Ridgefield Allies

Today in “Hidden” History is a daily listing of important but little-known events illustrating the range of innovators, contributors, or incidents excluded from formal history lessons or common knowledge. Hidden history is intended not as an exhaustive review, but merely as an illustration of how popular narratives "hide" many matters of fundamental importance. Bookmark this page and check daily to quickly expand your knowledge. Suggest entries for Today in “Hidden” History by clicking the Contact Us link. Entries for February 09:

Date	Type	Event
1907		Charles Alfred Anderson, often called the “Father of Black Aviation,” because of his training and mentoring of hundreds of African American pilots, is born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, a Philadelphia suburb, to Janie and Iverson Anderson. Charles Anderson earned the name “Chief” because he was the most ranked and experienced African American pilot before coming to Tuskegee Army Air Field (TAAF) in 1940. By that point he had amassed 3,500 hours of flight prompting most of his contemporaries and students to call him by that name as a sign of their respect for his accomplishments. Anderson was also the Chief flight Instructor for all cadets and flight instructors at Tuskegee, Alabama during World War II. Learn more.
1919		Robert Leander Martin, a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, is born in Dubuque, Iowa. Martin became inspired to become a pilot after attending an air show when he was thirteen years old. After graduating from high school, Martin enrolled at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. While there he learned to fly in a civilian pilot training program before graduating from the institution in 1942 with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. Martin entered the Tuskegee flight training program, the only one the U.S. Army sponsored to train Black pilots for military combat. He graduated from flight training at the Tuskegee Army Airfield as a second lieutenant and soon afterwards was assigned to the 100th Fighter Squadron and the 332nd Fighter Group. During the war, Martin earned the Distinguished Flying Cross, The Air Medal with 6 Oak Leaf Clusters, and the Purple Heart for his heroism. Learn more.
1944		Prolific writer, educator, and activist Alice Walker, the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, is born the eighth child of sharecroppers Willie Lee and Minnie Lou Grant Walker in Eatonton, Georgia. Walker became the valedictorian of her segregated high school class, despite an accident at age eight that impaired the vision in her left eye. Before transferring to Sarah Lawrence College, where she received a B.A., she attended Atlanta’s Spelman College for two years, where she became a political activist, met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and participated in the 1963 March on Washington. Walker later became a major voice in the emerging feminist movement led by mostly white middle-class women. Aware of the issues of race in that movement, Walker later created a specific Black woman centered feminist theory, which she called “womanism,” to identity and assess the oppression based on racism and classism that African American women often experience. Walker’s collected work includes poetry, novels, short fiction, essays, critical essays, and children’s stories. Learn more.
1960		Just four weeks before her graduation, a bomb exploded at the home of Carlotta Walls, the youngest member of the original “Little Rock Nine," who integrated Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Carlotta, her mother, and her sister were at home when the bomb exploded, but no one was injured. Police arrested and beat Carlotta's father in unsuccessful efforts to coerce a confession. Police then arrested two young Black men, Herbert Monts, a family friend, and Maceo Binns, Jr.; Walls never believed either man was responsible, but both were convicted and sentenced to five years in prison. Three years before, hundreds of white people had attacked Black residents and reporters when the Little Rock Nine entered the high school. In response, segregationist Governor Orville Faubus closed all public high schools in Little Rock for the 1958-1959 school year. Learn more.