The Black Informant | African American Commentary, News and Community Building

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.