Brown Jr., Tuskegee airman, dies at 94

He was a World War II fighter pilot with the legendary Tuskegee Airmen, the first African-American pilots in USA history. He was also the past President of Bronx Community College of CUNY, and was formerly Director of the Institute of Afro-American Affairs at New York University.

City University of New York Chancellor James B. Milliken expressed his condolences on behalf of the university system.

“He really, really enjoyed telling people and informing people about the Tuskegee Airmen and the role they played”, historian Craig Huntly told NPR.

In a 2011 interview with WNBC-TV, Brown noted that the Civil War occurred only about 70 years before World War II. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with eight Oak Leaf Clusters, and the Congressional Medal of Honor.

At the time, Brown told The Associated Press that receiving the medal was one of the greatest days in the history of the Tuskegee Airmen.

“I was a kid, 23 years old”, Brown recalled to NBC 4 New York’s Gabe Pressman in 2009, as he prepared to march in the Inauguration Day Parade for President Barack Obama.

“In my generation, in the generation of segregation, there were many African-Americans who knew that we could do anything that whites could do, all we wanted was the opportunity”, Brown told CNN in 2012. That personal sacrifice for country is, unfortunately, necessary for a country to survive.

His family said he was always supportive and full of energy. Their heroic service and that of other all-black units led to the integration of the US Armed Forces in 1948 and energized the civil-rights movement.

Brown does not want a “sad, dead body funeral”, his daughter said.