A Pennsylvania collector has donated a notable item that is now on display at the African American Military History Museum in Mississippi.

James McComb Sinclair, a military memorabilia collector from Philadelphia, Pa., gifted the Hattiesburg museum the Navy tunic that belonged to Ensign Jesse Leroy Brown, the U.S. Navy’s first Black aviator.

Sinclair received a gift of a Navy tunic from his aunt several years ago. The name inside the tag read J.L. Brown, and after several years of owning the garment, Sinclair decided to research the name and learned the story of the trailblazing aviator, who happened to be a native of Mississippi’s Pine Belt.

“Jesse Leroy Brown is an American hero, but sadly, so many of his personal effects have been lost to history. Receiving this tunic has been such a

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