Ernest Henderson talks about his experiences as an African American growing up in Mountville, South Carolina during the 1920s and later serving in the Army Air Corps as a flight instructor during World War II. Mr. Henderson describes attending high school in Clinton, a nearby town, and facing low expectations from teachers and students since he was from the country. He explains how he earned money by selling farm products to save enough to attend Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) in Hampton, Virginia in the late 1930s. He recounts how watching a military airplane fly overhead in the country one day made him want to become a pilot, so when the U.S. government began drafting young men for World War II, he decided to work toward joining the Air Corps. Mr. Henderson later transferred to the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama for flight school. He goes on to describe his role in the Army Air Corps in training other pilots in Columbia, South Carolina. He explains that he was not deployed overseas during World War II because they wanted him to stay and train others to fly.
