Two Tuskegee Airmen among 19 vets honored by education group

ALBANY, N.Y. — Lee Archer Jr. always dreamed of becoming a fighter pilot. He read about them in books and comic strips and imagined they were brave and handsome, with long white scarves billowing behind them.

He achieved his dream in 1943 when he graduated from the Tuskegee Institute for pilot training, then became one of the famous black fighter pilots of the Tuskegee Airmen in World War II.

He was among 19 U.S. veterans honored last Monday for the role higher education played in their lives at a ceremony by the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (CICU) held in the New York state capitol.

“We thought it was appropriate to honor our veterans,” said Abe Lackman, president of CICU. “We don’t always say thank you to those who defend us.”

“We integrated the services in 1945, before the civil rights movement,” said Archer.

A member of the New York University Class of ’56, he went on to a long military career before running venture capital funds at several large corporations.

“This is my way of saying thank you to the education in New York,” he said. “Let them see what they’ve produced.”

Brown was joined at the ceremony by fellow Tuskegee Airman and best friend Roscoe C. Brown Jr.

“It’s a nice recognition of what we did to break segregation,” said Brown. “It’s also a nice recognition of the university’s role in providing education for veterans.”

Brown received a doctorate in exercise physiology from New York University in 1951. He went on to teach at the university for 26 years. He became the president of Bronx Community College in 1972.

“We’re just so proud that NYU was part of that great story,” said New York University President John Sexton, “and helped propel them onto great careers.”
CICU is made up of about 110 independent and private colleges and universities in New York state.

They honor independent and private college and university graduates every year.

L.A. fire captains awarded $1.6M in discrimination case

LOS ANGELES — A jury awarded $1.6 million last Monday to two city Fire Department captains who claimed they were made scapegoats for the misconduct of a firefighter who laced a black firefighter’s spaghetti with dog food.

The award to Capts. John D. Tohill and Christopher R. Burton was the latest fallout in the racial harassment case involving Tennie Pierce. The city agreed to pay the black firefighter $1.5 million last year to settle claims that he suffered harassment and retaliation after co-workers served him the tainted food as a prank.

Tohill was awarded $1.052 million and Burton $592,000. The two sued the city in 2006, alleging they were discriminated against because they are white. They claimed that when they found out about the incident they took immediate steps to address it, according to their lawsuits. They also alleged that the department “never conducted a formal investigation” and suspended them without pay for several weeks under “political pressure” from city officials.

Meanwhile, the firefighter who tampered with Pierce’s dinner in October 2004 only received a six-day suspension, they claimed.

The jury deliberated for about 1-1/2 days before reaching a verdict in the captains’ case.

“I’m totally pleased that the jury was able to sit through three weeks of trial and come to the conclusions they did,” Burton, 62, said. “Captain Tohill and I said all along that all we wanted to do was re-establish our credibility and reputations.”

Attorney Ed Zappia, who defended the city, said he could not comment on the verdict because he had not discussed it with city officials.

“Obviously, we’re not happy with it,” he said.

The Los Angeles City Council initially voted to award more than $2.7 million to Pierce. But that deal was later vetoed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa when photos surfaced on a Web site showing Pierce participating in hazing pranks.

The city later reduced the settlement amount, but an additional $1.3 million in legal fees pushed the total cost of the case to $2.8 million — about $100,000 more than the settlement first offered by the council.

Globetrotters head acquires historic Illinois school

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. — A former Metro East basketball standout and head of the Harlem Globetrotters is the new owner of a historic school in Edwardsville.

Madison County records show that Mannie Jackson bought the deed to the Lincoln School for $199,500 last month. The building once housed the city’s only all-black school.

Jackson is the Globetrotters’ chairman and chief executive. It’s unclear what the 68-year-old plans to do with the school, which he once attended.

Local groups have been working to preserve the old school, which opened for blacks in 1912. It closed when segregation ended in 1951.

The building has been unoccupied since 2005, and the Bank of Edwardsville acquired it at a public auction last year.