Portion of I-57 renamed to honor Tuskegee Airmen

MARKHAM | For Bev Dunjill, the fact that officials gathered peacefully Monday to honor black World War II Army Air Corps pilots reflects societal changes in the past six decades.

Dunjill, president emeritus of Tuskegee Airmen Inc.'s Chicago chapter, was one of nine of the pilots on hand Monday. He said laws of segregation and morals of that era would have prevented black and white people from gathering in one group.

Any public tribute honoring an African-American accomplishment also would have been unlikely.

"It would have been against the law for us to be together like this," said Dunjill, who spoke during a ceremony to mark the renaming of the Cook County portion of Interstate 57 the Tuskegee Airmen Memorial Trail.

"There has been a 180-degree change from the ways of the past, and we are able to do the things we do today because of it," Dunjill said. Four widows of deceased airmen also attended the ceremony.

The ceremony at Markham City Hall attracted government officials from across Chicago's South Side and surrounding suburbs, including Gov. Pat Quinn.

Quinn cited the 900 citations of commendation and the 150 Flying Crosses earned by the Tuskegee Airmen, who were named such because the original units were trained at the all-black Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.

"I'm honored to be in the presence of greatness," Quinn said of the airmen. "I think President Franklin D. Roosevelt said it best when he talked of our servicemen ... as being the 'pride of our nation.'"

The ceremony Monday culminated a political process by which state Rep. Marlow Colvin and state Sen. Kwame Raoul, both Chicago Democrats, sponsored a resolution renaming I-57 from 99th Street in Chicago to Sauk Trail in Matteson for the Tuskegee Airmen.

Signs for the I-57 portion will be erected Tuesday morning, and Ann Schneider, secretary of the Illinois Department of Transportation, said she believes it is positive the state is honoring these men "on behalf of a country that was not willing to accept them (at the time) for who they were."

Area entities participating in the ceremony included the Bloom Trail High School Naval ROTC unit, which posted colors and led the gathering in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Also on hand was Lansing Village President Norm Abbott, who said he was pleased to be included in the ceremony.

Abbott said he wishes schoolchildren would be more aware of the Tuskegee Airmen.

"Very few people are aware of what these men did," he said. "We just don't pay enough attention at times."