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In January , 1941, a Howard University student, Yancy Williams, filed suit against the War Department, under the sponsorship of the national Association for the Advancement of Colored people, to compel the department to admit him to one of its air training centers. Almost immediately after the filing of the suit, the War Department announced that it was planning to establish an air training center at Tuskegee Institute to train a negro squadron for pursuit flying.

Many negroes protested the proposed establishment of a segregated unit of flyers at Tuskegee institute and several organized groups did what they could to ward off the project. The national Association for the Advancement of Colored people, the National Airmen's Association (colored), and other contended that a separate Negro aviation unit, trained at a segregated field, would be prevented from getting the experience obtained by white flyers who could fly in and out of many different bases.[[footnote]]8

Whether or not the legal threat was a precipitating action, the Air Force had already been working on the problem. In November, 1940, the author reported on the availability of air field in the Chicago area for the Negro program. [[footnote]]9

The Air Forces' segregated program was supported even by conservative Tuskegee institute, principally because it was expected to result in the integration of nego personnel into the Air Forces, rather than a sideline "branch.":

Tuskegee officials, however, favored the plan, contending that a separate Negro flight squadron trained at a segregated air base was better than having no negro aviators at all. They felt that the plan was a forward step and that more progress would be made in the future.
[[footnote]]10
 
In the early years of the War, Air Forces difficulties were a principle source of trouble for the War Department:

[[footnote]]8 [[underlined]]The Negro Handbook[[/underlined]], op. cit., pp. 333-334.

[[footnote]]9 letter of Chief of the Air Corps, Capt. Noel F. Parrish. It interesting to note that from the beginning, few communities desire a negro unit. This report states that Joliet, Illinois, would not leave I airport for the training of Negro pilots. 

[[footnote]]10 [[underlined]]The Negro Handbook[[/underlined]], op. cit., p. 334.