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0000017c-60f7-de77-ad7e-f3f739cf0000Arts & More airs Fridays at 7:50 a.m. and 4:20 p.m.Theme music: "Like A Beginner Again" by Dan Barry of Seas of Jupiter

Boy's Dream to be Pilot Takes Flight at Air Zoo's 'Black Wings' Exhibit

Earlene McMichael, WMUK

Justin Tomkowiak, 11, of Kalamazoo, can be a little shy. But when the topic turns to what he'll be when he grows up, he perks up. “An Italian-language person and a pilot,” he declares. Justin decided that as soon as he saw the Air Zoo's "Black Wings" exhibit a few weeks ago. The show chronicles the history of blacks in aviation and aerospace. It runs through Oct. 4.

It’s a hot Tuesday in late July, and Justin Tomkowiak, his mother and younger sister are about to head into the Air Zoo in Portage. His family moved to Kalamazoo two years ago, and immediately became members of the Air Zoo. But while they have come to the aviation museum regularly, the career game-changer for Justin wasn't until he laid eyes on the Smithsonian Institution's traveling "Black Wings: American Dreams of Flight" exhibit, which opened locally on the Fourth of July.

"Well, it informed me," Justin says. "It like made me want to be a pilot because of those people. Like I just want to be one of them."

The exhibition is a 3,000-square-foot collection of photographs, articles and artifacts showcasing blacks who broke the color barrier in aviation and space. Justin himself is black. Images from lesser known pilots and other types of flight trailblazers sit next to histories of more famous ones like the Tuskegee Airmen.

Marquette Foley works at the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service in Washington, D.C., where she is project director for the “Black Wings” exhibit. She says that there was an earlier exhibit in the 1980s based on a book by Von Hardesty, a curator at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. The latest exhibit was created after the book was re-released in 2008 with updated material. 

"It is just simply a fresher, more informed -- because of the research -- view of a very important story that was the core of Von Hardesty’s first book and exhibition," Foley explains. "And it’s just time. It’s time to remind ourselves of our extraordinariness, our braveness."

Credit Earlene McMichael, WMUK
Tiffany Tomkowiak with her daughter, Angelina, and son, Justin, in front of the Air Zoo.

It’s that braveness that 11-year-old Justin Tomkowiak’s mother, Tiffany Tomkowiak, loves about early black aviators.

"Everybody knows about the Tuskegee Airmen and their story," Mrs. Tomkowiak says. "But a lot of people don’t really know about aviation before then as it pertains to black people as far as how we got started in the industry. How we were the barnstormers (aerial stunt-show performers), how we had (flight) clubs in Chicago and throughout little areas in the country. And how you know we got our clubs going."

"People were fearless. People were brave," she adds, with the excitement in her voice increasing with each word. "People were well-educated. I think you get a source of pride because you see how all these well-educated black people back then had the knowledge to just form a group and say we want to be just like the Wright Brothers. ….I think it’s very exciting to see we had a voice in aviation too. I think a lot of times people don’t know that.”

Credit Earlene McMichael, WMUK
Air Zoo CEO Troy Thrash at the Bessie Coleman area of the "Black Wings" exhibit.

It was in 1903 that the Wright Brothers developed a successful powered airplane, piquing Americans' interest in flight. But racial segregation made it difficult for blacks that wanted in on the dream of operating a plane -- flight schools refused to admit African-Americans. Some blacks fought back by hiring private instructors and buying their own planes just to get flying lessons, says Air Zoo CEO Troy Thrash. One determined woman, Bessie Coleman, even taught herself French so she could travel to France to learn how to fly. In 1921, Coleman earned her pilot's license. She was the first black woman in America to do so. 

"Then she came back to the United States and she joined this elite group of barnstormers and ultimately she became known as the world’s greatest woman flier for her exploits," Thrash says.

Kalamazoo's Justin Tomkowiak says the perseverance of the black aviators of yesteryear makes him want to follow in their footsteps when he gets older.

"You were impressed by their struggle? That they hung in there?" a reporter asks. 

He says yes. 

"Will it be as hard for you as it was for them you think?"  the reporter continues.

“Not really," Justin answers.  "Not all as hard as it was back then.”

The “Black Wings” exhibit runs through Oct. 4 at the Air Zoo, at 6151 Portage Road, Portage. Entry to the exhibition is part of the museum's general admission price.

This Arts & More story will air 7:50 a.m. Friday (8/21), with re-broadcasts at 11:55 a.m. and 4:20 p.m. at 102.1 on the FM dial, as well as live-streamed on our website. Click on "Listen Live," then "WMUK-1."

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