The Tuskegee Airmen, who made history during World War II as the country's first Black military pilots only to return home to discrimination and exclusion from victory parades, have been invited to President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California sent the invitation to Tuskegee Airmen Inc. The Arlington, Virginia-based organization represents 330 of the original pilots, whose ranks were once about 1,000.
The Tuskegee Airmen were recruited into an Army Air Corps program that trained Blacks to fly and maintain combat aircraft. They trained as a segregated unit at an air base in Tuskegee, Alabama. After fighting the Nazis, they returned home to face discrimination. Blacks weren't allowed to participate in victory parades with other troops returning from Europe after World War II.
Each member will receive two tickets to the January 20 inauguration, and they have 10 days to decide if they will attend. A spokeswoman for the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, said the airmen's seating assignment will be within the ticketed viewing area around the U.S. Capitol. Robert Rose, first vice president of Tuskegee Airmen, said local chapters are contacting airmen. Most are in their late 80s and early 90s, making travel difficult.
"I want to come hopping, skipping and jumping!" said 92-year-old Spann Watson, an airman from Westbury, New York, who flew above Pennsylvania Avenue for President Truman's inauguration. "We had a part in changing these United States." John L. Harrison Jr. an original airman now in his 80s, also said he plans to attend Barack Obama's inauguration. "It makes us very very proud," said Harrison, of Philadelphia. "And it sort of compensates for a lot of the things that we had to endure in the early days. We were excluded out of everything and hidden from everything," he said. "Now this time is our time, and to have a Black man as the elected president, this is indeed a turn in history."
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