The Tuskegee Redtail Legacy in My Family

Today is Friday, April 19, 2019. Our group of 42 travelers are heading home. One of our stops was visiting the Tuskegee Institute where the Tuskegee Airmen “boot camp” hanger is displayed. After watching several film segments on the cadet training, the flights, the segregation and the acknowledgments...I was elated when I found my uncle’s name, 2nd Lieutenant, pilot commander, Mansfield Alexander Bright, listed on the honor column of pilots who received gold medalist recognition;

“The red tails” aircrafts.

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Alexander Mansfield Bright, Jr. was born July 19, 1917 in Little Rock, Arkansas and departed this life October 3, 1971 in Los Angeles, California. He was the son of the late Rev. Alexander Mansfield Bright, Sr and Mrs. Mary E. Henry Bright. When Mansfield was six years of age, the family moved to Chicago. He received his educational training in the Chicago schools: Burke elementary, Tilden Technical High School and Wilson Junior College. Mansfield completed his pilot training at the Coffey Flying School. He became a Flying Instructor, teaching at the Wendell Phillips evening School.

 

During World War II, when the government decided to "try-out" Black Pilots, he was one of the 10 young men selected, to take an examination to determine whether Black Pilots could "qualify" to fly in the United States Army Airforce. Mansfield ranked in the top five. He received the Commission of 2nd Leutenant from the United States Army Air Corp at Tuskegee, Alabama and was assigned to the 332nd Pursuit Squadron. After the War years, Mansfield worked as Aircraft draftsman and Lay-out technician. Later, becoming a state employee. Mansfield often acted as the chauffeur for his father, Rev. Bright, who began to find driving hazardous, as he made his weekly rounds to visit the sick and shut-in parishioners of Woodlawn and Quinn Chapel African American Episcopal Church in Chicago, Illinois.

 

Two years prior to his death, he moved to Los Angeles. He was married to Alice Copeland Bright and divorced with no known surviving children. As of today, January 27, 2025, My uncle Mansfield left to mourn him, his three sisters, (late) Beatrice Elizabeth Bright Clay Toms, (late) Lois Bright Miller, (late) Adellafoy Bright Jennings: and Nephews: (late) Ronnell Lovelace Bright,(late) Baron Bruton, Ernest Hedric Clay, Jr. , (late) Elder Isadore Henry, four nieces and a host of cousins, and friends.

 

He left his legacy for us to appreciate. Thank you for your service, Uncle Mansfield!!