Steward, Lowell.

The Lowell Steward Papers mainly consist of materials relating to Lowell Steward's history in the Tuskegee Airmen's 332nd Fighter Group. Steward was captain of the Santa Barbara State College (later known as UCSB) basketball team when Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941. The day after the attack, Steward, along with other members of the team, went to a recruiting office in Santa Barbara to sign up with the army. All of the members of the team were accepted, except for Steward - the only African American on the team. Steward was instead told to report to his draft board in Los Angeles, which he did. Steward was told this time to go home and wait until he was contacted. While he waited, Steward returned to school, continued playing basketball and graduated with a bachelors degree in physical education in June of 1942.

On July 28, 1942, Steward had waited long enough, and with no contact from his draft board, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps. Steward chose the air corps specifically because, "They said black people couldn't fly. I said I know that's not true and I joined up to prove it." Unfortunately, Steward would have to wait three more months; his recruiter told him the same thing that his draft board had told him: to go home and wait. When summer passed and no word came, Steward contacted the recruiting office, which told him they thought he had already gone. Steward recalls: "I said, 'I'm still here.' So they sent me to Tuskegee [Army Air Field in Tuskegee, Alabama]."

Steward flew fighter missions with bomber planes until April 1945 when he was shipped back to Tuskegee AAF to become a flight instructor. He was discharged as captain on July 28, 1946, four years to the day since his enlistment. When Steward returned to his home city of Los Angeles, again, he faced discrimination. He tried to purchase a house in a GI-financed tract and was denied. That's when he started a career in real estate that would last 40 years. He became a member of Realtift, a black real estate organization and he became one of the first blacks to become a realtor in Los Angeles. He would later go on to become a real estate appraiser.

From the description of Lowell Steward Papers, 1995-2002. (University of California, Santa Barbara). WorldCat record id: 56638315