By SAFIYA CHARLES | Montgomery Advertiser | Published: February 16, 2021
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (Tribune News Service) — A Tuskegee hometown hero has once again made it on the back of a United States coin.
The Black World War II fighter pilots who completed 15,000 sorties in 1,500 missions throughout the Mediterranean, and even sank an enemy destroyer, have joined fellow hometown heroes Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver as faces of commemorative U.S. currency. (Booker T. Washington was the first free Black person featured on legal tender when his image was placed on the silver half dollar coin in 1946).
The Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site Quarter set will go on sale Feb. 19. It’s the 56th and final release of the America the Beautiful Quarters Program that features designs capturing parks and sites of national significance. The first commemorative set was released in 2010.