| Original caption: “Captains Lemuel R. Custis (left) and Charles B. Hall, of the Ninety-Ninth Fighter Squadron of the United States Army Air Forces, chat while on leave in New York City” Original Caption: “Captains Lemuel R. Custis (left) and Charles B. Hall, of the Ninety-Ninth Fighter Squadron of the United States Army Air Forces, chat while on leave in New York City. Their all-Negro squadron first went into action in North Africa on June 4, 1943, and is now closely supporting Allied ground forces advancing in Italy. The fighter group flies all types of combat missions — bomber escort, dive bombing, patrol for beachheads, and strafing. In one year, the squadron has made more than three thousand sorties and has shot down seventeen planes, scored three probables and damaged six other planes.” Original caption: “Home on leave after flying with the Ninety-Ninth Fighter Squadron, famed all Negro flying group, Captains, Charles B. Hall (Right) of Brazil, Indiana, and Lemuel R. Custis, Hartford, Connecticut, are devoting their furloughs to the sale of war bonds. Both Pilots have flown in the Mediterranean Theater, and Captain Hall has been awarded the distinguished Flying Cross. Through the two flyers The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has purchased forty thousand dollars in war bonds during the Fifth War Loan Drive.” Captain Lemuel R. Custis (June 4, 1915 – February 24, 2005) and Charles B. “Buster” Hall (August 25, 1920 – November 22, 1971) at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples (NAACP) Headquarters, 90 Church Street, New York City, New York, at a press conference for the 5th War Loan. Besides this press conference, an Office of War Information poster featuring Tuskegee Airman 1st Lieutenant Robert W. Diez (June 17. 1919 – April 6, 1992) with the exhortation “Keep us flying! Buy War Bonds” circulated. All of this was successful in marketing the 5th War Loan to African Americans. Alone, the public school children of the South Central District of Chicago purchased $263,148.83 in war bonds and stamps. A huge check representing enough money for 125 jeeps, 2 pursuit planes and a motorcycle was presented to Major Charles Udell Turpin (May 6, 1896 – December 3, 1969) of the Illinois War Bond Sales staff. The 5th War Loan opened on June 12, and ran until July 8, 1944. It planned to raised 16,000,000,000 dollars, and ended up raising 20,000,000,000 dollars. Custis was 1 of the 1st African American fighter pilots, graduating on March 6, 1942, with 4 other cadets in Class 42-C-SE. Prior to being drafted into the military, Custis earned a Bachelors of Science degree from Howard University and became Hartford’s 1st African American police officer in 1939. After the Tuskegee graduation ceremony, Custis was assigned to the 99th Fighter Squadron and flew 92 combat missions in the Curtiss P‑40 Warhawk. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) for his heroism. He later returned to Tuskegee as an advanced flight instructor and was released from active military service from the United States Army Air Force in 1946 with the rank of Major. He returned to Connecticut and worked in state government. Custis was the last surviving member of the 1st Tuskegee Airmen class. Hall graduated with Class 42-F-SE on July 3, 1942. He ran track and played football at Eastern Illinois State Teachers College. Hall was 1st Tuskegee Airman to down a Luftwaffe (“Nazi German Air Force”) fighter on his 8th mission on July 2, 1943, when escorting North American B-25 Mitchell medium bombers in a Curtiss P-40 Warhawk over Castelvetrano, Sicily. He would eventually down 4 aircraft during his 198 missions. Hall was the 1st African American to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross. After the war, he moved to Chicago to work as an insurance agent; then he worked for the United States Air Force, and the Federal Aviation Administration. On July 4, 1944, the New York Age reported: “NAACP Buys Forty Thousand Dollars In Bonds Honoring Ninety-Ninth Pursuit Pilots – At a war press conference Saturday in the [United States] Army Public Relations Office, 90 Church street, [NAACP President] Walter F White [(July 1, 1893 – March 21, 1955)] announced the purchase of forty thousand dollars worth of Fifth War Loan Bonds for the NAACP in honor of the two distinguished Ninety-Ninth Pursuit Squadron pilots, Captains Charles B. Hall and Lemuel Rodney Custis, Mr. White said: — ‘The NAACP is delighted to purchase through Captain Charles B. Hall and Lemuel R. Custis forty thousand dollars of the Fifth War Loan bonds. We wish, however, to emphasize not the purchase of the bonds which every American should purchase to the limit of his ability. Instead we wish to pay tribute to two gallant American soldiers who incidentally happen also to be Ne- groes.’” “‘It was my privilege recently as a War Correspondent to see the Ninety-Ninth Pursuit Squadron in action in Italy. We are proud of the DFC which Captain Hall won. We are proud also of the brilliant record of Captain Custis and of the other three Negro fighter squadrons now playing so important a part in the battle of Italy.’” “‘It is our hope that America will show these and others of the seven hundred thousand American Negroes now fighting in the war that the democracy they fight to preserve will be more fully given them and other minorities than has been proved in the past. One question asked me anxiously by colored soldiers on all the battlefronts I have visited is: ‘To what will we return In America? Will it be only to shoe-shining jobs and the Ku Klux Klan? “What will America’s answer be?’” In an unsigned editorial that accompanied the article, the New York Age commented, “Pilots Of Ninety-Ninth Squadron Praise Worth Of Comrades; Plead For Equal Opportunities.” — Saturday morning at a press conference arranged by the [United States] Army Public Relations of the War Department, 90 Church street, Captains Lemuel R. Custis and Charles B. Hall, members of the famous 99th Pursuit Squadron, which has been engaged in aerial combat missions in the Mediterranean area since 1943, asserted that Negro pilots have advanced considerably beyond the experimental stage. The pilots who have just returned from successful encounters with the enemy at North Africa, Sicily, and Anzio Beachhead in Italy, expressed a keen interest in the postwar opportunities for Negroes. Capt. Hall remarked, ‘Some of us are interested in military aviation, and others in commercial, but we all want as broad a span of possibilities as we can get.’” “Captain Hall who won the Distin[guished] Air Medal for a hundred and fifty hours of combat flight, said, ‘The Negro is vitally concerned with what post war conditions will be and there are so many Negroes in far-flung corners of the earth who are getting a new slant on things.” “When they come home they expect to get some of the things they’ve been hearing about and fighting for. I believe they will be both aggressive and progressive about it all.” “Captain Hall who won the Distinguished Flying Cross and Captain Custis are credited with having damaged four of the seventeen enemy planes destroyed by their squadron.” “When questioned as to how their spectacular work was being regarded by other squadrons, he replied ‘A fifty caliber machine gun or a Twenty millimeter (.78 caliber) cannon was a very forceful denominator.’” “Walter White, secretary of the NAACP was present and praised the record of the fighters and the work being achieved by the other three Negro squadrons now fighting in Italy.” | |
| Image Filename | wwii0648.jpg |
| Image Size | 571.14 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2032 x 2904 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | Office of War Information |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | June 1, 1944 |
| Location | |
| City | New York |
| State or Province | New York |
| Country | United States |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NWDNS-208-MO-120H-29054 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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