Tuskegee Airman and later College President Roscoe Conkling Brown, Jr., was born March 9, 1922, in Washington, DC, to Roscoe Conkling Brown Sr., a dentist, and Vivian Kemp Brown, a teacher. He had an older sister, Portia Brown.
Roscoe Brown graduated with honors from racially segregated Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Washington, DC, in 1940. He enrolled in Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts, graduating as its valedictorian with a Bachelor of Science degree in Health and Physical Education in 1943. Brown then enlisted in the United States Army and was assigned to the Army Air Force Tuskegee Airmen program. He completed flight school in class 44-C-SE at the Tuskegee Army Air Base in 1944.
Assigned as a fighter pilot in the 100th Fighter Squadron, 332nd Fighter Group of the 15th Air Force, Brown and other pilots in the Squadron would be known as the “Red Tail Angels.” Brown was soon promoted to the rank of captain and became commander of the Squadron.
On March 24, 1945, while escorting Allied B-17s in a bombing run over Berlin, Germany, Brown downed a German Me 262 jet fighter, becoming the first 15th Air Force fighter pilot to down an advanced plane of this type in combat. He also later downed a German Fw 190 fighter. Brown flew 68 combat missions in Europe during World War II, which included a combination of strafing runs and escort missions for heavy bombers.
After the war, from 1946 to 1948, Brown served on the physical education faculty at the HCBU, West Virginia State College (now West Virginia State University). He later earned Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from New York University in 1949 and 1951 respectively. During this period, also Brown served as the Director of the Institute of Afro-American Affairs and a professor of education at New York University.
In 1977, Roscoe C. Brown became the fifth president of the Bronx Community College of the City University of New York system, where he served for 17 years. While president of the college, he created and implemented “Run the Bronx,” an annual health and fitness activity that attracted over 1,500 athletes globally to race within the city. “Run the Bronx” is the second oldest footrace in New York’s five boroughs.
A recipient of a plethora of awards, citations, and accolades, Brown was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humanities from his alma mater, Springfield College, on May 24, 1992, and inducted into the National Association for Sports and Physical Education Hall of Fame. On March 29, 2007, United States President George W. Bush awarded Brown the highest civilian award in the country, the Congressional Gold Medal, His other military honors include the Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery, and the Air Medal with eight Oak Leaf Clusters.
Brown, who was married twice, first to Bernadette C. Brown, and Later to Laura Jones, had four children: Doris “Bunnie” Brown Bodine, Diane McDougall, Dennis Brown, and Donald Brown. Dr. Roscoe C. Brown, Jr., one of the famed Tuskegee Airmen of World War II, died on July 2, 2016, in Montefiore Hospital, New York City. He was 94.
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“Captain Roscoe Brown,” https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/captain-roscoe-brown; Karen Grigsby Bates, “Remembering Tuskegee Airman Roscoe Brown, Educator and Civil Rights Trailblazer,” https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/07/06/484792854/honoring-tuskegee-airman-roscoe-brown; “Roscoe C. Brown, Jr.,” https://cafriseabove.org/roscoe-c-brown-jr/.
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