Maj. William Burnett (Tuskegee Airmen photo)
The Tuskegee Airmen, a group of African-American pilots who fought in World War II, cancelled their appearance last month at Warren City Hall after receiving threatening calls, The Macomb Daily reports.
The group was set to appear there to celebrate Black History Month in Warren.
The Macon-Thomas-West Bloomfield Chapter of Tuskegee Airmen was scheduled to appear Feb. 22 to talk about their ability to rise above adversity and achieve their goals,
The group declined to disclose specifics about the calls. “I don’t want to go into it,” retired Maj. William Burnett, a chapter founder and president, tells Mitch Hotts of the suburban paper.
“We had some disturbing phone calls,” he said. “I am not going to go into the politics. We simply chose not to do it.”
Warren Police Commissioner Bill Dwyer told the paper his office is not investigating any threats because “they were not made in our jurisdiction.”
The city ended up lining up a replacement, the Montford Point Marines from North Carolina, the first African Americans to serve in the United States Marine Corps in World War II.
