Tuskegee Airmen traveling banner makes stop at Lake Anna YMCA
PHOTO PROVIDED
From left, Jada Young, Lake Anna YMCA staff, Jim Sawin, Akron Area YMCA Vice President, and Audrey Sims, Lake Anna YMCA patron.
By JIM COLLVER
Celtic Club
The Celtic Club Green Man Project banner honoring the Tuskegee Airmen- the Red Tails- America’s first Black fighter pilots in World War II is once again being displayed during Black History Month in February. Its second stop was at the Lake Anna YMCA in Barberton.
Jim Sawin, Vice President of Membership Branch Operations for the Akron Area YMCA said, “The Lake Anna YMCA was honored to display the Tuskegee Airmen banner during Black History Month to remember their service to our country.”
The Project, which has also included the planting of numerous Pin Oak and Red Maple trees, began at the Kent State University MAC Center in April 2022. The inspiration for the Project was the lifelong friendship between two team mates from the 1948-50 KSU Men’s basketball team- John Collver and Bill Cox. Bill, who passed away in 2019 at the age of 97, would have been 104 this March 7 and was the third Black athlete at Kent State. He was a Flight Mechanic for the Tuskegee Airmen in Alabama during WWII. John celebrated his 99th birthday Feb. 27. He was a Bow Machine Gunner on the USS Copahee, a Navy aircraft carrier in the South Pacific in WWII.
Gaining respect was common for Bill Cox, who helped break discrimination barriers for student-athletes in this area. Collver said it was not uncommon for Cox to receive unfair treatment at times, and he said there was never a time the KSU players ever left the side of their friend and teammate.
“If a restaurant refused to serve Bill, then they were not going to serve us either,” Collver said. “We left and found a place for us all, because we were all the same.”
The banner was displayed at 22 locations in 2025 and will continue to be displayed throughout the year in 2026. The Celtic Club hopes to plant another Pin Oak tree- in Portage County- to honor three Kent State team mates from the late 1940s: John Collver, Bill Cox and Leroy Peoples. Leroy was the second Black athlete at Kent State and was a teacher at Kent Roosevelt High School and the Service Director for the City of Kent. John was a pallbearer at his funeral.
