Flight: The Story of Virgil Richardson, A Tuskegee Airman in Mexico

by Ben Vinson

Virgil Richardson has blazed his own unique trail through the twentieth a co-founder of Harlem's American Negro Theater and radio personality in 1930s, a World War II pilot, and an expatriate through much of the last fifty years. In Flight , this remarkable man tells the story of his life in his own vivid words. Educated in Texas, Richardson set out for New York City to try his hand on the stage. On the brink of success as an actor, he was drafted into the army at the dawn of World War II. After overcoming numerous obstacles, Richardson became a Tuskegee cadet in 1943, and later saw action above the battlefields of Europe. Upon returning to the U.S., and after a series of frustrations, Richardson decided to move to Mexico, where he encountered a society with a very different racial climate than the one he had left behind. He spent most of the 1950s and '60s there, making his way as a performer and teacher. Flight draws the reader into the rich and fascinating life of a determined individual unwilling to accept the limited options available to him in Jim Crow America.

Genres: History

224 pages, Hardcover

First published November 6, 2004

Reviews

[Shawn Cunningham · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book for anyone wanting to know African American history during WWII as well as learn of racial difficulties during that era.
I would recommend this book for young adults.

Publisher:Pallgrave Macmillian
Publication Date: 2004

Audience: young adults. 15-20
specific use: independent reading / class discussion
social issues: black men fighting in wwII
literacy elements: man's determination. conflict of man v. man
genre: nonfiction