Tuskegee Airmen to witness history – mySanAntonio
At his church on Sundays, John Miles towers over the children, passing out candy from weathered hands that made him a legend.
For years, the old gentlemen known to the children as the “Candy Man” has told them to reach for their dreams.
Soon, he’ll have another inspiring thought to share with the little ones who look up to the former baseball star.
Miles, a 1940s power hitter in the Negro American League, is one of two local members of the Tuskegee Airmen, pioneering black aviators and crewmen of World War II, who will see the nation’s first African American president take the oath of office.
As someone who helped open doors for minorities, Miles is one of the select few invited as a special guest to President-elect Barack Obama’s Jan. 20 inauguration.
“I was thinking, ‘This couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t be me,’” Miles said. “It’s something I never thought I’d see in my whole life.”
For people born after the era of segregation, it might be hard to understand why the inauguration is such a breakthrough. But to Miles, 86, and Granville Coggs, another local Tuskegee Airman set to attend the event, it’s as if all Americans of color finally are being rewarded for enduring decades of privation.
“It’s almost unbelievable, but I’m beginning to accept it as reality,” said Coggs, 83.
Tuskegee Airmen to witness history – mySanAntonio
