By Rich Bockmann
Students at York College’s Aviation Institute are used to peering toward the sky and pretty soon they will have something new to look up to.
The City Council last week approved a proposal to recognize the famed black Tuskegee Airmen by renaming a part of South Road near the college in their honor.
Airmen Wilfred DeFour and Dabney Montgomery — accompanied by his wife, Amelia — received a standing ovation when the Council convened its Nov. 14 meeting and approved the renaming.
Unlike a ceremonial co-naming, the measure will change the official name — reflected on the city’s street map — of a 1.2-mile stretch of South Road between Merrick Boulevard and Remington Street “Tuskegee Airmen Way.”
Councilman Ruben Wills (D-Jamaica), who authored the bill to rename the stretch of road just south of York College, said the symbolism of the gesture will serve as a point of inspiration for the southeast Queens community.
“This street renaming is not just a name to tag some signs in our community, but is going to leave a legacy or allow us to look at a legacy and change the perspective of many young people who have thought that their expectations have been drowned,” he said.
The bill awaits Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s signature.
A small handful of the black World War II pilots who persevered through both German gunfire and racial stereotypes in the U.S. Army Air Corps to serve their country with distinction have for some years now been partnering with York College, which serves a predominantly black student body.
York, situated between LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International airports, is home to CUNY’s aviation program, and its students benefit through a close relationships with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Last month, the college’s theater began its season with an original production entitled “The Tuskegee Airmen Project,” a play conceived by theater arts professor Tom Marion that asks what students today can learn from the airmen’s plight against intolerance.
The college has gathered a collection of Tuskegee Airmen artifacts it would like to some day exhibit in a gallery.
During a recent breakfast meeting at the college, York President Marcia Keiz said the designs for the gallery are all drawn up, and then told the elected officials and business leaders in attendance that all the college is waiting on is the funding.
Reach reporter Rich Bockmann by e-mail at rbockmann@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.
