Tuskegee Airmen Exhibit Opens at Museum of Aviation | News

The Museum of Aviation in Warner Robins is celebrating the opening of an exhibit thirteen years in the making.

Friday night, they will dedicate the Tuskegee Airmen display in the Scott Exhibit Hangar. It features all World War II memorabilia.

The museum and the local Major General Joseph McNeil Chapter of Tuskegee Airmen worked together to raise money and collect memorabilia.

The Tuskegee Airmen were an all-black flying unit, founded in 1941.

The museum dedicated a smaller exhibit to the group in 1997. All of the artifacts in that exhibit were moved to the new one.

Museum of Aviation Foundation President Pat Bartness says the exhibit is a fitting tribute to the airmen's contributions.

Bartness said, "It's obviously black history, civil rights history, but more than that, it's American history. These guys wanted to fight for their country, even though their country was discriminating against them, at the time. So, they stayed with it, fought."

The dedication and dinner for the exhibit is Friday at 5:30 p.m.

Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and civil rights leader Andrew Jackson Young will be the guest speaker.

The exhibit and the rest of the musuem is open to the public, seven days a week. Admission is free.