Cuba Gooding Jr. visits Muskogee

Jan. 7—Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. walked through Booker T. Washington Cemetery to see the graves of men who flew with the Tuskegee Airmen — Lt. Oscar D. Hutton Jr., Lt. Faythe McGinnis and Dr. Robert C. Smith.

He visited during a ceremony Saturday morning before he was to speak at a reunion showing of his movie "The Tuskegee Airmen," which was filmed partly in Muskogee. Several people came to the cemetery Saturday morning for a memorial for the Muskogee fliers.

Gooding said he's honored and overwhelmed by seeing the graves.

"I can feel them here amongst us," he said. "I've got to tell you, I've only been here for a few hours, and I see the passion on all the faces, Black, white. Everyone knows my most passionate movies are about the history of us Americans coming together to show our best spirit. I did a film, 'Men of Honor,' in which a son never forgets. Now we're talking about a country that should never forget these warriors and that they made the ultimate sacrifice so we can have our freedom."

A fourth Muskogee area flier, Nathan Sams, is buried in another cemetery.

Dennis Wilhite, who is helping restore the historic Black cemetery, said he wanted Gooding to know about the Muskogee area fliers and other veterans.

He pointed to Hutton's grave, which shows he was killed in action over Germany.

"And I want him to know who this guy was, who Faythe was; he was the first casualty in the Tuskegee program," Wilhite said." And Dr. Smith came back and opened a medical practice in Muskogee in 1961, and he gave service to the Black community and he owned this cemetery.

Wilhite told those at the cemetery, "There are almost 400 veterans buried in this cemetery."

"Every one of them are African American," he said. "Every one of them that were Tuskegee Airmen had a college degree."

He said he is passionate about honoring veterans buried at Booker T. Washington.

"And why I am passionate about these guys here is that they fought for a country where they couldn't vote, they couldn't own land. To go to restaurants, you had to order and go to the back," he said. "You tell me what a great country we live in. You tell me why we shouldn't honor people like this, when all they wanted to do was have the hope of having maybe their children never forget them."

Wilhite said he wants the cemetery designated as a historic landmark.