Tuskegee Airmen

PHILADELPHIA U. City explosion A damaged power line led to an explosion yesterday in University City that sent three manhole covers flying and left smoke billowing up from underground, police said. A wire below 34th Street near Ludlow sparked and ignited methane gas, causing the blast about 5:15 p.m., police said. A stretch of 34th Street between Market and Ludlow was closed to traffic while Peco technicians secured the area. No injuries or power outages were reported.

When you think about World War II, military leaders such as George S. Patton and Douglas MacArthur often come to mind. But how much do you know about the Tuskegee Airmen? Now's your chance to learn about the first African American military pilots, who fought valiantly against fascism during the war. The African American Museum in Philadelphia is offering a free screening Thursday night of Double Victory, a new documentary by filmmaker George Lucas about the recruitment, training, and combat missions of the Tuskegee Airmen.

Special Events Heroween Featuring games, prizes, costumes, beer and fun, to support the Ronald McDonald House. City Tap House, 3925 Walnut St. $10. 10/29. 9 pm. Double Victory Documentary on the Tuskegee Airmen and panel discussion. African American Museum. Free. 11/3. 7 pm. Pregistration required at http://doublevictory-philly.eventbrite.com Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman Of the progressive rock band Yes, with classics from the catalog, songs from their new album 'The Living Tree,' and songs from solo repertoire.

'It's Top Gun with black pilots. " So Terrence Howard describes with a punchy tagline his film, Red Tails , a WWII actioner about the famed Tuskegee Airmen, the first group of African American fighter pilots in the U.S. armed forces. Conceived by George Lucas and in development for nearly 25 years, the Anthony Hemingway-helmed Red Tails is due Jan. 20, 2012. It is billed as a passionate statement about civil rights but also - or given marketing needs, above all - an epic Hollywood blockbuster filled with hair-raising set pieces.

They were trailblazers and gave new meaning to "the sky's the limit. " They were the first black U.S. military pilots in World War II, known as the Tuskegee Airmen. Fifty photographs of the Tuskegee Airmen, who fought America's enemies abroad while facing racial discrimination at home, opened Thursday at Philadelphia International Airport. The exhibit, which will be on display through June in Terminal A-East, is a photo essay of seven decades of aviation history. On hand were four original Tuskegee Airmen, named for the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, where they trained, an all-black unit of World War II pilots, navigators, bombardiers, mechanics, and others.

Viola D. Stewart, 91, a civil-rights pioneer and retired Philadelphia public school teacher, died of Alzheimer's disease Dec. 14 at the Sanctuary of Holy Cross, a nursing home in Burtonsville, Md. After she became a teacher in the early 1940s in South Carolina, Mrs. Stewart was the plaintiff in 1944 in an NAACP-backed lawsuit seeking equal pay for African American teachers. With NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall making her case, she won. The litigation is among cases credited with helping pave the way for the 1954 landmark case, Brown v. Board of Education , her family said.

HARRY W. BOSTON, a teacher in Philadelphia public schools for more than 30 years, an Air Force veteran of World War II and a devoted churchman whose lusty voice was raised in praise at Miller Memorial Baptist Church for more than 70 years, died Thursday. He would have been 86 tomorrow. He lived in Mount Airy. Harry taught at Kenderton Elementary, Lingelbach Elementary, the Eleanor C. Emlen School and Benjamin Franklin High School. Even after he retired in 1984, he continued as an educator, teaching for four more years at the Sanctuary Christian Academy, founded by Bishop Audrey Bronson.

Raymond V. Haysbert Sr., 90, whose Parks Sausage Co. in 1969 became the first black-owned business in the United States to go public, died Monday at a Baltimore hospital after suffering from congestive heart failure, his son Brian Haysbert said. Born in poverty, Mr. Haysbert became a member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, serving in Africa and Italy before settling in Baltimore. There, he joined the company started by Henry Parks that became well-known throughout the Northeast by advertisements featuring a hungry boy asking, "More Parks Sausages, Mom - please!"

Edward L. Powell Jr., 89, a pharmacist for more than 40 years and member of the Tuskegee Airmen, died of renal failure and prostate cancer Thursday, March 25, at the Community Living Center of the Philadelphia Veterans Administration Medical Center in West Philadelphia. Born in Philadelphia, Mr. Powell graduated with honors from Overbrook High School, where he was on the varsity basketball, football, and track teams. He joined the Army Air Corps and attended what is now Tuskegee (Ala.

Luther H. Smith Jr., 89, who flew 132 missions in Europe as a Tuskegee Airman before being captured near the end of World War II, died Wednesday at Bryn Mawr Hospital. Capt. Smith, of Villanova, survived the war to have a long career as an aerospace engineer for General Electric Co. His death was attributed to complications from an infection. "My personal good fortune took a turn, on Friday, Oct. 13, 1944," he wrote in 2001. That day, the engine of his P-51 Mustang caught fire, and he bailed out over Yugoslavia.