Charles Alfred Anderson earned his pilot's license in 1929 and became the first African American to receive a commercial pilot's certificate in 1932, and, subsequently, to make a transcontinental flight. When the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP) was organized at Tuskegee Institute in October of 1939, he served as the first flight instructor. The training program was the predecessor of the pilot training outfit which came to be known as the 99th Pursuit Squadron, established by the War Department and the Army Air Corps on January 16, 1941. The air field officially opened at Tuskegee in July of 1941 and Anderson continued his service there. The group of pilots that trained at the base became known as the Tuskegee Airmen. Among Anderson's students was the future Air Force general Daniel "Chappie" James.

When First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited Tuskegee Army Air Field in 1941, she insisted on taking a ride in an airplane with a black pilot--Chief Anderson-- at the controls. P.H. Polk documented the event and Mrs. Roosevelt requested that the photographs be printed for her to take back to Washington D.C. to show the President. This photograph was instrumental in convincing F.D.R. to activate the participation of the Tuskegee Airmen in North Africa and in the European Theater.

In an interesting bit of historical symmetry, P. H. Polk was an honored guest at the shuttle launch of the first African American in space, Guion S. "Guy" Bluford, in August 1983, and documented the event at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with his camera.