Alexander Jefferson was the author of "Red Tail Captured, Red Tail Free,” which detailed his time with the Tuskegee Airmen and was shot down defending a country that considered them to be second-class citizens.
The University of Michigan's Semester in Detroit program, conceived originally by U-M students and launched in 2009, brings undergraduate students from the Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint campuses together at the university's Detroit Center.
Born in 1921 in Detroit, Alexander Jefferson completed combat training at what was then known as Selfridge Field in Mount Clemens, Mich., and pilot training at the Tuskegee Army Airfield. He served a long military career during World War II.