The concluding lecture of the 2023 Hosmer-Williams Lecture Series was presented on Thursday, October 19, at 7 pm in Farley’s Music Hall, 37 Mill Street, Elsah, Illinois.
The lecture, Tuskegee Airmen: Brothers in Arms, was given by John Williams, former president and professor of Political Science at Principia College. Williams is well-known as a popular and entertaining speaker on the local lecture circuit, a lawyer, journalist, and experienced world traveler.
The Tuskegee Airmen all-black squadron was formed in January 1941, and trained at segregated Tuskegee Army Air Field in Tuskegee, Alabama, months before American entrance into World War II. The Airmen were fighter pilots, later bomber pilots, active in the Mediterranean, Italian, and southern France campaigns. Williams will tell the story of Arnold and George Cisco, brothers growing up in Jerseyville and graduates of Jersey Township High School in the 1930s. Highly decorated, they died tragically in military accidents after the war.
The Hosmer-Williams Lecture Series is a major contribution of Historic Elsah Foundation to the understanding of local history. The Series is underwritten, in part, by Liberty Bank of Alton, Illinois, by anonymous donors, and by the membership of Historic Elsah Foundation.
Pictured: George and Arnold Cisco. Photo credits: Irene Cisco