FEATURE: Board Chair Webb Among Honored Guests at Presidential Inauguration

1/16/2009

Wake County Board of Commissioners Chair Harold H. Webb, an original member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, attended the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday, January 20, 2009, in Washington, D.C. Webb was invited by the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. He will sit with other Tuskegee Airmen, former members of Congress and other honored guests in the terrace below the podium where Obama will be sworn in.

"It is an honor to literally have a front row seat to history being made," said Webb. "I view the location of our seats as symbolic, because Obama stands on the shoulders of my fellow airmen and other trail blazers that helped pave the way for desegregation and ultimately, his place as the first African-American president."

The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African-American pilots in the U.S. Army Air Corps., who flew during World War II. Their performance during the war helped persuade President Harry S. Truman to desegregate the military in 1948.

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