The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Opinion There’s a name for the Washington football team that could end an insult and honor black heroes

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July 28, 2020 at 10:10 a.m. EDT
Col. Charles E. McGee, one of the Tuskeegee Airmen, arriving in Dulles, Va., in December 2018. (Pete Marovich/For The Washington Post)

Lisa Bratton, an assistant professor of history at Tuskegee University, was a historian for the National Park Service’s Tuskegee Airmen Oral History Project.

In a potentially watershed moment when this nation — perhaps unwillingly — seems prepared to revisit its racial outlook, an overdue name change could play an important role. It offers a chance to not only erase a prominent symbol of white racism but also replace it with an icon of African American heroism.

The football team in our nation’s capital should change its name to the Washington Red Tails.

The change would honor the famed Tuskegee Airmen, members of the segregated military during World War II who were nicknamed the “Red Tails” because of the distinctive crimson color painted on the tails of their aircraft. The first African American pilots in U.S. military history, the Airmen completed more than 15,000 sorties in which they destroyed more than 260 enemy aircraft. Hundreds of individual members received military honors including the Distinguished Flying Cross, Legion of Merit, Silver Star and Purple Heart, and the Airmen’s 332nd Fighter Group was awarded the Distinguished Unit Citation after shooting down three German planes on a mission to Berlin in March 1945.

But, as many of 250 Airmen I have interviewed told me, the Airmen had to fight on two fronts: against the Nazis abroad and against rampant racism within the military and at home. Their officers were not allowed into officers’ clubs on U.S. bases. The pilots and support personnel served overseas longer than their white counterparts because it took longer to get the necessary African American replacements. When they returned home after years of battle, they strode down the troop ships’ gangplanks and were met with literal signs of segregation indicating “Negroes This Way” — then went on to face the broader realities of segregation that were as omnipresent as the day they had set off for war. Surely, their experience is a lesson for all Americans, one the Washington football organization can help to teach.

There would be a wonderful symmetry in the decision to adopt the Red Tails’ name. Consider the names of other NFL teams: Those representing groups of people, such as the Minnesota Vikings and the Dallas Cowboys, certainly have a potential for controversy, but they generally are seen to symbolize strength, tenacity or other admirable qualities, and to inspire respect. Only the (now former) Washington Redskins chose a pejorative, racist name that demeans a particular ethnic group — the indigenous people of the Americas. The new choice could help right the wrong that the old name has symbolized since it was adopted in 1933.

I’ve spoken recently with some of the surviving Airmen about the name change and not surprisingly, opinions vary. Jerry Hodges, who was a pilot with the 617th Bomber Squadron, told me he did not think the Redskins name needed to be changed at all. He said he saw it as a compliment to Native warriors who fought bravely to protect their land.

But Ted Lumpkin, a former intelligence officer, supports the change that would honor the thousands of men and women, both civilian and military, who were involved in the Tuskegee Airmen experience. That recognition, he said, would demonstrate to generations of African Americans to come that their excellence will also be recognized. “This is one step toward leveling the playing field,” he told me.

As a friend of most of the surviving Airmen, I have been pleased to see increasing marks of recognition for them. Just this year, 100-year-old Charles E. McGee of the 332nd Fighter Group, who retired with the rank of colonel in 1973, was promoted to brigadier general. (He also presented the coin that was flipped at this year’s Super Bowl.)

This football team proposal surprised me less than it once might have, given the startling and positive changes I’ve seen in the nation since the tragic killing of George Floyd. “Redskins” to “Red Tails” would be more than just a name change. It would be a perspective change. The Red Tails symbolize so much that is right in America: victory over Nazism, honor for veterans, African American intelligence and perseverance. The change would elevate one group of Americans while ending the insult to another. Does it get any better than that?

Watch Opinions videos:

Civil rights leader Andrew Young, a former U.N. ambassador and congressman, reflects on Rep. John Lewis and the nonviolent tactics they used in the 1960s. (Video: The Washington Post)

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