Black Wings: The American Black in Aviation (Exhibition) (1982-2016: National Air and Space Museum) Search this
Date:
September 1982
Category:
Chronology of Smithsonian History
Notes:
For more information, see Louis Purnell Oral History Interviews, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 9578
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 9578, Purnell, Louis R. interviewee, Louis R. Purnell Interviews
Summary:
the National Air and Space Museum opens "Black Wings", the now permanent exhibit on the Tuskegee Airmen. The journey began in 1977 when Robert Trip, an African American school teacher from Virginia, noticed there was no African American representation at NASM. He began a campaign to change this, and in 1982 got in contact with Louis Purnell, a curator at the National Air and Space Museum and California Representative Ronald V. Dellums who were instrumental in the opening of the exhibit.