Photograph of 1st Class of Advanced Civilian Pilot Training Program

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A black-and-white photograph group portrait of the 1st Class of Advanced Civilian Pilot Training Program, captured in front of a monument to Booker T. Washington on the campus of Tuskegee University. Pictured are two instructors and ten students: Sherman Rose, John Perry, Yancey Williams, Elmer Jones, Roscoe Draper, Philip Lee, Hector Strong, Reginald Smith, Erwin Lawrence, and Milton Crenshaw. The photograph depicts twelve (12) airmen standing in two rows. All but one wear matching uniforms consisting of trousers, belts, button-down shirts, neckties, and caps in a matching light-toned color. The twelfth man, at the far right of the first row, wears a short-sleeved button-down shirt and trousers. Each man stands with his arms at his sides and looks straight ahead. In the background, rising above their heads, is the monument "Lifting the Veil of Ignorance" which depicts a statue of Booker T. Washington lifting a cloth to reveal another man crouching beside him.

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