History Shaping Tuskegee
From the Tuskegee Institute to historic Moton Field, Tuskegee is a place that some people are proud to call home.
“Tuskegee is my heart and soul. It’s not just a world famous community but it’s a little humbling small town and that’s what amazing about it,” says Vester Marable.
“I love it so much the progress and it has advanced from me growing up as a child up to today,” says Kelvin Stephens.
Mayor Tony Haygood says Tuskegee’s past is the foundation, from which the town launched.
The things that people did that were here before us-a lot of positive things that they did-even with the va hospital which at one time was the 3rd largest hospital in the United States,” says Mayor Tony Haygood.
One of the biggest pending projects that people here are hoping for, is the possibility of a facility housing T100 Training Jets.
“We’re competing against Boeing and Lockheed,” says Haygood.
“It would definitely help us by bringing more vendors here and that way it would create more jobs.”
The facililty could bring in 750 jobs and more tourist like charles pickering who is visiting the area for the first time.
“It would definitely help us by bringing more vendors here and that way it would create more jobs,” says Stephens.
Pickering says he knew some of the original Tuskegee Airmen.
“Just the fact to actually be here and see in the flesh where these guys trained-it’s one thing to see it in a movie but it’s another thing to actually walk the ground that they walked on,” says Pickering.
For people living in Tuskegee, it’s tourists like Pickering, they believe can help spread the word about the significance of Tuskegee.
“I want Tuskegee to become a world renouned tourist destination. We have Tuskegee Institute National Historic site, the Tuskegee National Historic site, the National Park Service has made a major investment in this community and I hope that our citizens in Alabama and the world take advantage of the historic resources that are here,” says Marable.
