By Brigit Katz | Smithsonian.com
For much of his adult life, Granville Coggs was known as “Dr. Coggs,” a respected radiologist who specialized in the detection of breast cancer. But in his later years, Coggs preferred to introduce himself with a title that referenced his pioneering contributions to the Second World War: “Granville Coggs, Tuskegee Airman.”
At a time when racial segregation was enforced by law in the United States, the Tuskegee Airmen served as the first black aviators in the U.S. Army Air Corps. Cogs, who died on Tuesday, May 7, at the age of 93, was one of the few Tuskegee Airmen still alive in 2019.
