The groundbreaking Tuskegee Airmen Wives Tell Their Stories oral history project documents the role of a special group of women in desegregation in the United States.

During the early stages of World War II, the War Department decided to create a Negro flying unit to determine if African Americans were capable of combat aviation. The men of these first military aviation units came to be known as the Tuskegee Airmen. They fought racism at home and the enemy abroad. Their outstanding performance in combat was one of the factors that led President Truman to promote equal opportunity in the military, an early step towards desegregation of U.S. society as a whole. The experiences of the Tuskegee Airmen have been highlighted in documentary videotapes and in books, such as the autobiography Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.: American, A-Train: Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman by Charles W. Dryden, The Air Force Integrates by Alan L. Gropman, and The Tuskegee Airmen by Charles Francis. A commercial movie, The Tuskegee Airmen, featuring Laurence Fishburne, also spotlights their history.

The Tuskegee Airmen Wives Tell Their Stories project brings to the public arena for the first time, the stories of the women who stood shoulder to shoulder with the airmen. This is the first systematic collection of the wives' stories.

Wives of men of the 99th, 100th, 301st, and 302nd Fighter Squadrons, as well as the 477th Bombardment Group, and related personnel have been interviewed. The interviews cover their personal backgrounds, as well as their experiences at Tuskegee, during World War II, and during the early years of integration in the Air Force. As young women, some lived in the segregated town of Tuskegee during the men's training; many were separated from their husbands by the war. When the Air Force desegregated in 1949, the predominantly Negro facility at Lockbourne Air Force Base was disbanded and personnel were re-assigned throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia. Consequently, the Tuskegee Airmen wives were among the first to experience institutional desegregation in the United States. How did the women cope in this unprecedented situation? How did they support their husbands, protect their children, and maintain their own sense of self? What enabled them to succeed during such challenging times? The actions of Rosa Parks led to a very public desegregation of bus service in Montgomery, Alabama, but years earlier these women quietly, nearly invisibly, desegregated Air Force bases throughout the country. Each day they navigated alien territory, sending husbands off to work and children off to school, while maintaining their households. Theirs was a quiet revolution, with far reaching consequences. The U.S. military is, even today, one of the most integrated elements of U.S. society, due in no small part to the men and women who were part of the Tuskegee Airmen experience.

The Tuskegee Airmen Wives Tell Their Stories project was developed in close cooperation with the Tuskegee Airmen Wives Auxiliary of the East Coast Chapter of Tuskegee Airmen, Inc. An award-winning oral historian serves as project advisor. Interviewing began in 1999. The stories of fifty-nine women have been recorded on audiotape. Excerpts from these interviews will be gathered into a book to provide a permanent and accessible record of significant events in education, medical care, social and family relationships, finances, parenting, and race relations, told in the women's own words. A copy of the audiotapes and transcripts will be deposited at research facilities for use by scholars and students. Other possible project outcomes include a historical exhibit and an educational video suitable for secondary and tertiary level classes.