My grandfather’s first cousin was Lt. Col. Howard Lee Baugh. Cousin Howard was part of the 99th Pursuit Squadron, the first unit of the Tuskegee Airmen. This month marks the 84th anniversary of the activation of the Squadron at Chanute Field in Rantoul, about 120 miles southwest of Chicago.
A few years ago, I sat with my friend Norman Lear, the late TV legend behind shows like “All in the Family” and “The Jeffersons” that became important American cultural staples. Norman and I figured out that my cousin Howard was one of the Tuskegee Airmen who escorted Norman on some of his bombing missions during World War II. (In addition to creating those social consciousness-raising shows and founding People For the American Way, Norman’s patriotic résumé also included 52 bomber missions in America’s fight against global fascism.)
It was an amazing connection to make to this proud piece of family history. A life-sized bronze statue of Lt. Col. Baugh stands in permanent tribute to him and the other Tuskegee Airmen in the Black History Museum in Richmond, Virginia.
This history is personal to me — Lt. Col. Baugh was actually one of two of my grandfather’s cousins who were Tuskegee Airmen — but this is history that is important to countless Black Americans. It is also history the Trump administration seemingly wants to erase from existence.
Beyond the federal government no longer recognizing celebrations such as Black History Month and Women’s History Month, the Pentagon is removing every program, mention, image or individual they say is associated with diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. The Trump administration already fired Air Force Gen. CQ Brown, Jr. — another history-making Black fighter pilot like my cousin Lt. Col. Baugh — as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy’s first female chief.
It was reported last week that more than 26,000 (so far) photographs or online posts have been flagged for deletion in a Pentagon database because they apparently arouse Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s suspicion of DEI. Among them: photos of the Tuskegee Airmen.
‘Whitewashing frenzy’
To give you an idea of the precision of this whitewashing frenzy, also targeted on the list are images captioned with or including the word “gay.” And, as of last week, that included references to the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber that dropped the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, and photographs of people whose last name is Gay.
And it would not be Women’s History Month under the new Trump administration without targeting references to path-breaking women among the various war heroes and historic military firsts — women like Air Force Col. Jeannie Leavitt, the country’s first female fighter pilot, and Pfc. Christina Fuentes Montenegro, one of the first three women to graduate from the Marine Corps’ Infantry Training Battalion. Also listed in the database was an image of Pfc. Harold Gonsalves, who was posthumously presented the Medal of Honor for military valor during World War II and happened to be Mexican American.
In his perverse view of DEI, Hegseth thinks removing DEI initiatives means erasing history. And he says “DEI is dead” in the U.S. military because it puts certain groups ahead of others and erodes cohesion and camaraderie among the ranks. But the truth is the opposite. It is not only just and moral that we recognize the contributions of people from marginalized groups (especially when they are military heroes who opened up doors for future generations). It is unifying.
We are all Americans. But some of us have just had our communities’ histories and contributions ignored, and even suppressed. Protecting every community’s, every family’s place in the American story is vital. It is vital for the children who otherwise would not see people they identify with in our history books. And it is vital for America to be what Frederick Douglass knew we could be: “the perfect national illustration of the unity and dignity of the human family.”
Ben Jealous is executive director of the Sierra Club and a professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania.
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