The nation's first group of black fighter pilots who valiantly served during World War II received scant recognition during their heyday.

But an Orlando-based filmmaker hopes to keep the heroic feats of the Tuskegee Airmen front and center in a documentary presentation Monday at the Miami Dade College Homestead Campus.

Writer and director Jon Anderson will show excerpts and discuss the documentary Silver Wings & Civil Rights: The Fight to Fly during afternoon and evening sessions. The goal, he said, is to show the historic and social significance of the Airmen.

Anderson, an adjunct film professor at Valencia Community College in Orlando, will highlight a peaceful protest by combat pilots who encountered discrimination at an Indiana air base after they returned stateside during the war.

``They weren't allowed to go into some restaurants,'' Anderson said. ``The German and Italian POWs were given more privileges than they were.''

The incident became known as Freeman Field mutiny. More than 100 airmen were arrested. Most eventually were exonerated, but one officer was convicted.

The series is timed to coincide with Black History Month celebrations. Anderson hopes audiences will get a real-life history lesson.

Retired Lt. Col. Leo Gray, a surviving Airman who lives in Fort Lauderdale, is expected to attend.

The unit that became known as the Tuskegee Airmen was formed after protests by the NAACP and black newspapers around the country dating back to the 1930s.

They demanded that black men be included in military flight training programs.

Caving to pressure from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Army Air Corps in the summer of 1941 established the all-black 99th Pursuit Squadron and initiated a training program at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.

The first class graduated March 6, 1942. Over five years, nearly 1,000 pilots were trained. Of those, 450 were deployed to North Africa and Europe, and 150 died in training or combat.

Later, they flew bomber escorts and were credited with shooting down more than 100 enemy aircraft.

Members estimate that fewer than 200 pilots survive. No one knows how many survive of the 13,000 or so black aircraft mechanics, administrative and medical support personnel needed to support the mission.

Their spouses, widows, children and people who just want to preserve Tuskegee Airmen Inc., now dominate its membership.

The Monday presentation is part of the Homestead Center for the Arts Bea Peskoe Lunchtime Lecture Series. Bob Jensen, a retired Navy officer and a board member with the center, said the subject and timing are perfect for Homestead's military community.

``It's an exciting story. Everybody loves stories about the underdog succeeding against the odds,'' he said.

Anderson hopes the documentary will educate audiences about those who advanced civil rights, including the Airmen, who he believes get scant attention even now.

``The Tuskegee Airmen are part of American history. If it was mentioned in the history books it was sentence or two,'' Anderson said. ``Civil rights is brought about by people of all races coming together saying, `This is wrong.' The country wouldn't be where it would be if people of all races didn't come together.''