Title
Proclamation honoring aviation pioneer Charles Wesley Peters and World War II heroes the Tuskegee Airmen, who were recognized on February 1st and 2nd during the inaugural K. Leroy Irvis Black History Month celebration.
Body
WHEREAS, in honor of National Black History Month, the University of Pittsburgh, in conjunction with WQED Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Foundation, and Alcoa Foundation, is sponsoring the inaugural K. Leroy Irvis Black History Month; and
WHEREAS, Irvis, the first African-American Speaker of the House in the Pennsylvania and in the nation, possessed a love of flying, and as such, the K. Leroy Irvis Black History Month program kickoff event was the world premiere screening on February 1st of the WQED-produced TV documentary “Fly Boys: Western Pennsylvania's Tuskegee Airmen”; and
WHEREAS, on February 2nd, a gathering, to be held at the Heinz History Center, will focus primarily on recognizing the contributions of Pittsburgh's own Charles Wesley Peters, an aviation pioneer who in 1911 became the first African-American to construct and fly an airplane. The celebration will also honor the contributions of the Tuskegee Airmen, a contingent of fighter pilots who broke racial barriers during World War II; and
WHEREAS, despite the early accomplishments of Mr. Peters and the African-American military support demonstrated in World War I, young African-American men still faced racial stereotypes and discrimination that prevented them from flying with the United States Army Air Force; and
WHEREAS, following a powerful campaign from black newspapers in the North, including the Pittsburgh Courier and direction from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Air Force instituted the “Tuskegee Experiment,” an initiative to discover if African-American men were capable of flying the fighter and bomber planes vital to our country's survival in the war; and
WHEREAS, in 1941, after training at the isolated complex near Tuskegee, Alabama, the T...
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