Former Tuskegee Airman dies

EDISON TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- Addison M. McLeon, the first black state assemblyman from Hudson County, N.J., and a former Tuskegee Airman, has died. He was 84.

McLeon, who died Wednesday at the Menlo Park Veterans Memorial Home in Edison Township, served in the New Jersey Legislature from 1966 to 1970.

A native of Harnett County, N.C., McLeon moved with his family to Jersey City in 1923 and later graduated from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. He served in the Army Air Force from 1944 to 1946, where he became a Tuskegee Airman. His fiery spirit also led him to the Army's welterweight, middleweight and lightweight boxing championships.

In the 1940s, McLeon was a housing management aide with the Federal Housing Administration in Washington, and he later managed several public housing facilities in New Jersey.