Tuskegee Airman Luther H. Smith was in a German prison camp after being captured when his plane crashed. A German officer confronted Smith. “With utter contempt he said, ‘You volunteered to fight for a country that lynches your people.’” “You might as well have hit me with a heavy stick,” Smith said. The next day, when the officer launched at him again, Smith had his comeback ready: “You people are just as bad. . . . Your German Jews, you lynch them. . . . I am black American. It is my home. I will fight for it because I have no other home, and by fighting for it, I can make America better.”
African-americans participating with out the honors and privileges of a a true democracy.
