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Photos: The Tuskegee Airmen who called Nebraska home
Named for Tuskegee Airman Alfonza W. Davis, Davis Middle School in the Omaha school district sports many images of P-51 Mustangs.
Tuskegee Airman Alfonza W. Davis
Alfonza W. Davis Middle School is located at 8050 N. 129th Ave. in Omaha.
Items to honor Tuskegee Airmen and others will be displayed in a Great Plains Black History Museum Veterans Day exhibit: Tuskegee Airmen Who Called Nebraska Home and African Americans Who Have Served. Photographed at the Great Plains Black History Museum Omaha on Thursday, October 29, 2020.
Items to honor Tuskegee Airmen and others will be displayed in a Great Plains Black History Museum Veterans Day exhibit: Tuskegee Airmen Who Called Nebraska Home and African Americans Who Have Served. Photographed at the Great Plains Black History Museum Omaha on Thursday, October 29, 2020.
A plaque honoring Omaha-native and Tuskegee Airman Ralph Orduna will be part of a Great Plains Black History Museum Veterans Day exhibit: Tuskegee Airmen Who Called Nebraska Home and African Americans Who Have Served. Photographed at the Great Plains Black History Museum Omaha on Thursday, October 29, 2020.
Robert Holts joined the still-segregated U.S. Army in November 1942. He wound up a member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen — one of 21 with ties to Nebraska.
In 2018, Robert Holts, 93, then the last surviving Tuskegee Airman in Nebraska, posed for a portrait at the Richmont Village in Bellevue. Cpl. Holts served from 1942 to 1946 with the U.S. Army. He died in February 2021.
Robert Holts, left, speaks with Andrew Pulliam, center, and Jason Knott, right, as he celebrates his 92nd birthday in 2016 at Alfonza W. Davis Middle School in Omaha. At the time, Holts was the last known surviving Tuskegee Airman in the state of Nebraska.
Paul Adams was a member of the famed “Red Tail” unit of the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II. Throughout his lifetime, the South Carolina native battled discrimination — first in the South, and later in Lincoln, Nebraska — but he always told his three children, “Don't give up.”
Tuskegee Airman Paul Adams, a South Carolina native, with Alda, his wife for 67 years. In 1962 they and their children moved to Lincoln, where Adams became an industrial arts teacher at Lincoln High.
Former Tuskegee Airmen Charles Lane, left, and Paul Adams, right, with a P-51 Mustang owned by Harry Barr at Duncan Aviation in Lincoln in 2002.
Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Charles Lane is applauded at a 2003 rally.
The Nebraskan Tuskegee Airmen who served during World War II were honored with the Congressional Gold Medals at the DoubleTree Hotel in Omaha on July 5, 2007.
Lt. Col. Harrison Tull speaks with Lt. Col. Paul Adams during a brief meeting of the Nebraska Tuskegee Airmen before the Congressional Gold Medals ceremony at the DoubleTree Hotel in Omaha on July 5, 2007.
Retired Lt. Col. Charles Lane was greeted by friends and family in 2005 at his surprise 80th birthday party at Eppley Airfield during a preview of a Tuskegee Airmen exhibit.
Harrison Tull pictured at the Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum in 2002. He was a bombardier on the B-25 in WWII. He was one of three former Tuskegee Airmen living in Nebraska at the time.
The commander of the 55th Wing, Brig. Gen. John N.T. Shanahan, right, and Dr. Janet Tull, daughter of Harrison Tull, applaud after unveiling the new Tull Road sign on April 6, 2010. Offutt Air Force Base dedicated a new road in memory of Lt. Col. Harrison "Harry" Tull, a 27-year Air Force veteran and a member of the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II. Tull was inducted into the 55th Wing Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Nebraska Aviation Hall of Fame in 2003.
The distinctive red tail on a P-51 Mustang lapel pin as Offutt Air Force Base dedicated a new road in memory of Lt. Col. Harrison "Harry" Tull, a 27-year Air Force veteran and a member of the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II. Tull was inducted into the 55th Wing Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Nebraska Aviation Hall of Fame in 2003.
Bob Rose, president of the Alfonza W. Davis Chapter of Tuskegee Airmen Inc., gets ready to take retired Cpl. Robert Holts to the red carpet at Aksarben Cinema before the premiere of “Red Tails" in 2012. Holts, retired Lt. Col. Charles Lane Jr., left, and retired Lt. Col. Paul Adams, right, were Tuskegee Airmen.
There were 21 Tuskegee Airmen with ties to Nebraska.
