation to justice.
The Rev. Don Coleman, presi
dent of Lincoln’s Mad Dads, said
Adams is invaluable as the group’s
board chairman.
Coleman said children are
always enthusiastic when Adams
eomes to visit and tell them about
his life..
nc s jusi a great cummumcaior
for kids,” he said. “With adults, he’s
very tender, and with people who
are hurting or in pain.”
Adams is “upbeat about the
things that are going on,” Coleman
said, and inspires people simply by
his presence.
“He’s so full of wisdom and fun
to be around,” he said. “He’s my
hero.”
Leola Bullock, a longtime
Lincoln civil rights leader, has
known Adams since the. early
1960s. When Adams was president
of the Lincoln NAACP in 1963-64,
they worked together to fight hous
ing and employment discrimina
tion.
She said his leadership
stemmed from his positive outlook
and commitment to justice.
“I think it’s because of his
belief in equal justice for all peo
ple,” she said.
Adams used his experiences
with prejudice to inspire a lifetime
commitment to improving society,
said Annie Scott, Lincoln’s Scott
Middle School principal.
“He hasn’t forgotten it,” she
said. “He has put it in a perspective
where he can continually make use
of it.”
Scott said Adams is a refreshing
example of one who is loyal to his
family, country and principles.
“He really is a patriotic per
son,” she said. “He holds his coun
try in high esteem and passes that
on to young people.
“I think he has strong values for
what’s right, not just for black peo
ple, but for everybody. A whole lot
of people would do well to pattern
their lives after him.”
Free when flying
Driven by a desire for excel
lence, Adams has wrestled with and
conquered prejudice many times.
As a boy in Greenville, S.C., he
dreamed of being a fighter pilot,
but knew he probably never would
have a chance because he was
black.
But in 1940, at the urging of
first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, the
U.S. War Department instituted a
program to train black fighter
pilots at the Tuskegee Air Base.
The idea met resistance among
civilians and military officials, but
the Tuskegee program got off the
ground. Eleanor Roosevelt visited
die base and flew with a black pilot
to help prove blacks could fly war
planes.
A friend’s father saw an adver
tisement for the Tuskegee program
and told Adams about it. Adams
knew he would have to serve in the
military at some poipt, and the
Tuskegee program offered the
chance to earn $75 per month
instead of the $21 regular enlisted
men received.
So in 1942, after graduating
from South Carolina State A&M
College, Adams enlisted at
Tuskegee determined to achieve his
boyhood dream.
Tuskegee was in the heart of the
Jim Crow South, and the combina
tion of a racist society and military
power structure made for a particu
larly vicious racism, Adams said.
Drill sergeants were just as prej
udiced as anyone else, he said, and
called blacks “any name he wanted
to call you.”
“You ha4 to want to be a pilot,”
he said. “You had to fight prejudice
to stay in there, where you were
treated like dogs, or worse.”
D..t A J___J i &_
nuaiuo pviovvviwu. rmvi
nine months of training, he gradu
ated from Tuskegee in April 1943.
At graduation, he was accompanied
by his wife-to-be, Alda Thompson.
Before leaving for the war,
Adams reported to Selfridge Air
Base in Detroit. Shortly before he
arrived, a base commander there
had been court-martialed for shoot
ing to death a black man assigned
as his driver, saying he “didn’t want
any nigger driving me.”
Adams completed his duties in
Detroit and left for World War II on
Christmas Day, 1943.
He arrived in Naples, Italy, and
began his service in Europe.
Although he served as an intelli
gence officer and flew no war mis
sions, his duties were vital to the
success of the 332nd fighter group.
He served in nine major cam
paigns and was awarded the
Commendation Medal and three
Oak Leaf Clusters.
Adams said many white bomber
pilots initially resented entrusting
their lives to the Tuskegee airmen’s
escort. But when their abilities
became apparent, they were in
demand.
Adams attributed his group s
success to determination, valor and
the desire of the fighters to prove
they were as good as anyone else.
And the Tuskegee airmen were
not disheartened at having to fight
for a country that often treated
them poorly, he said.
“We did it for ourselves, our
race and our country,” he said. “We
thought we were fighting for our
country just as much as anyone
else.”
Amid a bloody, catastrophic
war, when tensions for the
Tuskegee airmen were compound
ed by racial prejudice, flying was a
release.
“We used to say, when we were
up in the air, ‘I’m free,’” Adams
said. “I was completely free and
could do what I wanted. I was free
of all pressures.”
The lone officer
When the war ended, Adains
returned home and served briefly at
Fort Shanks, N.Y. He left the mili
tary in 1945 and married the next
year.
He rejoined the Army Air
Forces in 1946 and soon participat
ed in the military’s integration.
When President Harry Truman
integrated the military, no more
than one black officer was sta
tioned at each base. At Travis Air
Force Base near Oakland, Calif.,
Adams was that lone officer.
“It was hard on us, but that was
the only way to break it up,” he
said.
In 1962, Adams came to
Lincoln to serve as deputy com
mander of the Lincoln Air Force
Base. Despite his outstanding mili
tary record, he faced discrimina
tion. He was denied access to the
American Legion and many of the
city’s restaurants, hotels, motels
and bars.
After Adams retired from the
military, he taught industrial arts at
Lincoln High School, where he
started multicultural student pro
grams.
In 1965, when he attempted to
buy a house in east Lincoln, he
faced another racial spat.
Neighborhood residents drew
up a petition to block Adams’ pur
chase, claiming his presence would
reduce property values. Petitioners
tried to convince Adams’ banker
Adams couldn’t repay the loan.
But Adams’ real estate agent
stood firm. The agent proved
Adams’ military pension, not
including his teaching salary, was
greater than many of the petition
ers’ incomes.
The petition effort failed, and
Adams still lives in the house.
Adams, who retired from teach
ing in 1982, is active in his church,
the Quinn Chapel. He has partici
pated in Mad Dads since its
Lincoln inception in 1992.
“Lincoln is not the worst place
in the world, or I wouldn’t be here,”
he said. “But it’s not the best place
in the world, either.”
!|
No place for prejudice
Adams said race relations have
improved, but more must be done.
He said he is disturbed by evi
dence of increased Ku Klux Klan
and white supremacist activities.
He also cited the flap over
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
English Professor David Hibler’s
e-mail as evidence of racial ten
sions.
As America pushes ahead in the
quest for equality, Adams said, edu
cation will be crucial.
Well-educated citizens happy
with their place in society general- j i
ly are not prejudiced, Adams said, j
Most prejudice is practiced by !
those on the bottom rung who
enhance their self-esteem by treat
ing others as inferior, he said.
“It’s only through ignorance
that people act that way,” he said.
Education can promote a better J
society and improve race relations i
by challenging prejudicial atti
tudes, he said.
“You can pass laws, but you
can’t change a person’s heart and
feelings,” he said.
Adams said affirmative action
programs are not reverse discrimi
nation but a chance for those dis
criminated against to reach their
potential.
“Let whites be in slavery for
100 years, then come tell me about
reverse discrimination,” he said.
But Adams said he is committed
to maintaining his positive outlook.
Holding on to anger, instead of
seeking self-improvement, can »
only make tensions worse, he said. j
“You can’t go forward with a
load of prejudice and hatred,” he
said. “You’ve got to shed them and
pick up new things.” JlSli
