The Tuskegee Airmen are being commemorated with a freshly designed quarter from the U.S. Mint that will go into circulation in early 2021.
Trained at Tuskegee Army Air Field in Southeast Alabama, the legendary World War II aviators were the first black pilots in the U.S. Armed Forces. Serving during WWII, they flew over 15,000 missions and had one of the best track records of success of any combat unit in the war. They returned home to a segregated America.
Inscribed at the top of their quarter are the words “Tuskegee Airmen – They Fought Two Wars.”
The coin specifically honors the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site in Tuskegee, Alabama, which was established as a historic site in 1998 and is overseen by the National Park Service.
The Tuskegee quarter will be the last of the U.S. Mint’s America the Beautiful Quarters Program. The program produced quarters featuring a national park or historic site from all 56 states, districts and territories of the United States.
The program’s quarters were issued in the order that the featured locations received their federal designation as a national park/historic site. The Tuskegee coin is the 56th and final coin in the program. The site was designated in 1998 — 166 years after Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas in 1832 — which was the first quarter issued as part of the program in 2010.
Featured most prominently on the quarter is a depiction of an Airman suiting up to take flight. Behind him are two P-51 Mustangs in mid-flight and the Moton Field control tower.
“The inscription “THEY FOUGHT TWO WARS” is arced across the top as a reference to the dual battles the Tuskegee Airmen fought–fascism abroad and racial discrimination at home,” according to the U.S. Mint’s page for the coin.
Henry Thornton is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him by email: [email protected] or on Twitter @HenryThornton95.
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