Flipboard Culture Desk<p>Tuskegee Airman, retired Lt. Col. Harry Stewart Jr., has died at age 100. He had dreamed of flying since he was a child in New York, watching planes at LaGuardia airport. He went on to earn the Distinguished Flying Cross for downing three German aircraft during a dogfight in 1945, and was part of a team of four Tuskegee Airmen who won the U.S. Air Force Top Gun flying competition in 1949 — an achievement that would not be recognized until decades later. After leaving the military, Stewart hoped to become a commercial pilot, but was rejected because of his race. He told Michigan Public Radio in 2019 he had recently been moved to tears on a flight. “When I entered the plane, I looked into the cockpit there and there were two African American pilots. One was the co-pilot, and one was the pilot. But not only that, the thing that started bringing the tears to my eyes is that they were both female,” he said. Here's more from <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://flipboard.com/@AssociatedPress" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>AssociatedPress</span></a></span> about his incredible life and accomplishments.</p><p><a href="https://flip.it/GO3Cax" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">flip.it/GO3Cax</span><span class="invisible"></span></a></p><p><a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/TuskegeeAirmen" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>TuskegeeAirmen</span></a> <a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/HarryStewart" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>HarryStewart</span></a> <a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/BlackHistory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BlackHistory</span></a> <a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/BlackHistoryMonth" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BlackHistoryMonth</span></a> <a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/InMemoriam" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>InMemoriam</span></a> <a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/RIP" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>RIP</span></a> <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://a.gup.pe/u/blackmastodon" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>blackmastodon</span></a></span> <a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/BlackMastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BlackMastodon</span></a> <a href="https://flipboard.social/tags/History" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>History</span></a> <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://a.gup.pe/u/histodons" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>histodons</span></a></span></p>