From Blue Coats to Red Tails

A Salute to the Black Citizen-Soldier's Service from the Civil War to the Tuskegee Airmen

SPRINGFIELD, IL (02/22/2012)(readMedia)-- • The Illinois National Guard Equal Opportunity Office, the Illinois National Guard & Militia Historical Society and the Illinois State Military Museum will be sponsoring From Blue Coats to Red Tails. The event will tell the proud history of 150 years of African-American servicememembers in the military and Illinois National Guard in major conflicts since the Civil War.

WHO:

• The Illinois National Guard Equal Opportunity Office, the Illinois National Guard & Militia Historical Society and the Illinois State Military Museum.
WHAT:

• African-American Living Historians Bob Davis, Rick Ford and Joel Brown will bring to life the rich heritage of the service and sacrifice of black citizen-Soldiers from the Civil War to World War I and to the famed Tuskegee Airmen of World War II.

o Living Historians will have the following presentations:

1 p.m. 29th U.S. Colored Troops in the Civil War

2 p.m. 370th Infantry in World War I

3 p.m. Tuskegee Airmen in World War II

* It will highlight the achievements, as well as the obstacles black citizen-Soldiers overcame in years of racial adversity and segregation.

• Free admission and parking.

For more information, contact the Public Affairs office at ngilstaffpao@ng.army.mil or call 217-761-3569.
WHEN: Saturday February 25, 2012 at 01:00PM Central Time (US & Canada)
WHERE: Illinois State Military Museum,
2 blocks north of the intersection of MacArthur Blvd. and North Grand Ave.
Springfield, Ill. , Illinois
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