A 94-year-old member of the World War II Tuskegee Airmen was honored with a congressional medal in Massachusetts on Wednesday.
Air Force Sgt. James Sowell served as a member of the Tuskegee Airmen in WWII only to come back home to segregation and racism.
“When the Tuskegee Airmen returned home to America, America was in the midst of being transformed, and everybody clearly understood that their distinguished service was not in defense of segregation,” Congressman Richard Neal told WWLP.
Neal presented the Congressional Gold Medal to Sowell in a ceremony among family and friends at the Wingate Nursing Home in Wilbraham, Massachusetts.
Sowell’s daughter Adrian Sowell told the NBC affiliate, “It’s a wonderful, wonderful celebration. He did good, he did exactly what he needed to do, where he was supposed to do and I’m very proud of him.”
