On Monday, May 28th at 1pm, five designated original Tuskegee Airmen will be honored with proclamations recognizing their heroic contributions to the United States of America from Senator Ted Lieu, Assembly Member Betsy Butler and Councilman Bill Rosendahl as part of the Memorial Day celebration at Muscle Beach.
The ceremony will begin with a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III flyover from March Air Force Base.
The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African-American military aviators in the United States armed forces. During World War II, African Americans in many U.S. states were still subject to the Jim Crow laws. The American military was racially segregated, as was much of the federal government. The Tuskegee Airmen were subjected to racial discrimination, both within and outside the army. Despite these adversities, they trained and flew with distinction. All black military pilots who trained in the United States trained at Tuskegee, including five Haitians.