(MANCHESTER, NJ) -- The addition of African-American aviators during World War II not only strengthened U.S. military might, but also propelled our nation toward racial and social equality. Join historian Paul E. Zigo for "The Tuskegee Airmen: America's First Black Pilots" at the Ocean County Library Manchester Branch on Tuesday, February 27. The event begins at 2:00pm.

The training of the primarily African-American group on five airfields surrounding Tuskegee University in Alabama represented the first de-segregated training to take place within the U.S. military structure. The program will cover the history of the Tuskegee Airmen’s formation, recount the unit’s wartime accomplishments, and elaborate its long-range influence on American society.

Paul E. Zigo (Colonel, USA, Ret.) is founder of New Jersey’s World War II Era Studies Institute. He authored Unconditional Surrender: Witnessing History – May 1945 and co-wrote When Men Have To Die: Harry J. Whittinghill’s Memoir of the Bataan Death March, both available for borrowing at the Ocean County Library.

His presentation is one of more than 20 programs of military, political and social history primarily from World War II through the Vietnam conflict that the Institute offers.

Please register at www.theoceancountylibrary.org/events for this free program in observance of Black History Month. For more information, stop by the OCL Manchester Branch, 21 Colonial Drive, or call (732) 657-7600.