Tuskegee Airman records story on Edison wax
Local man uses Edison recorder to recount history of racism & war
BY TOM CAIAZZA Staff Writer

Charles Nolley, a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, records his story on the wax cylinder invented by Thomas Edison, at the Edison Museum on Sept. 14. Museum curator Jack Stanley engineered the recording on an original Edison recording machine. Nolley flew fighter planes during World War II as part of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first all-black squadron in the U.S. Army. In the photo below, he is shown recording his story.

EDISON - When the Germans saw the red tail of Charles Nolley's P-51 Mustang fighter plane, they sent every plane they had to get him.

Nolley, of Edison, was a member of one of the most successful Army Air Corps fighter groups of World War II. He flew and fought, and his unit never lost a plane to enemy aircraft.

But his life on the ground was filled with more tribulation than was his time in the air.

He was a Tuskegee Airman - a black pilot in a white world.

Nolley added his story to those of presidents, artists and newsmen when he recorded it on Edison's old machine, forever saving in wax history his part in World War II.

"I remember that some of the things were negative," Nolley said while recording his story at the Edison Memorial Tower Museum on Sept. 14. "There were those who thought we couldn't fight."

Nolley, 90, spent three years in the 99th Pursuit Squadron, the all-black unit of the military's flying program. For years, his unit never saw combat. It was believed that a black man could not fly and fight alongside a white man.

The unit went through years of training upon training upon training, stalled by a military not willing to integrate. Nolley said, though, that the racism backfired when the unit finally got the chance to fight.

"When we finally went into combat, we were the besttrained airmen in any army," Nolley said.

The men of Tuskegee had received training and practice well beyond anything other pilots had received. Add to that the introduction of the P- 51 Mustang, arguably the best fighter plane to see combat in the war, and Nolley's outfit outflew everyone.

"We would show those poor German young men things they never saw a plane do," Nolley said.

While in the air, the airmen were a formidable enemy to the German Luftwaffe, but on the ground they were subjected to racism from the military, which, Nolley said, the airmen would use to their advantage. They would take out their frustrations on the enemies of America.

Nolley said that the town where they were stationed had one movie theater, and the black pilots were not allowed to enter it. What infuriated them even more was that the German and Italian prisoners of war were admitted to the theater.

But the Tuskegee Airmen had some influential backers. Nolley recalled the time that Frank Sinatra came to perform for the troops and was appalled at how the black airmen were treated. Nolley also said that first lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited the airfield, saw the men fly and was instrumental in getting them into combat.

When they did fly, Nolley said, they tended to change minds. When the young white pilots saw them fly, skin color no longer mattered.

"They would say, 'You're just like some of the guys I know back home,' " Nolley recalled. "It pays to get to know people."

After the war, Nolley became an art teacher and taught at a preparatory school in Newark for many years. He now lives in Edison with his wife of 43 years, Martha.

When asked if he sees himself as a role model for other black men, he said no. He is just happy that their contribution to the war is known.

"I would like it to be known," he said with humility, "but I wish it would be [by] a better person."

The Edison Museum has recorded many notable people on the wax cylinders that were first created by Thomas Edison. Jack Stanley, the museum's curator, has to search all over the world for fresh wax cylinders; there is a finite supply because no one makes them anymore.

When asked who gets the privilege of being forever recorded on the wax cylinders, Stanley said there is really only one criterion.

"We don't record everybody," Stanley said. "Do something that turns the world on its ear, and then come talk to me."