Of course they can....just ask the Tuskegee Airmen!
The Tuskegee experiment had nothing to do with the airmen. It was poor black men in the area that were observed for years and never treated, even after treatment was available. The Airmen served in a WWII unit of fighter pilots and proved that blacks were quite capable of being pilots. The unit was called the Red Tails and still carries on in the Alabama Air National Guard. My husband is retired from it. My son still serves in the same unit. It is one of the top fighter units in the Air Force, even though they fly very old F-16s. Scheduled to convert to the F-35.