Forgotten Souls: The Search for the Lost Tuskegee Airmen

Summary

The remarkable true stories of the pioneering Tuskegee Airmen who broke the color barrier in World War II—and the 27 who vanished while battling the enemy, only to be forgotten by their country. Including interviews with surviving pilots, relatives, and eyewitnesses, this intimate, vitally important book pays long-overdue tribute to these lost patriots and their families.

In 1945, World War II ended one of the deadliest conflicts in history. Geared for battle were nearly 1,000 trailblazing Black pilots trained at the Tuskegee Army Air Field, an unrepentantly segregated facility in Alabama. Hailing from the Iowa cornfields to the Texas Gulf Coast to the tobacco plantations of North Carolina, the Tuskegee Airmen already proved, under the toughest circumstances, to be among the most resilient and defiantly patriotic men of the Army Air Corps.

Twenty-seven of them disappeared during the final critical missions in Europe. So, too, would the government’s efforts to find them or help to bring closure to the loved ones that the valiant 332nd Fighter Group left behind.

In Forgotten Souls, award-winning investigative journalist Cheryl W. Thompson delves into the true stories of the Black combat pilots who faced unimaginable racism—before, during and after the war—from a military that told them they were less than, even as their courage and aviation prowess saved scores of White brothers-in-arms from the enemy and possibly death.

As cruel as war itself could be, the friends, family, communities, and fellow Tuskegee Airmen who mourned the lost pilots never imagined how unforgivable it could get. After 80 years, Forgotten Souls honors the impact they made, and the sacrifices they endured on America’s behalf.

“Forgotten Souls beautifully honors a group of American heroes whose courage and sacrifice have never been properly recognized. With exhaustive research and beautiful writing, Cheryl W. Thompson brings these brave men back to life. As far as the nation was concerned, they were forgotten. Thompson corrects that unconscionable error.”—Eugene Robinson, Pulitzer Prize–winning columnist and author of Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America