By Nelson Hernandez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 26, 2006; Page C06
When Wesley Brown first walked through the gates of the U.S. Naval Academy in 1945, a solitary black man in an all-white school, he hardly could have imagined that more than 60 years later, hundreds of people would pay him tribute by breaking ground on a building bearing his name.
Back then, he was simply interested in surviving. If the torrid Annapolis summer, the punishing physical exercise and the demands of a rigorous course of study were not enough, Brown also had to deal with the torments inflicted by bigoted upperclassmen who wanted him to fail. (more…)
hundreds of years of freedom and we are still achieving 1st’s. Wow look how far we have come.
Wonderful story. CDR Brown fought the good fight. He overcame so much.
The story of GEN Benjamin O. Davis is another great one. Davis’s father was also a general. One of the first five generals in the US Army. Davis Jr. went to West Point where he was “shunned”. Imagine spending four years being ignored, no one spoke to him or acknowledged him.
Yet he overcame by his own personal inner strength. As everone knows, he then led the Tuskeegee airman, and eventually became the first Black 4-star general in American history.
The American military has led the way. During my twenty years, in spite of the predjudices that were still an undercurrent, it always seemed to me that a Black kid entering any branch of the service would get a fair shake.
God bless those pioneers who made this all possible.
“Imagine spending four years being ignored, no one spoke to him or acknowledged him.”
This is still a problem today, though not to the extreme of this example.
In my experience, only about 1 of every 500 or more whites will speak/acknowledge you.
However, to be fair, I recall that the Director of African American Affairs at the Univ. of KY admonished Black students about 4 years ago for not speaking to one another.
Even white faculty, and staffers, will largely ignore you, but Black faculty, etc., always enthusiastically speak to students.
John L.