AUSTIN Texas Land Commissioner and Veterans Land Board (VLB) Chairwoman Dr. Dawn Buckingham on April 4 introduced the next installment of the series highlighting the VLB’s Voices of Veterans oral history program. This week, they highlight the service of Tuskegee Airman Captain Claude Platte, who served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II.
Born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, Platte grew up in a time of segregation and recalled as a child what that was like and what went through his curious young mind.
“One of the main things I remember that encouraged me was in a situation where there were colored signs and white signs and black fountains and white fountains and I had been taught that when I saw a colored sign that is where I was supposed to be or drink water,” he explained. “One day I saw a little white boy drinking out of the colored fountain-the black fountain, his father scolded him, but doing so, I became curious. Why couldn’t I drink out of the white fountain? And what was wrong? When no one was looking, I decided that I would drink out of the white fountain. And when I did, my biggest shock and surprise was — the water was the same, there was no difference.”…