President Obama screens "Red Tails" for Tuskegee Airmen veterans

(CBS/AP) President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama screened George Lucas' new film "Red Tails," about the first black aviators to serve in the U.S. military, for some of the original Tuskegee Airmen at the White House Friday.

Lucas was in attendance of the screening along with some of the film's stars. The film features actors Cuba Gooding Jr., Terrence Howard, Tristan Wilds, Nate Parker and singer Ne-Yo.

Lucas has been open about his 23-year struggle to get the film, which stars a predominately black cast, made.

"I figured I could get the prints and ads paid for by the studios, and they would release it, and I showed it to all of them, and they said, 'No,'" Lucas told Jon Stewart in an appearance on The Daily Show earlier this week.

"It's because it's an all-black movie; there's not major white roles in it at all. It's one of the first all-black action pictures ever made," Lucas said.

The Tuskegee Airmen were trained in Alabama at Tuskegee Institute, now Tuskegee University, during World War II as a segregated unit.

"Red Tails" opens nationwide this Friday.