Florida is now the third state to honor the Tuskegee Airmen with a state holiday. It happened when Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Tuskegee Airmen Commemoration Day into law on Monday. Meanwhile, Alabama, home to the country’s first Black airmen, has no state holiday recognizing them. The nearly 1,000 Black military pilots who trained in the U.S. during World War II did the same in Tuskegee. Of those, 450 were deployed overseas, and 150 died, including 66 who were killed in action. There were also more than 15,000 support staff, like navigators, bombardiers, and mechanics.
The Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site was used to pay homage to the storied service members, preserving five structures used for flight training during the war.
Before DeSantis signed the Florida state holiday into law, at least two other states –Mississippi and Kentucky — had laws granting a state holiday to Tuskegee Airmen Commemoration Day. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed a proclamation declaring Tuskegee Airmen Commemoration Day, but it was unclear whether it was an official state holiday.
The Tallahassee Democrat newspaper noted that the new Florida holiday came the year after the state rejected the AP African American Studies course and created its version, which was widely criticized for whitewashing history, and a few months after the Florida Department of State rejected a slate of books for Tallahassee’s Grove Museum for its 2024 monthly story time program, including the book “Wind Flyers” about Florida connections to the Tuskegee Airmen.
On March 28, President Biden celebrated Tuskegee Airmen Commemoration Day.