UB Black History Spotlight: Dr. Roscoe Brown | ‘Tuskegee Airmen’ UB Interview

Today is the start of Black History Month 2025 and to kick off a month of celebrating us, UB starts with the distinguished Dr. Roscoe Brown.

UB had the wonderful pleasure of speaking with the late great in 2012, for the DVD release of the film “Red Tails.”

An Army Air Force Captain in World War II, Dr. Roscoe Brown commanded the 100th Fighter Squadron of the 332nd Fighter Group the famed “Tuskegee Airmen” and is credited with being the first 15th Air Force fighter pilot to shoot down a German jet fighter.

A Washington, DC, native, Dr. Brown attended Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts, departing the day after his graduation for training at Keesler Field in Biloxi, Mississippi. From there, he moved on to Tuskegee, Alabama, for further training at the Tuskegee Institute and Tuskegee Army Air Base.

“Excellence overcomes prejudice and you shouldn’t let anybody tell you that you can’t do anything. If you want to do it, go and try to do it!”

In total, Dr. Brown flew 68 combat missions, a combination of strafing runs and escort missions for heavy bombers and P-38 reconnaissance flights. He downed a German jet near Berlin during an escort mission on March 24th 1945.

Dr. Brown earned the Distinguished Flying Cross during World War II. In 2007, Brown and five other airmen accepted the Congressional Gold Medal on behalf of the Tuskegee Airmen. He earned a doctorate in education after the war and served as a professor at New York University, then served as president of Bronx Community College for 17 years. He later joined The City University of New York Graduate Center as director of the Center for Urban Education Policy.

In the Bronx, NY a street named Captain Roscoe Brown Ph.D. Plaza is across the street from Bronx Community College.

Dr. Roscoe Brown also hosted the television program, “African American Legends,” and he won the 1973 Emmy Award for Distinguished Program with his weekly series “Black Arts.”

“Blacks can do anything anybody else can do given the opportunity.”

He published numerous articles and contributed to several books, and was the recipient of numerous awards, including the New York City Treasure Centennial Honor from the Museum of the City of New York and the Humanitarian Award from the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

He also completed nine New York City marathons and had four children. Dr. Roscoe Brown passed away on July 2nd, 2016 at age 94, and was one of the last few Red Tail pilots.

Aries from UB had the wonderful pleasure of speaking with Tuskegee Airmen Dr. Roscoe Brown in 2012, for the DVD release of the film “Red Tails.” He is played by Michael B. Jordan in the film.

Dr. Brown also discuses his involvement in the film, his best memory of being a Tuskegee Airman and his biggest achievements.

UrbanBridgez.com: Let me first start off by asking what you thought of the film Red Tails overall?
Dr. Roscoe Brown: I think it’s an outstanding movie. It tells the story on how we overcame those obstacles and how good we were. It’s very exciting, the editing is outstanding and it does a great job of telling the story of the Tuskegee Airmen.

UrbanBridgez.com: Did you have any involvement in the film?
Dr. Roscoe Brown: I was actually one of the consultants on the movie. I worked with the actors so they could act like fighter pilots and be like pilots. I think they did a good job, some of the dialogue was a little Hollywood. We didn’t do alot of that talking. All in all, it’s a good representation of what we did.

UrbanBridgez.com: The film is filled with so much action, during that period did you ever think what you were apart of would be something movies were made of one day?
Dr. Roscoe Brown: Not so much to be a movie, but the fact is in 1945 the Air force made a documentary called Wings for This Man. It was showed in the black theaters at that time. If anybody wants to see it, they can log on to Google and search the title. In it you will hear Ronald Reagan, who later became president and he’s narrating it. I think it will be worthwhile for everybody to look at it. There was another one called Lonely Eagles and later HBO had the film called The Tuskegee Airmen. But this is the first feature film that’s been done about the Tuskegee Airmen.

UrbanBridgez.com: What are one of your best memories about that time in 1944 and 1945 that you were a Tuskegee Airman?
Dr. Roscoe Brown: As a fighter pilot I flew 68 missions and you can get shot down on any of them missions. You do it day after day after day, with a few days break. Because you’re young, you know you’re good and you want to be the best you can be! Plus the fact of flying is one of the most exciting activities you can do. Because you’re controlling your plane. When you’re young you feel you can conquer the world and I remember we felt like that.

UrbanBridgez.com: Tell people why they should go out and pick up the DVD of Red Tails?
Dr. Roscoe Brown: I think everybody that seen it, would like to own it. Nothing is like when you’re sitting in the theater watching those planes come towards you, you realize this was a hell of an experience. We were really, really great! All pilots are good, but I thought we were the best! You had to believe that in order to do it.

UrbanBridgez.com: Tell us about African American Legends for those not familiar with it?
Dr. Roscoe Brown: It’s a cable TV program here in NY on channel 75. On it I interview outstanding people from the African American community. In arts, education, medicine, law, etc. We talk about just as we’re talking about now, what they believe, why they’re doing what they’re doing and what impact it will have on the black community. One of the things many of us are concerned about is the young people have internalized the stereotype threat that says blacks can’t do something. Blacks can do anything anybody else can do given the opportunity. And that’s what I talk about on African American Legends.

UrbanBridgez.com: What’s been your biggest achievement in your life to you thus far?
Dr. Roscoe Brown: Definitely the Tuskegee Airmen, but I always say the biggest achievement in my life has been the birth of my children. They’ve all done well, I got grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I also have to say being president of Bronx Community College, has been a big thing in my life. And I’ve been on television, won a couple of Emmy awards. So I’ve been very fortunate in being able to do some of the things that I wanted to do. All of which was devoted to showing that African Americans can be as good or better than anybody else!

UrbanBridgez.com: Anything else you want to leave our readers with?
Dr. Roscoe Brown: I want to say that hopefully the message from the movie & DVD is that excellence overcomes obstacles. Excellence overcomes prejudice and you shouldn’t let anybody tell you that you can’t do anything. If you want to do it, go and try to do it!

Tuskegee Institute Booklet – Airman Cecil Peterson sent Eleanor Roosevelt this 1943 promotional booklet. A yearbook of sorts, the publication includes photographs of the Institute, its trainees and activities.

UB spoke to the legendary Sheryl Lee Ralph for National Geographic‘s “The Real Red Tails,” in which she narrated.

UB asked her what was something about The Tuskegee Airmen, that she finds astonishing? “Oh, my gosh. I love the fact that they flew. They took through the skies, that they were winners, that against all odds, they did what so many others could not do or others did not think they could do. And even when they triumphed, people tried to act like it didn’t matter.”

Sheryl Lee Ralph went on to say; “But here we are right now, and we know it matters with greatness. In fact, I would tell everybody, go visit that Smithsonian Museum, that African-American Museum in Washington, DC. You can actually see one of the planes right there in the museum. Once again, it was just laid to the side somewhere, and a gentleman found this plane that he thought, wow, who in the world flew this? And this is all true, and decided to put it all back together again. And I think he had to call the government because he needed some pieces once he found out it was a government issue. And they were like, wait a minute, what is it you’ve got? And they’re like, no, you couldn’t have that. And he was like, Not only do I have it, but I really want to fly it. And they had to work together.

Just imagine that, your history just thrown to the side and somebody says, What in the world is this and who flew this? Think about that.”

The UB Interview: Sheryl Lee Ralph Talks ‘The Real Red Tails’