The Red Tails

The Red Tails.
This recollection is inspired by a former student of mine at Cook-Wissahickon Elementary School who recently saw the movie, "Red Tails".  In 1996, my 4th grade students conducted a year long intergenerational Project with participants from the Interac Senior Center located in Roxborough/Manayunk in Philadelphia.  Among other historic gems we discovered with the participants, we learned that lifelong Manayunk resident, Mr. Nathaniel Stewart, was an original Tuskeegee Airman.  Mr. Stewart was 73 years old at the time and described himself as "a 95 pound weakling" when he was in high school who just so happened to have earned his pilot's wings from the US Air Force at Tuskeegee, Alabama and flew missions against the Germans during World War II. Inspired by my former student's enthusiasm for the movie, I looked through my archives and found a couple of the Oral History books we put together from that time. The illustration is the front cover of one of those precious books written by my former students and depicts Mr. Stewart as a VERY LARGE presence among my students. Thanks, Erica, for reminding me how privileged I was and how much I learned from my students.