The Cleveland History Center has opened a new exhibition honoring local Tuskegee Airmen, featuring hand-drawn portraits by students from the Cleveland School of the Arts. The exhibition, part of the Cleveland Heroes Project, is displayed at the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum and runs through April 30. It highlights airmen with Northeast Ohio roots, including 2nd Lt. Gilbert Cargill, Capt. Erwin Bernard Lawrence Jr., and Cpl. Howard Arthur Tibbs.
This exhibition matters because it preserves and celebrates the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen, America's first Black military pilots, who played a key role in the desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces. By involving local students, the project educates a new generation about civil rights history and the airmen's contributions to aviation and integration, ensuring their stories are not forgotten.