{"id":15503,"date":"2025-03-20T15:56:33","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T15:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=15503"},"modified":"2025-03-20T15:56:33","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T15:56:33","slug":"they-cannot-rob-us-of-our-history-and-our-place-in-americas-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/20\/they-cannot-rob-us-of-our-history-and-our-place-in-americas-story\/","title":{"rendered":"They Cannot Rob Us of Our History and Our Place in America\u2019s Story"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Ben Jealous<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Ben Jealous
\n<\/strong>Guest Column<\/strong><\/p>\n

My grandfather\u2019s first cousin was Lieutenant Colonel 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\u00a0activation of the Squadron<\/a>\u00a0at Chanute Field in Rantoul, Illinois, about 120 miles southwest of Chicago.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0figured 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\u2019s patriotic resume also included 52 bomber missions in America\u2019s fight against global fascism.)<\/p>\n

It was an amazing connection to make to this piece of my own 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.<\/p>\n

This history is personal to me because of the family connection to the Airmen \u2013 Lt. Col. Baugh was actually one of two of my grandfather\u2019s cousins who were Tuskegee Airmen \u2013 but this is history that is important to countless Black Americans. It is also history the Trump administration seemingly wants to erase from existence.<\/p>\n

Beyond the federal government\u00a0no longer recognizing celebrations<\/a>\u00a0such as Black History Month and Women\u2019s History Month, the Pentagon is removing every program, mention, image, or individual they say is associated with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. The Trump administration already fired Air Force General\u00a0CQ Brown, Jr.<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 another history-making Black fighter pilot like my cousin Lt. Col. Baugh \u2013 as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Admiral\u00a0Lisa Franchetti<\/a>, the Navy’s first female chief.<\/p>\n

Now, it was reported last week that more than 26,000 (so far) photographs or online posts have been\u00a0flagged for deletion in a Pentagon database<\/a>\u00a0because they apparently arouse Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth\u2019s suspicion of DEI. Among them: photos of the Tuskegee Airmen.<\/p>\n

To give you an idea of the precision of this white-washing frenzy, also targeted on the list are images captioned with or including the word \u201cgay.\u201d And, as of last week, that included references to the\u00a0Enola Gay<\/a>, 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\u2019s History Month under the new Trump administration without targeting references to pathbreaking women among the various war heroes and historic military firsts \u2013 women like Air Force Colonel Jeannie Leavitt, the country\u2019s first female fighter pilot, and Private First Class Christina Fuentes Montenegro, one of the first three women to graduate from the Marine Corps\u2019 Infantry Training Battalion. Also listed in the database was an image of Private First Class Harold Gonsalves, who was posthumously presented the Medal of Honor for military valor during World War II and happened to be Mexican-American.<\/p>\n

In his perverse view of DEI, Secretary Hegseth thinks removing DEI initiatives means erasing history. And he says \u201cDEI is dead\u201d in the US 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.<\/p>\n

We are all Americans. But some of us have just had our communities\u2019 histories and contributions ignored, and\u00a0even suppressed<\/a>. Protecting every community\u2019s, 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\u00a0knew we could be<\/a>: \u201cthe perfect national illustration of the unity and dignity of the human family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben Jealous is the Executive Director of the Sierra Club, former President\/CEO of the NAACP and a Professor of Practice at the University of Pennsylvania.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ben Jealous Guest Column My grandfather\u2019s first cousin was Lieutenant Colonel 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\u00a0activation of the Squadron\u00a0at Chanute Field in Rantoul, Illinois, about 120 miles southwest of Chicago. A few […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,252],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[285],"class_list":["post-15503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial-opinion","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15503"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15505,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15503\/revisions\/15505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15503"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=15503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}