Tuskegee professor brings Airmen’s history to DeKalb

Dr. Lisa Bratton, an associate professor of history at Tuskegee University, will be at Moon Lake Library on Sunday, March 30 at 2 PM to discuss the Tuskegee Airmen’s history and their service in World War II as United States Army Air Corps’s first Black aviators. Dr. Bratton served as historian for the National Park Service’s Tuskegee Airmen Oral History Project, traveling the country to interview over 250 of the Airmen and their family members. Her presentation will include content from those interviews.

Volunteers were able to train at Tuskegee, which already had its own civilian pilot program. Around 1000 Black pilots would train at Tuskegee from 1941-1946. Its graduates achieved top scores on flight aptitude exams. The Airmen served as pilots, navigators, and bombardiers. Their loss record as escort fighter groups was unmatched by other groups. The 99th Squadron was awarded two Presidential Unit Citations for outstanding tactical air support and aerial combat in the 12th Air Force in Italy.

Now, eighty years after World War II, the numbers of its surviving veterans continue to dwindle, making it more important than ever that their story is shared with new audiences. This presentation is an opportunity to do just that, ensuring that the sacrifices of Alabama’s Tuskegee Airmen are never forgotten.

Dr. Bratton received her B.B.A. from Howard University, her M.B.A. from Atlanta University and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in African American Studies from Temple University. Her primary research interest is Historic Brattonsville, the South Carolina plantation on which her ancestors, Green and Malinda Bratton, were enslaved. Although enslaved for much of their lives, they went on to become the first Freedmen to purchase land in York County. She is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships—most recently the Clemson University Teacher Scholars Fellowship and the HistoryMakers Fellowship. She is an avid traveler who has visited all 50 states and such interesting places as Pyongyang, North Korea, Cuba, and Swaziland.

The program is free and open to the public. There is additional parking available in the designated grassy lot beside the library and in the Moon Lake Village parking lots.