Veteran of Tuskegee Airmen dies at 82

TAMPA, Fla., Aug. 14 (UPI) -- Henry Cabot Lodge Bohler, who flew with the Tuskegee Airmen in the U.S. Army Air Force, has died at the age of 82.

Bohler fell two years ago, causing injuries that eventually killed him, The Tampa Tribune reported.

After he left the military in 1947, Bohler went on to break barriers for blacks. When he moved to Florida, he was legally barred from becoming a licensed business owner but he went on to become Tampa’s first black electrician.

In 1962, he won a two-year legal fight to desegregate the Lowry Park Zoo, beginning the fight after he, his wife and their three children were not allowed in.

"My husband was the type of person who, when he said he was going to do something, that was it," Clifford Marie Bohler told the Tribune. "He did it."

When he sued the zoo, he became a target for police. On one occasion, he was pulled over five times during a trip to federal court. But he won his fight when a federal judge ordered Tampa to desegregate all its recreational facilities.