The Tuskegee Airmen

The Tuskegee Airmen is a fifth-grade Level Q book, showcasing the role of Black aviators who fought during WWII after overcoming racism to serve our country.

During four years (1942-1946), nearly 1,000 pilots completed training at Tuskegee Army Airfield in Tuskegee, Alabama. Many of these successful pilots went on to serve our country in other leadership capacities after the Civil War. 

Your students will see the instrumental role that First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt played in gathering support for their training. Students will also learn more about the Tuskegee Airmen’s role in fighting the Germans during this important time in history and how the Black airmen were finally able to be integrated into the military forces.

What’s Included

4-page informational text with targeted vocabulary and concepts, and 2 pages of activities that reinforce critical thinking and language arts skills.

The National Council for Social Studies’ key learning strands involving Culture and Change; Time, Continuity, and Change; and Power can be applied to this resource.

Several ELA Common Core Standards can also be applied, specifically RI.5.1, RI.5.2, and RI.5.3 that deal with explicit text, drawing inferences, key details, summarizing, relationships or interactions between significant ideas, events, and concepts in a historical text.