Roscoe_Brown
Roscoe C. Brown Jr.
Tuskagee airman (1922–2016)
Dr. Roscoe Conkling Brown Jr. (March 9, 1922 – July 2, 2016) was one of the Tuskegee Airmen and a squadron commander of the 100th Fighter Squadron of the 332nd Fighter Group.[1]
Brown was born in Washington, D.C., in 1922.[2][3] His father, Roscoe C. Brown Sr. (1884–1963), was a dentist and an official in the United States Public Health Service[4] who was born as George Brown and had changed his name to honor Roscoe Conkling, a strong supporter of the rights of African Americans during Reconstruction. His mother was the former Vivian Kemp, a teacher.[2]
Brown graduated from Springfield College, Springfield, Massachusetts, where he was valedictorian of the Class of 1943.[5] He joined the U.S. Army, and graduated from the Tuskegee Flight School on March 12, 1944, as member of class 44-C-SE[1]
During combat with the U.S. Army Air Forces in Europe during World War II, he served as a flight leader and operations officer. On a March 24, 1945, mission to Berlin, Captain Brown shot down a German Me 262 jet fighter, becoming the first 15th Air Force pilot to shoot down a jet. On March 31, he downed a Fw 190 fighter.[6][7] He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.[8]
He was appointed commander in June 1945, which was after VE Day (May 8, 1945).
After the war, Brown resumed his education. His doctoral dissertation at New York University[8] was on exercise physiology.[9]
Brown became a professor at New York University and directed the NYU Institute of Afro-American Affairs (now the Institute of African American Affairs) in 1950.[10] Brown hosted The Soul of Reason, a radio talk show with interviewees which included politicians, professional athletes, medical professionals, and contemporary artists, which aired between 1971 and 1986.[11] Brown also hosted Black Arts (1970–71)[12] and CUNY TV show African American Legends.[10] Brown was President of Bronx Community College from 1977 to 1993 and director for the Center for Education Policy at the City University of New York.[2] Among his many distinguished awards, honors, and recognitions, he was elected into the National Academy of Kinesiology (née American Academy of Physical Education)[13] in 1971 as an Associate Fellow.[14] In 1992, Brown received an honorary doctor of humanics degree from his alma mater, Springfield College.
On March 29, 2007, Brown attended a ceremony in the U.S. Capitol rotunda, where he and the other Tuskegee Airmen were collectively awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in recognition of their service.[15]
He was also a member and past president of the 100 Black Men of America New York Chapter.[16] and professor of Urban Education at the CUNY Graduate Center.
Brown died on July 2, 2016, at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, N.Y. at the age of 94.[2][17][18] He had resided in Riverdale in his latter years.[19] His ashes were interred at Arlington National Cemetery on what would have been his 95th birthday, March 9, 2017.[20]
