Tuskegee, Alabama
| Tuskegee | |
|---|---|
 Location in County and Alabama
|
|
| Basic data | |
| Foundation : | 1833 |
| State : | United States |
| State : | Alabama |
| County : | Macon County |
| Coordinates : | 32 ° 26 ′ N , 85 ° 41 ′ W |
| Time zone : | Central ( UTC − 6 / −5 ) |
|
Inhabitants : - Metropolitan Area : |
11,590 (status: 2005) 22,810 (status: 2005) |
| Population density : | 289 inhabitants per km 2 |
| Area : | 40.7 km 2 (approx. 16 mi 2 ) of which 40.1 km 2 (approx. 15 mi 2 ) is land |
| Height : | 141 m |
| Postcodes : | 36083 |
| Area code : | +1 334 |
| FIPS : | 01-77304 |
| GNIS ID : | 0128211 |
| Website : | www.tuskegeealabama.gov |
| Mayor : | Omar Neal |
Tuskegee ( pronunciation : [ tʌsˈkiːɡiː ]) is a city in Macon County in the US state of Alabama . It has about 11,600 inhabitants (as of 2004) on an area of 40.7 km². Tuskegee means warrior in the Muskogee dialect of the Creek Indians .
history
During the Second World War, the so-called Tuskegee Airmen ( fighter pilots ) were trained at the Tuskegee Institute . These men were the USAAC's first black fighter pilots (racial segregation in the U.S. armed forces lasted until 1948). Despite, or perhaps because of, numerous harassment on the part of superiors, trainers and the population, they became one of the best units of the war and in 1,500 missions only lost 25 of the bombers they were protecting to enemy fighters. They managed to destroy well over 100 German aircraft, including three Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighters , all of which were shot down in a dogfight over Berlin. Tuskegee Airmen attacked a German torpedo boat (TA-22, formerly Italian destroyer "Giuseppe Missori") in the Mediterranean in 1944 and damaged it badly. In the same year, Lieutenant Charles M. Lester managed to shoot down three German Messerschmitt Bf 109s in one operation . During the war, the Tuskegee Airmen complained about 66 casualties. 32 airmen were taken prisoner by Germany.
The story of the Tuskegee Airmen was the subject of the 1995 award-winning television film " The Honor to Fly ". The pilots are played by Laurence Fishburne and Cuba Gooding junior , among others .
The African American writer Nella Larsen worked for some time in Tuskegee.
One of the biggest medical scandals in the USA was the Tuskegee Syphilis Study , in which around 400 black and mostly poor and illiterate residents of the city with known syphilis were deliberately not treated with the available penicillin in order to be able to observe the long-term effects of the infection . The people observed were not informed about the study, nor were they informed that an effective treatment option had been available in the meantime. The "study" began in 1932 and did not end until 1972 when details became public.
Culture
Tuskegee is the hometown of the Tuskegee Institute , an educational institution originally founded only for blacks, which is now open to all sections of the population as a university.
Personalities
sons and daughters of the town
- Theodore Washington Brevard (1835–1882), Brigadier General in the Confederate Army in the Civil War
- Frederick Arthur Bridgman (1847–1928), orientalist painter, draftsman, musician and writer
- Lester Boone (1904-1989), jazz musician
- Rosa Parks (1913–2005), civil rights activist
- Lionel Richie (born 1949), singer
- Tony Tolbert (born 1967), American football player
- Ajiona Alexus (born 1996), actress
Personalities who have worked on site
- George Washington Carver (around 1864–1943), botanist, chemist and inventor in agricultural research , worked and died in Tuskegee
Individual evidence
- ↑ Website of the city, city history ( Memento of the original from March 22, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ US Postal Service - ZIP Codes
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated December 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Website of the city, members of the city administration ( Memento of the original from April 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ See “Pronunciation of Tuskegee”. In: TheFreeDictionary, accessed October 3, 2010.
- ^ According to Airforce report, see report: Tuskegee Airmen lost 25 bombers . In: USA Today April 1, 2007.
- ↑ Dr. Daniel L. Haulman, Air Force Historical Research Agency, Tuskegee airmen chronology (Expanded Edition: 4 January 2011) ( Memento of the original from November 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
