History has a way of growing more dramatic with time, if only because time changes our perception of the past. It's hard to imagine today the thinking that was pervasive before and even during World War II, when it was widely believed within the military establishment that black men would make inferior pilots. In 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the U.S. Army Air Corps to form an all-black unit, the 99th Pursuit Squadron. The men met all the criteria of their white counterparts, and in many cases, were better educated even for the less glamorous support jobs. They trained at Tuskegee Institute (now university) in Alabama, and by the end of the war the Red Tails (so dubbed because they painted their planes a distinctive red in the rear) were lauded for their bravery and superior service to the bomber pilots they escorted.

Of the 1,000 black aviators educated at Tuskegee, 71 were from Western Pennsylvania. Their heroic battle to become pilots in a military that was still segregated is the subject of "Fly Boys: Western Pennsylvania's Tuskegee Airmen," a new documentary by WQED that premiered Friday as the University of Pittsburgh's K. Leroy Irvis Black History Month inaugural program.

Close to 900 guests filled the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial and War Museum ballroom for a pre-screening reception and buffet dinner of southern fare including sweet potatoes topped with sausage and blue cheese, jambalaya, portobello mushrooms with succotash and warm corn bread, all prepared by the Common Plea. The plane murals that wrapped the room while silouettes of planes flew across banners on the ceiling were a great touch.

Mingling in the crowd and introduced before the film were some of the airmen either featured in the film or who had been trained at Tuskegee, including many Pitt alumnus. Among them were Lee Archer, Wendell Freeland, brothers Mitchell Higginbotham and Dr. Robert Higginbotham, William Hicks, Calvin Smith, Rafael Lee, Ed Harris and Sam Broadnax (author of "Blue Skies, Black Wings: African American Pioneers of Aviation"). Welcoming them were Pitt Chancellor Mark Nordenberg, WQED Multimedia president George Miles and the film's producers, Chris Moore and Olga George. Orchestrating the evening was Robert Hill, Pitt's Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs.

Among the many applauding the film were Tuskegee Mayor Johnny Ford, in from Alabama for the premiere, WQED board chair Jim Abraham with his wife Francine, Bill Trueheart (who helped to fund the film while at the Pittsburgh Foundation, along with Pitt and Alcoa), state Rep. Tim Murphy, city council President Doug Shields, Evan Frazier, Katherine Irvis, Jo-Ann Bates, Carl Kurlander, Harold Hayes, Yvette Bobonis (representing her dad, Regis, who hosted a luncheon for the airmen on Saturday), Rod Doss, Dwight White, NAACP president Gayle Moss, Herb Douglas, Nate Harper, Pitt deans Larry Davis, John Keeler and Ron Larsen, Dr. David and Barbara Adelson, Doris Carson Williams, Peggy Harris, Tim Stevens, Maddy Ross, Dr. Brack and Jean Anne Hattler, Elaine Effort, Eric Springer, Ambassador Dan and Libby Simpson, Judge Larry and Natalie Kaplan and Minette Seate. "Fly Boys" will be shown Feb. 7 at 8 p.m. on WQED.