Honors for Airmen for history month

The NAACP’s Huntington branch will celebrate Black History Month with a program highlighting the Tuskegee Airmen on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the South Huntington Library.

The keynote speaker will be the Rev. Roderick Pearson, president of the NAACP Islip Branch. During the program Tuskegee Airman William Slade, a World War II veteran and Huntington resident, will be honored. The branch’s youth council also will make a presentation on the history of the Tuskegee Airmen.

The Tuskegee Airmen were graduates of a program initiated at the beginning of World War II to train black men as pilots, crew members and ground support personnel.

“With the long overdue national attention the Tuskegee Airmen have been receiving with the movie ‘Red Tails,’ ” said Huntington branch president Darryl Dodson, “we wanted to be sure we acknowledged our own bit of Huntington history in Mr. William Slade, who is one of the original Tuskegee Airmen.”

The South Huntington Public Library is located at 145 Pidgeon Hill Rd. in Huntington Station.