Tuskegee Airmen Harry Quinton Honored At Black History Heroes Awards

BALTIMORE (WJZ)--More than a dozen African American leaders from Maryland and Washington D.C. are being honored for their service.

It's a part of the third annual Black History Heroes Awards.

Jessica Kartalija has more.

He was part of the first black military aviation group that flew fighter missions during World War II.

"I knew that we were doing something that my people had never done before," said Quinton.

Now, retired sergeant Harry Quinton, a Tuskegee Airmen, is the keynote speaker and is being honored at an awards dinner at Maryland Live.

"People want to say I am a hero, but I don't consider myself a hero," Quinton says. " I had a job to do and I did it."

The airmen were named after the Tuskegee Army Airfield, in Alabama, where they were trained to fly and maintain the planes during World War II.

But while the airmen were flying missions in World War II, they were also dealing with segregation.

"The military was segregated and we were separated from white units and white troops and it was like being in a separate air corp, separate air force," Quinton says.

When many of the heroes returned, they were still treated as second-class citizens in the south.

"There's been a huge transition, I see so many blacks have made a lot of progress," said Quinton.

The success of the Tuskegee Airmen encouraged President Harry Truman to integrate the armed forces in 1948.