Oscar Lawton Wilkerson Jr. told generations of kids about being one of the Tuskegee Airmen, the nation’s first Black aviation combat unit.
At schools and churches, he told the story of how the unit became legendary for aerial prowess and for shattering the stereotype that Black men weren’t capable of being combat pilots.
Despite not taking part in the aerial combat that Tuskegee Airmen fighter pilots became known for, Mr. Wilkerson felt he was ‘riding their shoulders’ and that it was his duty to keep alive the legend they built, according to a story published by the U.S. Army Reserve. Fewer than 1,000 pilots served with the Tuskegee Airmen. Only three fighter pilots are still alive, according to Jerry Burton, national president of the nonprofit. The number of surviving bomber pilots isn’t known, but it’s thought their ranks have similarly dwindled.
The Chicago chapter of Tuskegee Airmen Inc. was named after the extinct dodo bird because its aviators "had their wings but could not fly," Rapier said. Mr. Wilkerson, who was a bomber pilot because he was too big to fit in the cockpit of a fighter plane, didn’t brag about being part of the Tuskegee Airmen, Ellison said.
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