The Washington NFL team will have a new nickname and one of the top contenders is the Washington Red Tails—a name that would pay tribute to the Tuskegee Airmen.
Col. Harold Brown, a Minneapolis native, is one of the last living Tuskegee Airmen fighter pilots, also known as the Red Tails.
“Anything anybody wants to do that will enhance the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen, I am for,” said Brown from his home in Ohio. “It will not be too many years before there will be no more Tuskegee Airmen, and whatever name is there will stay after I am long gone.”
The NFL’s Washington franchise announced on Monday it would be changing its Redskins name and logo. In a statement released from the franchise, the decision was made following a thorough review that began on July 3.
"Redskins" has long been denounced by Native American groups as an ethnic slur. No new name was announced.
But the real Red Tails say it would be an honor to have their legacy live on.
Brown, 96, remembers a time when the United States military wouldn’t allow Black people to fly for the country. The Tuskegee Airmen were part of a flight training program for a limited number of Blacks on a segregated base in Tuskegee Alabama. Brown — one of the first Black military pilots — was part of that group.
“In 1939 they started a big debate about whether they would even allow us to fly. They painted the picture in the most derogatory terms possible,” he said
He said Blacks were called illiterate, dumb, lacked the intelligence to fly airplanes and their brains were small.
Brown, a North High School graduate, was among the pilots.
He was a combat pilot with the 332nd Fighter Group during World War II.
On his 30th mission, he was captured and imprisoned in Stalag VII A in Moosburg, Germany, where he was liberated by General George S. Patton on April 29, 1945.
"I came as close to dying as I ever came to in my life after I was shot down," Brown said. "I went in on him and had it light up like Christmas. It was looking just like a Christmas tree, I was right on target."
He and his wife, Marsha S. Bordner wrote a book about his experiences, "Keep Your Airspeed Up: The Story of a Tuskegee Airman.”
Brown said his love affair with airplanes began at North High School.
He was a member of a flying club at North High school called Keep Them Flying. Back then, his friends thought Brown would never get his wings because Blacks were not allowed to fly.
"When I was a junior in high school, I saved $35 and took five flying lessons," Brown said. "They won't even let you wash an airplane let alone fly an airplane they would say."
But Brown soared. As a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, he escorted bomber planes during World War II.
At 96, he is witnessing change he didn’t think was possible three years ago.
From an NFL team changing its name, to protests across the country pushing to dismantle systemic racism. Brown said he was surprised Minneapolis ignited a global change follow the death of George Floyd.
“I never would’ve believed what happened in Minneapolis would happen. Nobody could be more surprised than me,” he said. “ I hope they stay on that track and push, push, push.”