The Freeman Field mutiny was a series of incidents at Freeman Army Airfield, a United States Army Air Forces base near Seymour, Indiana, in 1945 in which African American members of the 477th Bombardment Group attempted to integrate an all-white officers' club. The mutiny resulted in 162 separate arrests of black officers, some of them twice. Three were court-martialed on relatively minor charges. One was convicted. In 1995, the Air Force officially vindicated the actions of the African-American officers, set aside the single court-martial conviction and removed letters of reprimand from the permanent files of 15 of the officers. The mutiny is generally regarded by historians of the Civil Rights Movement as an important step toward full integration of the armed forces and as a model for later efforts to integrate public facilities through civil disobedience.
Arrested African-American officers of the 477th Bombardment Group at Freeman Field, Indiana, await transport to Godman Field, Kentucky, April 1945.
B-25J medium bombers of 380th Bombardment Squadron, 310th Bombardment Group begin their attack run over a target in Northern Italy in late 1944.
Colonel Robert Selway reviews members of the 618th Bombardment Squadron at Atterbury Air Field in Indiana in 1944.
Roger Terry (center) at Tuskegee Army Air Field, Dec 1944.
Seymour is a city in Jackson County, Indiana, United States. Its population was 21,569 at the 2020 census.
Billy Yank, the statue honoring Seymour's Civil War veterans was newly restored in 2023 after being vandalized and stored for more than 40 years.
Ahlbrand Carriage Co catalogue entry
Beechcraft AT-10 Wichita, ca 1943
Sikorsky R-4, ca 1945