University of Kentucky Professor Honors the Tuskegee Airmen

Filed in African-American History on January 24, 2014

Bobby Scroggins, associate professor of ceramics in the School of Art and Visual Studies of the University of Kentucky, was commissioned to cast two bronze sculptures of two Tuskegee Airmen with ties to Kentucky. The sculptures portray General Benjamin O. Davis and Brigadier General Noel F. Parrish.

General Davis, whose father was a Buffalo Soldier, was a 1932 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy. He was the commander of the 99th Fighter Squadron of the Tuskegee Airmen which flew missions over North Africa and Sicily during World War II. After the war, General Davis commanded the 477th Bombardment Group, which was stationed at Godman Army Air Field at Fort Knox, Kentucky. General Davis died in 2002.

Parrish, a native of Versailles, Kentucky, and a graduate of Rice University, was a White man who commanded training for the Tuskegee Army Air Field Command.

Professor Scroggins has been on the faculty at the University of Kentucky since 1990. He is a graduate of the Kansas City Arts Institute and holds a master of fine arts degree fro,m Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville

The art will become part of the permanent collection of the Aviation Museum of Kentucky.