black-history | He moves like Jaeger

In late February, I was tasked with an assignment to research a topic that relates to Wisconsin. It could be a person, place, product, or event that we would be excited to learn more about. Naturally, I thought about the Milwaukee Bucks right away, but after exploring other ideas with my family, I decided to research and highlight my Great Great Uncle Alfred Gorham: Wisconsin’s only Tuskegee Airman!

All throughout March, I had weekly deadlines to meet, which included coming up with a project title, identifying credible sources so I could learn more about my topic, building a display board, and preparing a speech. It was a lot of hard work! Luckily, my family helped me along the way… We texted with Uncle Norman and cousin Michele to gather artifacts, and then my parents organized family movie nights (complete with Papa’s favorite microwave popcorn) so we could watch documentaries and movies about the flight and plight of Tuskegee Airmen during World War II.

Then, on March 28th, after completing my display board and presenting my speech to fellow Mel-Min fourth graders, we hosted a fair in the elementary gymnasium that was open to the public! I got a little nervous once people started rushing the doors to ask questions about our research, but some of my first friendly customers were Grandma and Grandpa, so that put me more at ease. Plus, I had studied hard so I knew there weren’t too many questions I couldn’t answer.

All in all, it was a great day! People seemed very interested in learning about this important piece of Wisconsin history, which I feel lucky to have such a personal connection to. And on top of that, I got selected to present my project at regionals!!

So, on April 23, I traveled to Black River Falls to brag about my great great uncle to a larger audience. I was thrilled to receive such rave reviews on that bigger stage, but the best part was getting to tell Uncle Alfred’s story because the Tuskegee Airmen story went untold for too long. I hope I did him proud!