Legislation to rename the Morris Heights Post Office after former Tuskegee Airman and Bronx Community College President Dr. Roscoe C. Brown Jr. was approved in the U.S. Senate this week and now heads to President Barack Obama for approval.
Congressman Jose Serrano introduced the legislation in September along with Congressmen Charles Rangel, Eliot Engel and the rest of the New York delegation in the House of Representatives. In a letter to the chairman of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs committees in the Senate, Senators Schumer and Gillibrand expressed their strong support for the bill.
Brown was a member of the Tuskegee Airmen and flew 68 missions. He was one of the first American fighter pilots to shoot down a German fighter jet during World War II. Brown earned his graduate and doctoral degrees from New York University, where he went on to serve as a professor of education and director of Afro-American Affairs. He served as president of Bronx Community College for 17 years.