Mourners remember LI man, his Tuskegee Airmen days

In April 1945, Harry R. Dickenson, a Hampton Bays resident who died Saturday, was among 58 black "Tuskegee Airmen" who were arrested at Freeman Field, Ind.

The 58 men had been protesting the Army's rules on segregation, which banned black officers from entering "white only" officers clubs.

"He was very proud of being a black officer because Harry knew, as we all did, that we represented a lot of people," said Albert Henriques, 84, a lifelong friend of Dickenson's who served with Dickenson during what historians refer to as "the Freeman Field Mutiny."

Dickenson, 86, who succumbed to prostate cancer at a Westhampton Beach hospice, was buried Tuesday with military honors at Calverton National Cemetery.

He grew up in Harlem, joined the Army in 1944 and earned the rank of second lieutenant as a bombardier and navigator, but the war ended before he saw overseas service.

Before World War II, the military banned black people from training as aviators, saying they lacked needed mental skills and physical coordination. But after an experimental training program at Tuskegee, Ala., proved successful in 1941, the Army was confronted with growing numbers of skilled black officers who were unwilling to accept second-class status.

When the command structure at Freeman Field offered to designate a second officers club, rather than allow black officers to use the existing one, many of them defied the order and submitted themselves to arrest.

"I remember Harry telling me he couldn't believe they were arresting black officers from walking into an officer's club when they had a perfect right to do so," Henriques said. Scores of officers were arrested in the protest. All but three were released. The incident was a factor in President Harry Truman's 1948 executive order committing the government to integrating the military.

Friends and family described Dickenson as a restless intellect, who excelled at mathematics and built boats in his spare time to indulge a love for the water.

After leaving the service in 1946, he briefly served as a New York City fireman before earning a bachelors in civil engineering from the City College of New York in 1952 and an engineering master's from the University of Buffalo in 1958. He worked as an engineer on several projects over the decades, including the canceled Westway transit route, before becoming superintendent of public works for the Village of Hempstead about 15 years ago. He retired in 2007.

He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth Anne Dickenson, of Hampton Bays, a son, Booth Dickenson, of Manhattan, and a daughter, Renee Austin, of Loganville, Ga. He is also survived by Harriet Dickenson, of East Elmhurst, a daughter from an earlier marriage that ended in divorce.