Katie Britt: “earlier this month, the United States of America lost a legend: Harry Stewart, Jr., one of the last surviving Tuskegee…”

“earlier this month, the United States of America lost a legend: Harry Stewart, Jr., one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen, died at the age of 100. Lieutenant Colonel Stewart's legacy is one of excellence. He grew up watching planes come in and out of LaGuardia Airport, dreaming of one day flying himself. At just 18 years old, Lieutenant Colonel Stewart joined a new initiative launched in Alabama; a first of its kind training program for Black pilots established after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He flew 43 missions from late 1944 to the spring of 1945 with the 332nd Fighter Group; earning the Distinguished Flying Cross after downing three German planes in a dogfight just before the Allied victory in Europe. Lieutenant Colonel Stewart didn't recognize the gravity of what he was doing at the time, he said in an interview just last year. He just wanted to serve his country, and serve his country he did. But let's stop for a moment and think about what that means. Lieutenant Colonel Stewart and the rest of the Tuskegee Airmen signed up to fight for a country that did not allow them the same rights as White citizens. They put their lives on the line to fight for a country that treated them as second class. They could not live, work, eat, or drink alongside White countrymen or women. It was a world where people who looked like them could be met with violent attacks just because of the color of their skin.…”