Showing posts with label Tuskegee Airmen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tuskegee Airmen. Show all posts

Monday, February 13, 2012

Flying through Black History Month with Tuskegee Airmen


Tuskegee Airmen William Broadwater and J. Byron Morris
The highlight of last week was attending a Black History Month program across the street at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Tuskegee Airman William Broadwater (above) spoke about his goal of being a pilot from the age of ten, his experiences in the military, his love of flying, and his post-war career as a high ranking official in the FAA. At eighty-six years old, Broadwater is one of the youngest Tuskegee Airmen and a member of one of the last classes to be trained during World War II. He showed us a 70+ year old Air Force examination prep book that he had purchased for $1.50, a lot of money for a teenager in the early 1940s. Broadwater read the book voraciously, even before he knew about the Tuskegee Airmen, and later passed the Air Force exam with flying colors.He was a very inspiring speaker, vividly describing the early days of black aviation in Philadelphia, where he grew up.

I spent much of the rest of the week continuing my research and writing of case studies for the Liberian emigrants from Maryland.

A couple of weeks ago, I spoke about the fellowship to a reporter from The Wave, a community newspaper in Los Angeles. The article is here.