Spring Break
Forum celebrates African-American contributions to aviation history
One Tuskegee Airman was former Eastern student
Heather Holm / Activities Editor
Issue date: 2/18/09 Section: News
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Lawhead led the event "EIU's Tuskegee Airman and Other Ties to Black Aviation History" Tuesday night.
The Tuskegee Airman Hall interested Lawhead so he looked into his story.
"I pick a vehicle, research it and look more into it," Lawhead said.
Hall went to Eastern Illinois when it was Eastern Illinois State Teachers' College and was on a football scholarship.
Lawhead said he thinks Hall was the only African-American person on campus because he was the only one in his freshman and sophomore year at Eastern and at the bottom of his contact information card it said, "colored."
Lawhead got a chance to talk to Hall's high school football coach, Harry Sockler, before he died. Sockler, Hall's coach at his hometown of Brazil, Ind., was the reason that Hall went to Eastern.
"Sockler said he thought Hall might get a chance at a little school like that," Lawhead said. "He was not used well, though."
Hall had a fighter's mentality, though.
"He wanted to prove something," Lawhead said. "If you don't have what it takes, they (the Tuskegee Institute) won't take you."
Hall attended the Tuskegee Institute and graduated, even though it was very difficult.
"In one class, only 5 out of 13 graduated," Lawhead said.
Hall went on to be a trailblazer and got a job after the war with help from a friend.
Lawhead also told the story of Grover C. Nash, the first African-American to fly airmail from Chicago to Mattoon, to Charleston and then back to Chicago in one day on the 20th Anniversary of airmail.
Lawhead said Nash picked up 500 letters in Mattoon and 700 letters in Charleston at the airport where Art Park West used to be.
"Why isn't there a historical marker somewhere is this county signifying Grover Nash's one-day flight?" Lawhead said.
Lawhead showed photos from this mission from Nash's son, who resides in California.
Lawhead found the only living witness to the landing, Army Archer, and talked to him about a year and a half ago. Archer was 14 years old at the time and he lived in Mattoon. Lawhead said Archer said the airplane arrival was widely publicized.
"Archer said he thought there were about 10 people when he landed," Lawhead said. "Archer said they were all shocked when a black man got out of the airplane. It was a statement of the times."
He also discussed the accomplishments of the Wright Brothers and the story of Bessie Coleman, the first African-American woman to attain a pilot's license, even though she had to get it in France.
Lawhead said Coleman became interested in aviation when she moved to Chicago from the south while in her teens.
Lawhead said she died preparing for an air show when the plane she was in went out of control and she plunged to her death.
John Robinson, a pilot who went to Ethiopia and then returned for World War I, and Charles "Chief" Anderson who flew from New York to Los Angeles and back and gave a ride to Eleanor Roosevelt in his plane, were also mentioned.
Anderson was the first African-American pilot to get his license in the United States.
An audience member said the Tuskegee Airmen intrigued him.
"I've always been fascinated with the Tuskegee Airmen, and I think if I lived then, I would have tried to become one of them," said Harold Hopgood, Mattoon resident.
Stephen Tyler liked the event because it emphasized African-American History Month.
"This interests me because I feel that it is imperative for students of color to know and understand their heritage," said Tyler, a junior corporate communications major. "I got the feeling of accomplishment for citizens of color and it was enlightening to hear about the African-American women."
Tyler said he thought this was a step up for women as well as African-Americans.
Joycelynn Phillips, coordinator of African-American History Month, and her husband attend a yearly tribute for the Tuskegee Airmen in Branson, Mo.
She said a white woman spoke there and had a model of a plane the Tuskegee Airmen used and she stood in front of the Tuskegee Airmen, who are older now, and told the story of how they saved her father.
Phillips said the woman called the Tuskegee Airmen "beautiful black men."
Charles Phillips, her husband, said that during their time the white pilots were not allowed to talk about the Tuskegee Airmen and what they did, but at the tribute they were welcome to.
Heather Holm can be reached at 581-7942 or haholm@eiu.edu.
More African-American Heritage Month events:
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