Retired Lt. Col. Harry Stewart Jr, a decorated World War II pilot who broke racial barriers as a Tuskegee Airmen and earned honors for his combat heroism, has died. He was 100.

The Tuskegee Airman National Museum in Detroit has confirmed the death of Lt. Col. Harry T. Stewart Jr., one of the last surviving fighter pilots of that era. Stewart, who died in his Bloomfield Hills home on Feb.

His boyhood dream to be an adventurous pilot was fulfilled thanks to World War II. But, as a civilian, racial prejudice kept him out of the cockpit.