A group of items related to Lt. Colonel Alexander Jefferson (1921-2022), one of the famous Tuskegee Airmen who served in the United States Air Force during World War II. Items include: 

1. 12 snapshots. Each 2 3/4 x 1 7/8 in. Mounted to black cardstock album page 9 1/2 x 10 3/8 in. Titled "Memories of Tuskegee," with the additional captions "'Joe Stearmann' and 'As life is -- / Just a picture / here and / there.'" 

2. Large collection of insignia including 36 patches, 13 pins, 7 commemorative tokens, 6 shoulder boards, 3 buttons, and a model airplane. A complete list is available upon request. 

3. Alexander Jefferson and Lewis H. Carlson. Red Tail Captured, Red Tail Free. The Memoirs of A Tuskegee Airman and POW. New York: Fordham University Press, 2005. INSCRIBED BY JEFFERSON to front free endpaper.  

Alexander Jefferson, a native of Detroit, was the great-grandson of civil rights leader William J. White (1831-1913). Jefferson studied chemistry and biology at Clark College and later Howard University. When the United States entered World War II, he was initially sworn into the United Sates Army Reserve but entered graduate school while applying again to the Air Force. He was called up for flight training on April 1943, receiving orders to report to Tuskegee Army Air Field.

He was assigned to the 332nd "Red Tail" Fighter group, flying a P-51 Mustang at the Ramitelli Airfield near Foggia, Italy. The Red Tails served as a fighter escort wing, protecting the bombing missions of the US 15th Air Force, attacking ground targets and guarding against Nazi Luftwaffe fighters. 

On 12 August 1944, during his 19th mission over Toulon, France, Jefferson was shot down while attacking a radar installation. Though he managed to safely parachute into a forest, he was captured by Nazi ground troops and sent to prisoner (POW) camp Stalag Luft III in Poland. He was moved to Stalg VII-A (near Dachau) and then to Munich before the onslaught of the Russian Army.  General George Patton's US Third Army eventually freed Jefferson and he returned to the United States. 

A wonderful collection of candid photographs and ephemera. Views include 6 images of Jefferson, some with other Black service members. Of particular note are two images of his plane, with the number "15". 

The Tuskegee Airmen need no introduction. A group of barrier-breaking African American fighter pilots and their supporting staff, they endured segregation and racism to become among the most distinguished groups of soldiers in American history. A large percentage of surviving Airmen-related material now rests in institutional collections, making this a rare private purchase opportunity.

[African-American History, Slave, Slavery, Abolition, Abolitionist, Emancipation Proclamation, Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, Union, Confederate, Document, Letter] [Civil Rights, Martin Luther King Jr.] [Paper Ephemera] [Spanish American War, Span Am, World War One, World War 1, WW1, World War Two, World War II, WW2]