Red Tail Captured, Red Tail Free: Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman and POW
Jefferson, a Tuskegee Airman who was shot down during World War II and held in a German prison camp for nine months, recalls better treatment as a prisoner of war than as a black citizen in the U.S. He had been fascinated with airplanes since his childhood in Detroit, where he was born into a long line of clergymen and educators, who nonetheless suffered the racial indignities of the time. Jefferson went on to become a chemist when the chance to join the 332nd Fighter Group captured his imagination. He piloted a Red-Tail Angel, one of the planes assigned to protect bombers' crews. On his eighteenth mission, he was shot down over southern France and taken to Stalag Luft III, a camp primarily for captured British and American Air Force officers. While at the camp, he began recording observations of the cold, occasional shootings of prisoners, but mostly boredom and hunger. Later, he recorded his impressions of the ignominious welcome home reserved for black soldiers. Photographs and Jefferson's drawings during his imprisonment add to the fascination of this memoir.Vanessa BushCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved