Born in Harlem in 1923 to Jamaican natives Ivan and Laura McRae, Ivan McRae and his family moved to Yonkers just a few years later.
While attending School One, young Ivan was active both in class and in the Nepperhan Community, following the family lead of community service.
His father broke the color barrier as the first black “white cap” at Grand Central; eventually he became foreman of the operation. Ivan Sr.’s personal efforts knocking on company doors ensured Yonkers businesses followed the tenets of the Fair Employment Practice Commission.
Besides being co-founder and first president of the Nepperhan Community Center, he served the organization for many years. He was in the Canadian Army during World War I, later became active in Yonkers’ Samuel Dow Post VFW, serving many years as a Trustee and Financial Officer. A respected Scout leader, Ivan Sr. also served on the original Yonkers Youth Board, executive board of Yonkers’ NAACP, Yonkers Veterans Agency, worked as a Senior Center leader and was president of the Yonkers Senior Citizens Advisory Committee. Community service was in Ivan Jr.’s DNA!
As a member of Boy Scout Troop 34, he received multiple merit badges and awards, including a public service badge for passing out 34 posters to businesses for the Yonkers Health Department’s “Drink Milk” campaign. Ivan took part in class activities and programs, portraying a variety of roles, including his third-grade portrayal of Lawyer Abraham Lincoln in the School Founders Day Program.
A 1941 Roosevelt High graduate, Ivan McRae Jr. became Assistant Scoutmaster of his former troop; so respected, McRae Jr. was given the honor of accepting the parade flag presented to his troop.
While attending Columbia University, he worked for NY Central as a part time baggage porter at the Croton-Harmon Station. According to an interview his granddaughter Brianna published, while on duty he heard a loud commotion and ran to the waiting room to help; he arrived and learned Pearl Harbor had been attacked.*
Ivan enlisted in the Army’s Aviation Cadet Program and was chosen for Pilot Training at Tuskegee Army Airfield in 1943.
At 6’1”, he was too tall to fit in a fighter plane; instead, he earned his wings as a Twin-Engine Bomber Pilot with the famed Tuskegee Airmen and flew B-25s. McRae was attached to the 477th Bombardment Group organized that year, the first highly trained Black bombardment group in Air Force history.
Tuskegee Airfield was crowded with training classes already in progress, so his unit was assigned to Freeman Field March 1945.
Freeman Field was commanded by Colonel Robert Selway. He created two clubs for officers, emboldened by Major General Frank Hunter’s remarks to the command. Hunter stated, “The War Department is not ready to recognize Blacks on the same level of social equal to white men… I will not tolerate any mixing of the races…”
McRae and the other officers were directed to use the Non-Commissioned Officers Club, forbidden to use the “Supervisory” Club, although lower ranked White officers were welcome there.
Three Black Officers were arrested when entering the Officers’ Club, accused of “jostling” a Provost Marshall. In a carefully organized non-violent protest April 1945, later known as the “Freeman Field Mutiny,” Black officers tried to enter the officers’ club five men at a time; military police confronted and arrested them. Within a few days, sixty-one officers were arrested and confined to their quarters, charged with “disobeying a superior officer.”
Charges were dropped against everyone but the three officers accused of using “violent activity.” A few days later, Selway issued Base Regulation 85-2, dictating facilities the Airmen could use; he required every man to sign the order institutionalizing racism.
More than one hundred Black officers refused to sign this military version of “separate but equal,” and were arrested. Flown to another Godwin Field, they were placed under house arrest. Pressure from the Black press who published their story and the NAACP, the Airmen were released later. A few weeks later, the War Department determined Selway’s Base Regulation 85-2 violated the Army’s existing code.
The Army offered to remove reprimands from the officers’ records, but not everyone wanted them removed. A rebuke for a courageous stand against injustice was a badge of honor.
The three officers accused of “using violent activity” were court-martialed and defended by future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. The decision was reached July 1945, exonerating two of the men; it was reported the third man, Lt. Roger Terry, got a light sentence. The insubordination charge was dismissed, but the Lieutenant was convicted of jostling an officer. He was fined $150, demoted, and dishonorably discharged, hardly a light sentence.
Forty years later, Assistant Secretary to the Airforce Rodney Coleman set aside Terry’s conviction and demotion, removed his court martial, removed his dishonorable discharge, refunded his $150 fine, and restored his rights and privileges. Coleman stated, “With this action, a terrible wrong in the annals of the US Military and US Air Force history has been righted.”
Selway was relieved of command; West Point grad Colonel Benjamin Davis, a decorated Black officer, took command of the unit; for the first time, McRae’s 477th Bombardment Group was led by Black officers.
McRae finally resumed training to fly missions in the Pacific, but the August 1945 end of World War II kept Second Lieutenant McRae out of combat.
He returned to New York after the war to finish his studies. Graduating from Columbia University’s School of Engineering in 1948, he was awarded the prestigious Darling Prize, an annual monetary award given to “the most faithful and deserving student of the graduating class in mechanical engineering.” **
A few months after graduation, McRae married Marjorie Cox. The couple settled on Long Island, raising their four children in Dix Hills while Ivan worked for defense industries such as Fairchild Space and Defense Systems and Gould Simulations Systems.
The military functional “separate but equal” remained in effect for three years until President Truman took action. He was deeply disturbed about post war acts of violence against Black military members and veterans; Truman wanted civil rights reform.
July 26th, 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981, ended segregation by ordering full integration of all branches of the US military. It stated, "It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin. This policy shall be put into effect as rapidly as possible… There shall be created in the National Military Establishment an advisory committee to be known as the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services,” The Committee’s mission was to change military regulations to facilitate integration in the service. ***
Congress awarded the Tuskegee Airmen their highest honor for valor, the Congressional Gold Medal, on March 29, 2007; three hundred Airmen attended the ceremony and received medals from President George W. Bush. Presented to acknowledge and appreciate their “unique military record, which inspired revolutionary reform in the Armed Forces," the medal was designed specifically to honor the Airmen. One side of the medal portrays three Tuskegee Airmen—a pilot, a mechanic and an officer; on the reverse side are three planes the Airmen flew, the B-25, the P-40 and the P-51.
Ivan McRae received his medal in 2010 from Congress member Steve Israel, presented at a special ceremony at the American Airpower Museum in East Farmingdale.
McRae passed away six years later at the age of 93, laid to rest in Calverton National Cemetery.
In 1947, Freeman Army Airfield was deeded to the City of Seymour Indiana for a community airport. They opened a museum on the site in 1999, a museum which commemorates the WWII airfield, the men who trained there, the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPS) who ferried and tested planes for the men, and the Freeman Field Mutiny.
There are people who believe the adoption of the non-violent tradition of the American Civil Rights movement to their brave actions, forever changing the history of the American Armed Forces.
Thank you, Ivan McRae, Jr., for standing up for your yourself, for fellow servicemen, for equality, for justice and for the future of our country.
*https://cafriseabove.org/ivan-james-mcrae/
**McRae Wins Columbia Prize, Herald Statesman, June 2, 1948, page 2.
***President Harry Truman’s Executive Order 9981, July 28, 1948
Fourth generation Yonkers resident Mary Hoar continued her family tradition of community service when appointed to the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Board at age 16. She had a long career as a teacher in the Yonkers Public School System. She is President Emerita of Yonkers Historical Society, a founder and President of the Untermyer Performing Arts Council, and a history columnist for a local weekly newspaper. In addition, she serves on the Landmarks Preservation Board, the Family Service Society and numerous other organizations. Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano appointed her to be the City of Yonkers Historian in 2022.