Wearing their signature red ties, 1,200 students from Chicago’s Urban Prep High School’s three campuses attended a special opening-day screening Jan. 20 at Showplace Icon Theatre on West Roosevelt Road to see Red Tails, the new film about the famed Tuskegee Airmen. All of this thanks to the benevolence and generosity of two Urban Prep supporters, Byron Trott, founder, chair and CEO of BDT Capital Partners, and E. Robbie Robin-son, the firm’s principal.

CHICAGO (AP) - If the new big-budget film, "Red Tails," inspires you to learn more about the Tuskegee Airmen, there's a way to do that in Chicago.

United Airlines, the world's largest airline, has named an African-American chief pilot of one its five U.S. regions. Captain James Simons, Jr., a United Airlines pilot for 22 years, will manage 1,450 pilots for the Chicago-based airline's Northeast Region, which is headquartered at Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Va.

Scores of profiles that point out that Men of Excellence can come from all walks of life and work in all types of fields and live in all types of neighborhoods. More than 40 testaments to the fact that excellence is all around us if only we take the time to celebrate it.