Red Tails has already received great buzz in the Twitterverse, and has been shown in screenings ranging from Tuskegee University to The White House. In fact, I recently had the honor of attending a screening in Birmingham, Michigan at the invitation of former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer and his son, Ignition Media CEO Dennis Archer, Jr. The event brought out cast members, luminaries, BE 100s CEOs and a few of the original Tuskegee Airmen. In fact, meeting these courageous men was the highlight of that evening.

Archer said he decided to hold the screening after attending the Black Corporate Directors Conference, the annual power confab organized by John Rogers, chairman of Ariel Investments (No. 5 on the BE ASSET MANAGERS list with $5.5 billion in assets under management), held in Laguna Beach, California last fall. He shared details of a session that featured George Lucas, creator of the Star Wars franchise who recounted how several studios turned down the project despite his Hollywood powerhouse status. In order to produce the film, Lucas provided the financing. (In fact, the aerial exploits of the Tuskegee Airman served as inspiration for Lucas in the development of Star Wars and those who know the history affectionately refer to Red tails as “the seventh chapter” of the series.)

Archer and others vowed that they would vigorously promote the film, sharing the history of the Tuskegee Airmen to as many audiences as possible and getting pledges from screening audience members to bring family members, friends and youth to see the movie during opening weekend since the initial tally of box office receipts is so critical in determining a film’s success, as well as gaining Hollywood’s interest in developing and distributing similar fare.

Another attendee, Joseph B. Anderson, Jr., CEO of Troy, Michigan-based TAG Holdings L.L.C (No. 5 on the BE INDUSTRIAL/SERVICE COMPANIES list with $675 million in revenues) told the screening audience that he had been inspired by the example of the Tuskegee Airmen. A West Point graduate whose military experiences in Vietnam were chronicled in the Academy Award-winning 1967 documentary, The Anderson Platoon, said although Blacks played significant roles in U.S. military history for centuries, they had been largely denied leadership positions and skills training. They were barred from being aviators until civil rights organizations and Black press exerted pressure that eventually led to the formation of the all African American pursuit squadron based in Tuskegee, Alabama in 1941—more than a decade before the Civil Rights Movement. The squadron would go on to  participate in more than 1,500 missions, representing what noted scholar and civil rights activist W.E. B. DuBois called “The Talented Tenth,” the group that would advance our race through intellect and leadership. Despite being among the nation’s most educated and accomplished officers and having distinquished combat records, they had to contend with racism at home and abroad. It took forceful leaders like Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., commander of the Tuskegee Airmen who would become the first African American general in the U.S. Air Force, who took his battle to the Pentagon in defense of his men and to stop some within the military’s top brass from dismantling the program.

Since that time, Anderson further stated, the armed forces has served as a means for African Americans to demonstrate their prowess as they rise to the highest ranks and use that experience as a platform to excel in business and government, citing former Secretary of State Colin Powell as an exemplar of that tradition. In 2007, 300 living and deceased Tuskegee Airmen were honored with  the Congressional Gold Medal for their enduring heroism.

Anderson further mentioned that former Tuskegee Airmen had served the nation and the world, making significant strides in academia, politics and business. In fact, I had the privilege of interviewing one of the most prominent squadron members, the late Lee Archer, Jr., who held the distinction of earning Flying Ace status after he shot down five German Me-109 planes during World War II after serving in more than 169 campaigns. On the ground, Archer soared as a business titan and champion for Black business. He worked closely with the late legendary deal maker Reginald F. Lewis in financing small and minority companies as head of a slew of MESBICS (minority enterprise small business investment corporations). He served as a key member of the investment group that helped Lewis make historic acquisitions. The first was McCall Pattern Co., in which Lewis investing $1 million of his own capital and $24 million in borrowed funds, and then sold the firm to a British textile firm for $90 million, a 90-to-1 return on the initial investment. Next came the deal that would vault Black business to new heights: Lewis’ unprecedented $985 million leveraged buyout of Beatrice International Foods Companies, a collection of 64 processed food manufacturers in 31 countries, including Europe, Australia, and Asia. In 1987, it became the largest buyout ever of overseas assets of an American company and created the first billion-dollar Black-owned business to lead the BE 100s. For his trailblazing efforts,  Archer was inducted as a Millennium Member of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum in 2009.

Archer is just one example of the caliber of the individual produced by the Tuskegee Airman: fierce warriors of the sky who became fearless groundbreakers dedicated to uplifting our race and the nation. That’s why Red Tails is so important. It’s a tribute to past achievement and a reminder of continued vigilance for limitless opportunities.

So as I looked at the film, I beamed with pride, enjoying the aerial derring-do of these African American fighter pilots in their red-tailed P-51Mustangs. For decades, such African American heroism has been absent from war films.

This film offers other lessons as well. Our contributions are a part of American and world history and must be shared with current and future generations—regardless of race.  We must reveal these milestones through the most powerful mediums possible, especially through digital technology. We must find creative ways to fund such efforts, including self-financing and aggressive promotion in the same manner some groups have pushed Red Tails.

Let’s use the top-flight performance of the Tuskegee Airmen and those of other such trailblazers to inspire us to demonstrate that we will continue to be impact players in all aspects of global society regardless of the odds, and kindle that spirit of excellence, sacrifice and resilience. That is is our obligation.

Let us soar on their wings.

I arrived in Detroit yesterday for the 2009 Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference curious about the psyche of the city. Battered by a crisis of faith in local government triggered by the scandal surrounding former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, as well as the economic devastation of the automotive industry that gave Motown its name, it is easy for us non-Detroiters to assume that the city is down for the count. Nothing could be further from the truth.

When Black Enterprise Publisher and Chairman Earl Graves Sr. and CEO Earl “Butch” Graves Jr. announced that we would be bringing the conference to Detroit, it gave many of us at B.E. pause. Then, Mr. G gave us the bottom line: Detroit has been there for Black Enterprise and black business, and we will stand with Detroit in its time of need. Judging from how Detroit received us during welcome receptions to kick-off the conference, that faith will be amply rewarded by the city, both during the conference and beyond.

I attended three events on this, the Entrepreneurs Conference’s opening day. First was a V.I.P. reception hosted by IBM, one of the sponsors of the conference.The focus was not on nostalgia for the past, or the present crisis, but on future opportunities. This was underscored by a review of IBM’s  A Smarter Planet Initiative, delivered by Folu Okunseinde, industry solutions architect for IBM’s Financial Services Solutions Group. Okunseinde, who holds MIT degrees in computer science and electrical engineering and a masters from the University of Texas in Austin (at only 28), held the attention of entrepreneurs eager for solutions as he reviewed the elements of an initiative focused on helping business to exploit the growing  interconnectivity of a dynamic business environment to improve infrastructure and efficiency via the sharing of data and information. It was a conversation about were business is going, not where it’s been, and the entrepreneurs in attendance were fully engaged.

 

Claire Babineaux-Fontenot

Next, a conference pre-reception was hosted by conference sponsors Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and the Michigan Minority Business Development Council. There, speakers ranging from former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer, to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Sr. VP and Chief Tax Officer Claire Babineaux-Fontenot (a member of B.E.’s 100 Most Powerful Executives in Corporate America), to MMBDC Marketing Director Kenneth Harris, shared their belief in the promise of the Motor City, and that healthy minority-owned businesses are key to realizing that potential.

Last was the official Entrepreneurs Conference welcome reception, hosted by title sponsors GM and ExxonMobil, along with the Detroit Convention & Visitors Bureau. No less than newly elected Mayor David Bing, the NFL Hall of Famer and B.E. 100s CEO of The Bing Group, declared the Entrepreneurs Conference a harbinger of greater things to come for a new Detroit.

To be sure, the pain, the need for change, is not over for Detroit, any more than they are for the rest of the nation. However, the theme echoed repeatedly at each of these events, can best be expressed in a paraphrase of motivational speaker Willie Jolley: Motown’s setbacks are just a setup for a comeback. Don’t bet against Detroit, not matter how tough things are today.

I’m thinking this may turn out to be one of the best Entrepreneurs Conferences ever. You can look for future blog posts here at BlackEnterprise.com, as well as follow me on Twitter, to see if I’m right. But even if I’m not, I’m glad that at Black Enterprise, we chose to stand with Detroit. Let’s do this.

Alfred Edmond Jr. is the editor-in-chief of BlackEnterprise.com