The Tuskegee Airmen were the first black pilots to serve in World War Two, successfully overcoming the racial segregation of the Army Air Corps.  During their service, they never lost an American bomber they escorted on combat missions, earning the respect and gratitude of their fellow airmen.  One of these Tuskegee Airmen was Thomas L. Hawkins, a Glen Rock, NJ resident and an alumni of Central School.

To honor Hawkins' contributions to the war effort and the desegregation of the Armed Forces, the undersigned respectfully request that the Glen Rock Board of Education take appropriate steps to name Central School as the Thomas L. Hawkins Central School.  This is in line with other schools in the district that have been named in honor of notable individuals, including Byrd School, Hamilton School and Coleman School.

Background:  

Thomas Lawson Hawkins was born in 1923 in Springfield, Massachusetts and moved to Glen Rock with his parents, William and Rebecca, when he was a young child. The family lived in several homes over the years, residing on Hamilton Avenue and Broad Street before settling on Dean Street around 1941.

Hawkins was very bright and athletic and had a gift for vocal music. He attended Central School, Glen Rock’s new Junior High School on Harristown Road, and Ridgewood High School (as most Glen Rock students did at the time), graduating as a member of RHS Class of 1942.

In high school, Hawkins was a member of the track and football teams and of the Glee Club and A Capella Choir. His family attended the Mt. Bethel Baptist Church on South Broad Street where he sang in the Junior Choir. He attended Temple University’s School of Chiropody in Philadelphia, determined to become a podiatrist, but it was a time of war and a college degree would have to wait. On March 17, 1943, Hawkins enlisted in the Army Air Forces and began his training to become one of the World War Two famed Tuskegee Airmen.

The recruits enlisted into a program that was ordered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt over the objections of his top generals. The program’s goal was to train African-American men to fly and maintain combat aircraft. This was a revolutionary concept for a country that was still deeply segregated, especially in the South where much of the flight training was to take place.

In November 1944, Flight Officer Hawkins was assigned to the 100th Fighter Squadron, 332nd Fighter Group, and by January 1st he had 28 missions and three kills to his credit. He was awarded the Air Medal and Oak Leaf Cluster in early 1945 for bombing missions against German trains carrying supplies to the Russian Front. Soon after, he was named flight leader of his group and was in command of a squadron of nine pilots. He named his P-51 Mustang “Gloria” after the woman he married in Alabama on Christmas Day in 1943.

On March 7, 1945, Flight Officer Hawkins was killed taking off from the Ramitelli Airdrome in Italy when his plane crashed on the runway during a mission to Munich. He was 21 years old. 

When he crashed, Hawkins was in an unfamiliar plane. His regular plane experienced engine trouble that morning so he switched to a different airplane in order to complete his mission.

Thomas Lawson Hawkins is buried at Valleau Cemetery in Ridgewood, New Jersey.

Now, 80 years after being killed in action, it is time to formally acknowledge this native son of Glen Rock with a tribute that will inform generations to come of his remarkable service and contributions to advancing America's founding principles.