This is a very interesting book about an all-black air fighting group known as the Tuskegee Airmen. (There's a really good movie by the same name about them)
Anyhow, the U.S. gets drawn into World War II and you would think that it would welcome all the men it could get into the military, but it didn't. For a good while Japanese Americans were not allowed in. Blacks were allowed in, but only in certain positions, none of those involving flying.
The book notes how many white military leaders didn't think Blacks could really fight nor make good soldiers. It took a very major effort on the part of Blacks to just be allowed into the Army Air Force (there was no actual Air Force as such at the time), and even then they were kept to their own unit.
Once they got accepted, then they had to fight some more to be allowed to actually go overseas and join the war effort. When they did they established an incredible record protecting bombers by fighting off Nazi fighter planes.
They were truly an amazing group of pilots.
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