‘Pride’: Gastonia to honor local Tuskegee Airman nearly 80 years after service

GASTONIA, N.C. — For decades, a local Tuskegee Airman’s valor went unrecognized.

Now, preparations are underway for a weeklong celebration to honor Marshall Cabiness and his service to our country.

There will be a parade through Gastonia, a proclamation for Cabiness, who was also the city’s first Black licensed pilot, and a public recognition for the World War II veteran who served in one of the most storied units: The Tuskegee Airmen.

They’re honors Cabiness never got before he died.

Channel 9′s Gaston County Reporter Ken Lemon spoke with Cabiness’ loved ones about his life and the overdue recognition.

“It’s time for this generation to see what it takes to stand,” said Cabiness’ cousin, Tanzi Barrow Wallace.

Wallace said Cabiness stood tall through the worst of it.

“He came up in the Great Depression. These people were survivors,” Wallace said.

Cabiness’ family said he graduated at the top of his class from Highland High School, graduated with honors from Morehouse College, and much later became one of the first Black people to receive an MBA at Wharton.

In 1941, he earned his wings at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, an all-Black Army Air Corp.

“My grandfather, I just think that’s so amazing,” said Marshall Cabiness III, his grandson.

He had to parachute out when his plane went down in training, but he continued to provide ground support to defeat the Nazis.

But Cabiness returned to a world that didn’t acknowledge his service.

His family said Cabiness was an insurance adjuster who handled claims from the bombed 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, and they say he stepped in when underwriters wouldn’t pay for Martin Luther King Jr.’s bombed home.

“My grandfather paid for the repairs out of his own pocket,” his grandson told Lemon.

For decades, that part of Cabiness’ life and his service was just chatter at the family dinner table with no public honor. That is, until next week.

“We had a historical fact that no longer should be silent,” said Dot Guthrie, who is the director of the African American History and Culture Museum.

Next week, the mobile museum for the Tuskegee Airmen will be in Gastonia. Cabiness’ story will be added to it, along with teaching guides about his life.

“It’s here, we just need to share it,” Guthrie said.

It’s a contribution almost 80 years old that’s finally acknowledging a man who died in 1989.

“The pride outweighs the disappointment that it’s taken so long,” said his cousin, Peter Cabiness.

The parade for Marshall Cabiness will end in front of Tabernacle Baptist Church. His family members will then receive the acknowledgement and the honor he had been denied for so long.

Lemon asked, but no one can say why it has taken so long to acknowledge Marshall Cabiness’ service.

The mobile museum arrives in Gastonia on April 18. The parade starts on April 22 and will be followed by proclamations in honor of Cabiness.

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