Sign up for TPR Today, Texas Public Radio's newsletter that brings our top stories to your inbox each morning.
Parts of Iowa Street on San Antonio’s East Side may be given a memorial designation in honor of the Tuskegee Airmen.
The Tuskegee Airmen were the first Black military pilots, taking to the skies during World War II. Out of the first 1,000 listed pilots, approximately 20 were from San Antonio according to the city. Two, Thomas Marvin Ellis and Warren Eusan, were listed as living on streets in the Denver Heights neighborhood.
Ellis died in 2018 at the age of 97, and Eusan died in 2014 at 93. Both men are buried at Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetery. In September, NPR reported George Hardy, the last surviving Tuskegee Airman who saw combat in World War II died at the age of 100.
“Tuskegee Airmen Memorial Way” is proposed for a portion of Iowa Street near Pittman Sullivan Park to Cherry St, a distance of about ¾ of a mile. The designation would not change the street’s name and does not require the changing of any addresses.
District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez said the request for the memorial street came at the request of the San Antonio chapter of Tuskegee Airmen Inc.
“These men not only broke barriers in the skies but also on the ground, challenging discrimination and paving the way for future generations of black service members and aviators. Recognizing their contributions here in San Antonio, a city with deep military roots is both fitting and long overdue.”
The airmen trained at Tuskegee Army Airfield, a segregated military installation outside Tuskegee, Alabama, in the late 1930s and early 1940s.
Earlier this year, the Trump Administration and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth received backlash after the Air Force removed the Tuskegee Airmen from an education curriculum in basic training amid a push to remove DEI initiatives, which was first reported by the San Antonio Express-News. The training video was ultimately restored.
The city estimates the cost of the memorial designation will run about $5,000. But the District 2 office has committed to provide the funding.
The proposal passed the San Antonio City Council’s Governance Committee meeting this month and will now go to the planning committee before being voted on by the full city council.
