Curtis C. Robinson

Curtis Christopher Robinson (August 25, 1919 – October 12, 2009) was an American pharmacist and U.S. Army Air Force officer. He served as a fighter pilot during World War II with the 332nd Fighter Group's 99th Fighter Squadron, a component of the Tuskegee Airmen. Robinson and his two older brothers were the first African-Americans from one family to become commissioned U.S. military officers. Robinson was born on August 25, 1919 in Orangeburg, South Carolina. One of six children, Robinson was the son of college graduates and school teachers. The grandson of formerly enslaved African Americans, Robinson attended elementary school, middle school and high school at Claflin College. After high school, Robinson continued at Claflin College, majoring in Chemistry. Robinson hailed from a long line of Chaflin graduates. His grandfather, an AME minister and politician, graduated from Chaflin in 1873. Robinson's parents, uncles and aunts also all graduated from Chaflin. After graduating from Claflin College in 1940, Robinson became a school teacher in Spartanburg County, South Carolina where he taught geography, mathematics, history and general science. In 1945 after returning from World War II, Robinson married Florie Frederick Robinson. They were married for 56 years until Florie's death at the age of 79. As the United States began to ramp up conscription in preparation for World War II, Robinson visited his local Spartanburg County, South Carolina U.S. Army base, Camp Penn. Soon realizing that menial work and demeaning treatment of enlisted African American soldiers were less than ideal, Robinson applied to become an aviation cadet at Tuskegee Army Air Field in Tuskegee, Alabama. In 1942, U.S. Army Air Corps accepted Robinson into Tuskegee's program, sending him first to U.S. Army Air Corps's Shaw AFB in Sumter, South Carolina for induction. However, the white officers mishandled the new African American inductees based on race, sending Robinson and other African American candidates back to their homes multiple times.