Three people will be honored at the town's Black History Month celebration on Feb.4.
Peter J. Newman, a retired judge, Thomas Watkins, who served in the 92nd Infantry during World War II and the late Jean Roland Esquerre, a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, are the honorees.
Newman was the first African-American candidate elected town-wide when he ran for Suffolk County District Court in 1989, a post to which he was appointed earlier that year. He previously served as a lawyer in private practice, a bureau chief in the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office and a federal Treasury agent. He retired from the bench in 1997.
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Watkins, a longtime Huntington resident who served in the 92nd Infantry (part of the legendary Buffalo Soldiers) during World War II, who worked for many years at the Northport Veterans Administration Hospital and for the Town of Huntington. At 92 years old, he is the oldest member of the Bethel A.M. E. Church.
Esquerre, who lived in Huntington for 33 years before moving to Florida in 1993, was a member of the Tuskegee Airmen and worked for many years for both the Republic Aviation Corp. and for the Grumman Corp., where he served as a design engineer and test director and cognizant systems engineer for the Lunar Excursion Module vehicles. He was also active in the community, serving on Huntington Hospital's board of directors and on the executive committee of the NAACP's Huntington Branch, as well as other community groups. He died June 27, 2009.
