The past and present came together Aug. 4 as black aviators from different generations took part in a historic flight aboard a C-17 Globemaster III.  Read more

Spann Watson wants Washington to make good on its promise, before it is too late for him and these other aging pilots who flew their way to glory. Nearly five months after Congress voted to bestow its highest honor on the Tuskegee Airmen -- pioneering aviators who during WWII broke the color bar banning black pilots in the U.S. military -- the Congressional Gold Medal is still not in their hands.  Read more

Each year, the Tuskegee Airmen's Lonely Eagle ceremony seems a little more lonesome. When the lights are dimmed and the candles lighted, there are fewer airmen listening to the small brass bell tolling once for each comrade who has died since the last convention. Last year the bell tolled 47 times. This year it was 53.  Read More

TUSKEGEE, Ala. - (August 1, 2006) - In a decision released today by Judge Myron Thompson, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, Eastern Division, the Court upheld the University decision to name Calida Joy McCampbell, as the new Miss Tuskegee University.  Read more

Elmore M. Kennedy Jr., 90, one of the dwindling number of Tuskegee Airmen who served during World War II, died of complications of a stroke July 22 at Christiana Hospital in Newark, Del., near the home of his niece, Kim McKinnie. He lived in West Philadelphia.  Read more

Thomas B. "Smitty" Smith, 96, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, died July 17, 2006, at his home in Reston. He was born Oct. 21, 1909, in Georgia to the late Reuben and Rose Smith. He received a bachelor's degree from Wilberforce University in Wilberforce, Ohio; a master's degree from the University of Michigan; and a doctorate from the University of Bonn, Germany.  Read more

Phoenix, Arizona - Dozens of famous World War II black aviators, the Tuskegee Airmen, will celebrate the 35th meeting of their national convention with fellow members of Tuskegee Airmen, Incorporated (TAI) in conjunction with six other black aviation groups, all members of the International Black Aerospace Council (IBAC).  Read more

(CBS 3) WASHINGTON A film celebrating the legacy of World War II’s Tuskegee Airmen, who were America’s first black military pilots, was screened during a special presentation on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. on Tuesday.  Read more and view video clip!

TUSKEGEE -- A Tuskegee lawyer has become a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.

Walter McGowan received the award at the college's spring meeting in Hollywood, Fla. McGowan is the only lawyer from Alabama to receive the honor this year.  Read more

Major Moton Ross, an Oak Park resident and former Tuskegee Airman, died of kidney failure Sunday at Providence Hospital in Southfield. He was 84.  Read more

TUSKEGEE, Ala. - (July 20, 2006) -  Tuskegee University's Library Services recently received two grants to further preserve and make more accessible the historical African-American data housed in its special collections on campus.  Read more

On Jul. 19, 1941, the AAF began a program in Alabama to train black Americans as military pilots. Primary flight training was conducted by the Division of Aeronautics of Tuskegee Institute, the famed school of learning founded by Booker T. Washington in 1881.  Read more

July 14, 1943: The George Washington Carver National Monument in Diamond, Missouri, was founded on this date. Diamond, Missouri, is located in Newton County in southwest Missouri. The 210 acre park is a unit of the National Park service and preserves the boyhood home of Carver as well as the 1881 Moses Carver house and the Carver cemetery.

My earliest memory of the Tuskegee Airmen came from talks between those people who had lived in Tuskegee--my parents, aunts and uncles, etc.  Not only did they speak of the Airmen but Tuskegee Institute, Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver and the numerous other folks residing in the area.

But attending a predominately white school there was no mention of the Tuskegee Airmen in my history book.  Back then Ebony & Jet Magazines were the history books for people of color.

I'm writing about the Tuskegee Airmen because their numbers are dwindling (sad but true) by the week it seems.  Why did it take America so long to recognize their bravery and heroism?  It's a question that I already know the answer.  What a proud moment it would have been for each man to receive a heroes welcome after the end of WWII.  Instead they were met with hostility, racism, bigotry and their accomplishments downplayed.  Many died empty without knowing how great they were and the long term effect it has had on millions of people throughout the country.

May those Tuskegee Airmen who have gone on....fly and soar to greater heights.  You are loved and will be missed!!

I SALUTE YOU!!

Sarasota - Maury M. Reid, Jr was one of the country's first black combat pilots in WWII.  But he was still fighting for the rights of Black people long after the war ended.  Read more

MONTGOMERY, Ala. Veteran attorney Fred Gray, who represented the Reverend Martin Luther King Junior and was chief counsel during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, will be honored for 51 years of service in promoting civil rights on July 17th.  Read more

I'm a card-carrying member of the Dyann Robinson fan club.

She's an extraordinary dancer, educator and playwright.

And she lives and works in Tuskegee, which is less than an hour from Columbus. Her latest production, "The Cotton Club Comes to 'Skegee," can be seen July 13-30 at the Jessie Clinton Arts Centre in downtown Tuskegee.   Read more

A student is suing Tuskegee University after school officials stripped her Ms. Tuskegee University title and awarded the title to another woman.  Read more

07/08/06 - Dispute heads to court - Read more

 

The dead of summer 1973, a young afro'd Alice Walker hiked her skirt to her knees and set out across an overgrown cemetery in the small town of Fort Pierce to find the pauper's grave of Zora Neale Hurston.  Read more

From it's founding as a one-room normal school for the training of teachers, Tuskegee has risen to its current status as a comprehensive, deeply engaged and highly respected university.  Read more

Don't touch my BET! 

That could be a cry heard around  Macon County this weekend if the untilities Board of Tuskegee follows through on its threat to shut down cable TV service if Charter Communications refuses to fork over $125,000 by Saturday.  Read more

Family members of  Tuskegee Univeristy founder, Booker T. Washington, gathered Friday to honor their ancestor, a political leader and scholar.....Read more

Locals have the chance to celebrate the birthday of the last living Tuskegee Airmen in Minnesota this weekend.  Read more

A 19th century novelist once wrote that, " the legacy of heroes  is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example.  Read more

An Illinois-based mega church will begin refurbishing Jordan Crossing Shopping Center in Tuskegee this month, about a year after it purchased the property.  Read more

There were two things Bob Maxwell was set on doing when he was growing up in the 1930s:  he wanted to be a pilot and an engineer.  Read more

A member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen group of African American pilots and a retired civil engineer, died of cerebrovascular hemorrhage at Flordia Hospital-Flagler in Palm Coast, Fla.  Read more

Booker T. Washington died of high blood pressure, a review of his medical records has determined, erasing a cloud over the civil right's death left by one of his doctors 90 years ago.  Read more

Pompey L. Hawkins who served with the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II, has died.  He was 91.  Hawkins died early Sunday morning at the Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis, said Maria Williams-Hawkins, a family spokesperson who is not related to Hawkins.  Read more

If Alabama dosen'ts have the most halls of fame in America, it's got to be a close second.  Read more

 

Cherie Russell would stop at nothing to send her daughter to college. 

She didn't give up when her daughter's college abruptly closed, nor did she listen when naysayers told her she would never raise enough money to send her to another one.  Read more

Ted Johnson cherished his fellow Tuskegee Airmen and held up the vanishing breed of WWII African American aviators as an object lesson in social progress.  Read more

Congresswoman Melissa Hart applauded the passage of H.R. 1259 which authorizes the President of the United States to award a gold medal on behalf of the Congress to all Tuskegee Airmen "in recognition of their unique military record, which inspired revolutionary reform in the Armed Forces."  Read more

Stanley Weisleder is set to promote his emotionally charged and historically accurate novel Wings of the Panther.....
Weisleder spent 10 years researching and writing what is the only novel ever written about the Tuskegee Airmen.  Read more.

Retired Lt.Col. Nasby Wynn, one of the pioneering black aviators known as the Tuskegee Airmen, died in Sarasota (FL).  He was 81.  Read more

Over the past month or so, I've met some new descendants and each had something to add to my research.  I only found out of their existence over the past year or so.  Both of these men are now residing in Cleveland, Ohio. 

On January 1, 2006, I contacted Calvin Harris who also gave me the telephone number of his maternal uncle, LeRoy Harris.. 

Calvin Harris aka Lonnie Martin, age 74

Calvin is the son of Annie Harris, the daughter of Frank and Emma Barrow Harris.  Calvin was born 03/20/1931 in Tuskegee, AL.  Annie died when Calvin was a little boy--he doesn't remember anything about his mother.  She was shot by a boyfriend and later died of her wounds.  Calvin would eventually be raised by Ms. Elvira Barrow-Martin.   This is about when Calvin began using the alias Lonnie Martin.  When he was about 15 years old, he began working at the saw mill in Tuskegee.  He worked along side my Uncle Charles Harris, aka Uncle Moot.  When Calvin was about 20 years old, my Uncle Henry aka Bayboy brought him to Yardley, Pa.  He later married, May Bell and moved to Trenton, NJ.  Once in Trenton he lived with my sister Louise and her husband William Howard. 

Leroy Harris

Leroy Harris is the son of Frank and Emma Barrow Harris.
Leroy was married to Zepherine ?, who was born in Georgia.   They have two children:  Gwen  born in 1955 and Allen born in 1956.  His wife, Zepherine died in 1980.

It was extremely nice to talk with both of my older cousins.  They did remember my parents as well as my other Aunts and Uncles.  Hopefully, I will have the chance to meet both of them this summer.

Anxious to locate and confirm there ancestral roots, genealogy research has become a hot topic among millions of people worldwide....It's been 140 years since a member of the Nambiar family transplanted from Malabar to a sugar plantation in Fiji.  Read more

Ancestry.com, the subscription website, announces a new African American Research Center.  February is Black History Month, and Ancestry is offering free access to this vast collection of historical records.  Read more

From the Jim Crow South to the civil rights movement, Eugenia Kirkpatrick has had an interesting century.  Read more

Tracing ancestors can sometimes mean alot of disappointments along the way.  If all records have been destroyed by wars, fires or other natural disasters, it is extremely difficult to pick up a given lineage without these connecting links.  For this reason, Bible records become one of the most important ways to trace lineage.  Read more

At age 4, Mika Stump, was abandoned by her birth mother in New York City's Penn Station, brought up in a foster home, she knew nothing about her African-Amerian roots, she says, other than, "I was black."  Read more

Death blindsided Benjamin Finley.  The 6-foot 7 inch accountant dropped when the fatal blow came out of the dark. Read more

The writer Elizabeth Gardner's first memory of hearing about Booker T. Washington is typical:  "I can clearly remember another black student in high school or college making a joke about "blacks like Booker T. Washington," she recalls," and how everyone laughed , as if we all understood what a terrible thing that was to be."  Read more

A three-day conference focusing on rebuilding and strengthening residential and commercial structures in the Gulf Coast region will begin on Wednesday at the Kellogg Conference Center at Tuskegee University.  Read more

Slavery ended long ago in the United States, and you may not think theres anyone alive to remember it. 

But a Round Rock woman still remember her father's life as a newly freed slave.  Read more