Whitfield was born in Bay City, Texas. He moved at age 4 to Watts, Los Angeles. He joined the United States Army Air Forces in 1943 as a member of the Tuskegee Airmen. After World War II he remained in the military, but also enrolled at the Ohio State University. He served inn the Korean War. Whitfield died under hospice care in Washington, D.C. on the night of November 18, 2015 from heart failure, aged 91.