Community Foundation of Jackson County Grant Funds Tuskegee, Civil Rights Program
The struggle for equal treatment of black cadets revolving around the segregated officers clubs at Freeman Army Airfield during World War II provided the impetus for a new fund created at our member the Community Foundation of Jackson County.
The Tuskegee Airmen Memorial Endowment will help provide grants for an educational program centered on the Tuskegee Airmen and the civil rights movement and provide grants for maintenance of the Tuskegee Airmen memorial now being planned at Freeman Municipal Airport in Seymour.
“We are excited about the educational work that the Tuskegee Airmen Memorial Endowment will help fund,” Trish Butt of Brownstown said. She is chairwoman of the foundation’s grant committee.
“It will not only focus on what happened with the Tuskegee Airmen at the time they were stationed for training at Freeman Field but can also follow the civil rights movement afterward,” she said. “This educational piece along with the expanded airmen memorial should have a strong, positive impact for our community.”