Fitzroy “Buck” Newsum’s dream as a young man in the 1930s was to fly a plane for a living.
Seventh-grader Tajanay Woolfolk , 12, said Friday that she has pinned down some future occupations too.
“I want to be a lawyer, but if that doesn’t work out, I want to be in the Army,” Tajanay said.
Col. Newsum realized his dream in 1943 as a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, an Army Air Forces squadron with the first African-American pilots in the U.S. military.
Friday, Newsum and five fellow airmen were honored by Tajanay and her Northeast Academy Charter School classmates in a ceremony that unveiled a sprawling hallway mural.
In a kaleidoscope of colors, the mural intertwines students’ dreams with images of the first Tuskegee Airmen. The mural was painted by students in the fifth through eighth grades as a part of the Take Flight program operated by Denver artist Jacqueline Withers.
“A lot of this history is not taught in schools,” Withers said. “If there is a way to bring history in so they can adapt to it and want to learn about it, then what’s a better way than doing it through the arts?”
Withers said she wanted to create the Take Flight program to encourage students to jump into art by educating and enlightening them on particular subjects. Northeast Academy is the sixth school to create a mural with Withers.
The Northeast Academy mural spans nearly 20 feet across the wall and around a corner in the school’s art hall. It incorporates student art on the bottom of the wall — of violins, briefcases and footballs — with pictures of World War II planes and the Tuskegee airmen who flew them.
Speaking to a crowd of 35 people, Newsum said the Tuskegee Airmen paved the way for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who in turn paved the way for President Barack Obama.
“No more can you say ‘I am not qualified, they won’t hire me,’ ” Newsum said. “You see, we’ve just broken the ice. No more can you say you can’t be an elected official.”
Anthony Bowe 303-954-1661 or abowe@denverpost.com
