(Photo By Flickr User Pete Markham)
According to blackamericaweb.com, seventy-five years ago, a group of men made history. Those men were the Tuskegee Airmen. The Tuskegee Airmen were celebrated for their achievements in a ceremony at the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site in Tuskegee, AL and at a VIP Reception at the Renaissance Montgomery Hotel and Spa in Montgomery, AL earlier this week.
The men, officially the U.S. Army Corps 99th Pursuit Squadron, also known as the “Red Tails” for the distinctive red paint on their plane’s tails, was inaugurated on March 22, 1941. The all-Black squadron was decorated for their valor and has been documented in movies like The Tuskegee Airmen on HBO starring Larry Fishburne, Allen Payne, Malcolm Jamal Warner, and Cuba Gooding, Jr., and on the big screen in George Lucas’ Red Tails starring David Oyelowo, Nate Parker, Terrence Howard, and Tristan “Mack” Wilds. (Gooding, Jr. actually appeared in both movies.)
Brigadier General Leon Johnson, (USAF, Ret.) National President of Tuskegee Airmen, Inc. said,
“To help celebrate this milestone we have set a goal to raise $75 Million over ten years for the Tuskegee Airmen Youth Aerospace and STEM Academy as a perpetual memorial to the Tuskegee Airmen; The Tuskegee Airmen Youth Aerospace and STEM Academy has the goal to simulate the efforts made beginning in 1941 that resulted in over 16,000 individuals being part of the Tuskegee Experience which proved that blacks could take on any and all aspects related to the field of aviation.”
For more information, go to the Tuskegee Airmen official website at tuskegeeairmen.org.
