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title: The Great Escapes 🪜🏃🗝️🏍️
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This week, we're soaring high with America’s first female U-2 spy plane pilot and celebrating some of Hollywood’s leading Black actors

| View in browser BUY TICKETS TO SPYGAMES! Black History Month was first celebrated in 1970, endorsing a reflective examination of Black achievements. This week, we mark the occasion by soaring high with America’s first female U-2 spy plane pilot and digging deep into issues that have caused tension in the US intelligence community. We’re also celebrating some of Hollywood’s leading Black actors who have broken records and barriers.   Don't forget to explore our Archive and Share & Subscribe with your friends! Bronx Top Gun Colonel Merryl Tengesdal has the need for speed. The Bronx-born military officer is the first Black woman to pilot the U-2 Dragon Lady spy plane. After a stint in the Navy, she transferred to the Air Force and logged more than 3,400 flight hours. Tengesdal has navigated many difficult situations, but even she didn’t foresee saying ‘No’ to Steven Spielberg while filming Bridge of Spies. THE REAL DRAGON LADY Related Stories The FBI's first Black, Female Special Agent Darrell M. Blocker: From Spycraft to Hollywood Who Are the Black Panthers? COINTELPRO: True Spies Podcast Beta Testers Wanted • Teams of 2-5 players • 60 mins for $20!   SPYGAMES is a brain-teasing, adrenaline-pumping new social experience for teams, designed with experts from CIA and Special Ops. Are you ready? BOOK NOW! Arlington’s Codebreakers The story of Black WWII code breakers is infuriating and inspiring, set against the backdrop of a segregated era. For the most part, signals intelligence reflected the divisions but the war ushered in radical changes. It empowered female cryptanalysts and men like Carl Dodd who moved from North Carolina to avoid the Ku Klux Klan and found a new destiny in the Office of the Chief Signal Officer. CODED VALOR The Unwanted Spy Former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling was sentenced to more than three years in prison in 2015 for violating the Espionage Act by leaking details of a top-secret operation to a journalist - a charge he has always denied. Jeffrey believes he was a victim of discrimination and that his complaints made him a target but the US government and courts disagree. In our True Spies podcast, Jeffrey lays out his case. TRUE SPIES A Historic Heist Undercover FBI Agent Robert Wittman has a rule of thumb for greeting out-of-town targets: meet them at the airport so they’re less likely to have a weapon. That’s how Wittman found himself at Philadelphia International in 1998, greeting a crooked Civil Rights collector peddling a near-sacred artifact in African American history - the stolen battle flag of the 12th Regiment Infantry, Corps d'Afrique. THE ART OF SLEUTHING Black Intrigue Books US intelligence agencies have had a tense relationship with some African-Americans in the past from the Black Panther Party to French Resistance spy Josephine Baker, a singer and entertainer who left the US for France and found herself on an FBI Watch List. These 13 profound works explore the clandestine challenges in the march for equality and civil rights. SHADOWED PAST Black Trailblazers Hollywood has seen a remarkable rise in the prominence of Black actors and actresses in the spy and superhero genres, bringing diversity and exceptional talent to the forefront from Spider-man’s Zendaya to Angela Bassett who finally collected her Oscar this year. Many have not only brought depth and nuance to movies but have broken barriers. 15 SUPERSTAR OPERATIVES At SPY HQ you’ll explore hidden worlds, break codes, run surveillance and spot liars - while a system developed with MI6 experts reveals your personal spy role and profile.    SPYSCAPE, 928 8th Avenue, New York, NY 10019 Manage preferences |
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