THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 1, 1996 TAG: 9601260278
SECTION: THE AFRICAN AMERICAN TODAYPAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Special section
SOURCE: Charlise Lyles
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
``The People Could Fly,'' a collection of black folk tales, bears an inspiring cover.
It depicts folks, old and young, in wingless flight, soaring, undoubtedly, toward greater struggle and achievement, despite troubling skies.
The story of the African in America is one of incredible flight. Every chapter tells of lives that verily soared to attain individual freedom and racial equality.
Oh, how so many flew.
Around 1780, James Bowser left Nansemond County to join the Virginia Continental Line, though freedom for blacks was not guaranteed. In World War II, the Tuskegee Airmen defied the gravity of segregation. And Carl Brashear, the Navy's first black master diver, dove on despite the loss of a leg.
Black women flew, too. To schools and colleges to educate went Annie B. Willis, Marian Palmer Capps and others.
Also, there are everyday, history makers that you wrote to tell us about. Though their stories embody the American ideal, there are so many others omitted by textbooks.
In this, The Virginian-Pilot's first special section on African-American achievement, we've tried to expand those texts, to tell of the African-American's flight to achieve. < ILLUSTRATION: Photo
JIM WALKER/The Virginian-Pilot
AFRICAN AMERICAN ACHIEVERS
Carl Brashear, the first black deep-sea diver in the Navy, lost his
left leg after an accident in a top-secret nuclear mission. He's one
of many black achievers you'll read about in this section. Story,
Page 10.
Graphic
ON THE COVER
The painting on the cover page, titled ``Shoowa Dance,'' is an
acrylic painting by artist Ken Wright from his Primitive Heritage
Series.
KEYWORDS: SPECIAL SECTION SUPPLEMENT AFRICAN-AMERICAN
HISTORY BLACK HISTORY
by CNB