Tuskegee Airmen Honored at Essex Library

Dr. Cyril O. Byron Sr. often felt like he was fighting two wars while in the Army during World War II.

Byron, 91, was a member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen—the first African-American military aviators in the U.S. armed forces— and served in Sicily trying to rid Europe of tyrannical leaders like Italy's Benito Mussolini and Germany's Adolf Hitler.

Yet at the same time, like other African-Americans, he lived in a country where whites and blacks couldn’t go to the same restaurants, stay in the same hotels or even drink from the same water fountains.

Still, Byron, who was not a pilot during the war, said he never wavered in his support of the United States or his desire to defeat the enemy.

“Many times while overseas people asked me and other African-American soldiers why we were fighting for a country that didn’t treat us as equals,” Byron said. “I just told them that we believed that over time those freedoms would come and we had to fight to ensure that happened.”

Byron along with fellow Tuskegee veteran Lemuel A. Lewie, 92, want to make sure that future generations understand their story and never forget how far the U.S. has come in terms of racial equality.

That is why the veterans, who both live in Windsor Mill, worked with librarian Felicia Diggs, of the Essex Library, to develop a display at the library that details the history of the Tuskegee Airmen.

Diggs said among the items on display, which the public can view through March 15, are a replica of the Congressional Gold Medal awarded to the pair by President George W. Bush, invitations to the Congressional Awards Ceremony, invitations, badges and programs from the inauguration of President Barack Obama, a replica of the P-51 fighter plane, badges of the 332nd Fighter Group and various certificates and awards.

“These American heroes have a great story to tell,” Diggs said. “They lived history and as they get older it becomes even more important for them to let younger generations understand what they endured. It is so much more powerful of a message to hear it from them directly then having them read it in a history book or watching a DVD.”

Byron said all of the sacrifices he and other Tuskegee veterans made were worth it on Jan. 20, 2009; the day Obama became the first African-American president in U.S. history. Byron and Lewie were both personally invited by Obama to attend his inauguration.

“When we returned home after the war, we weren’t even allowed to exit the boat on the same ramp as the white soldiers,” Byron said. “At that point, I never thought there would ever be an African-American president. To see that happen in my lifetime was the most powerful event I have ever witnessed.”