Communities in Conflict: Memorializing Martin Luther King, Jr.

Recording available from: https://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/media/148f46857bMuseum Studies Program, School of Liberal Arts and the IUPUI Arts & Humanities Institut

Commemoration, Race, and World War II: History and Civil Rights at the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site

History and civil rights are intertwined at the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site at Moton Field in Tuskegee, Alabama. Moton Field was a training flight facility for African American pilot candidates in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, operating from 1941–45. Through the extant buildings and interpretive exhibits, the National Park Service commemorates the Tuskegee Airmen’s contributions to World War II, recognizing the first African American military aviators and their struggle for civil rights during the 1940s. This essay examines the way in which race, personal narratives, historical objects, and sensorial experience (sight, sound, touch, and smell) are used at the historic site to suggest the significance of the Tuskegee Airmen. Despite the segregation and racism that they experienced in the U.S. military, the African American pilots and the men and women who worked alongside them believed staunchly in the idea of service to the nation as a means of participating in democracy and gaining full citizenship

Moderated Discussion

Recording available from: https://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/media/d278812v2zMuseum Studies Program, School of Liberal Arts and the IUPUI Arts & Humanities Institut