18/01/2025
KOKOMO TRIBUNE —Spencer Durham
Dennis Morgan remembers the feeling when he saw the Tuskegee Airmen mural downtown.
“I had goosebumps when they did the mural,” he said.
Morgan’s father Gordon Morgan is one of five local Black men depicted on the mural, which celebrates Kokomo’s connection to the Tuskegee Airmen.
Morgan, along with Lt. Col. Bennett Hardy, Lt. John McClure, Maj. John Cunningham and Andrew Dunnigan Jr., were among the 15,000 pilots, airmen and support staff of the all-Black military unit. The group is heavily decorated and respected for their efforts in World War II.
McClure and Hardy were fighter pilots, Cunningham was a liaison pilot, Dunnigan was a flight chief and Morgan trained as a pilot.
Dennis Morgan described his dad, who also was the first Black Kokomo School Board member, as humble.
“When we sat down at the dinner table, we didn’t talk about what life was like at Tuskegee,” he said. “I know the life, at the time, of the Black soldier at Tuskegee was very different.”
Dennis Morgan was among more than 50 members of Mt. Pisgah Missionary Baptist Church who got an exclusive tour Thursday evening of the “Tuskegee Airmen: America’s Freedom Flyers” exhibit on display at Artworks Gallery.
The exhibit features over 100 artifacts and panels with a special “Hometown Heroes” section that recognizes Kokomo’s connections to Tuskegee. There are individual panels for each of the five local men who served with the Tuskegee Airmen.
There is authentic garb worn by the airmen, parts of a P-51 Mustang plan, an authentic flight training manual and a 2006 Congressional medal that was awarded to surviving members in 2007.
Curator Robin Williams led the tour, rattling off countless details about how men and women from both Kokomo and Indiana contributed to the war effort.
That includes Major Charles Hall, a Brazil, Indiana, native and the first Black pilot to shoot down a N**i plane in the war.
The exhibit includes an original article from the Brazil Times, dated July 3, 1943, marking his achievement. Williams said the newspaper clipping was found in an old G.I Joe box.
Hall was the first African American to earn the Distinguished Flying Cross. One of those medals is included in the downtown exhibit.
So is Lt. Col. Hardy’s Congressional Gold medal. His family traveled from the East Coast last year when the exhibit first opened at Grissom Air Museum. Williams said the family brought the medal.
“They wanted to make sure their dad’s story continued to be told,” she said.
Dunnigan Jr. was among an important group — flight chiefs and crew chiefs. They made sure planes were in their best condition to fly. They garnered a lot of respect among the pilots, often called Red Tails.
“He played a very pivotal role in Italy,” Williams said. “That guy from Kokomo was the boss.”
A panel notes the importance of Bill Childs, a mechanic at Tuskegee. He was born in Alabama, but his son and family reside on a farm in Greentown. Williams said the family let her look through their collection for the exhibit.
There were many “oohs,” “ahs” and “wows” from the Mt. Pisgah congregation during the tour.
Alfonso Carter, the youth pastor at Mt. Pisgah, said a member suggested having children of the church visit the exhibit. A decision was made to extend the invite to the whole church.
“What this symbolizes for us is the passing of a torch, the passing of history,” Carter said.
He said Kokomo’s connection to Tuskegee stuck out the most during the hour or so tour.
“When I think of history, I awkwardly don’t think of home,” Carter said. “Who would have thought we are sitting next to history on Sunday morning?”
Gordon Morgan is thought to have met his wife Alexine at Tuskegee. She was a “Rosie the Riveter” type, a woman trained to work on aircraft.
Their son said the exhibit made him appreciate his father’s humbleness even more. Asked what his dad would think, Morgan said, “He would just say thank you.”
Williams collaborated with Zellie Orr and Bill Hence on a previous version of the Tuskegee exhibit in 2015 for the Aviation Museum in Atlanta. It ended up being a hit.
They designed the current iteration of what is a traveling exhibit. The Howard County Memorial Corporation — the local group behind many veteran monuments in Kokomo — played an important role in both the exhibit and mural.
The Tuskegee exhibit will be at the Artworks Gallery until Feb. 22. It will then travel to St. Louis. The “Hometown Heroes” portion will be revamped to highlight St. Louis-area members. This will be the case at every subsequent stop as well.
“It’s an organic, living breathing thing,” Williams said. “There’s 15,000 stories to explore.”
If You Go
"Tuskegee Airmen: America's Freedom Fighters"
There will be an open house 2-4 p.m. Sunday at Artworks Galley, 210 N. Main St., Kokomo.
Free exhibition tours will be offered to community groups, churches and schools in commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and will continue through Feb. 22.
Artworks Gallery is open from noon to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Additional tour times may be possible by special arrangement.
Educational curriculum and activity packets will be available to each classroom teacher, community or church group that schedules a tour.
To schedule a tour, contact curator Robin Williams at 317-213-5278 or email [email protected].
