An ongoing illustrative history study
This piece originally posted 5/27/2024
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This Decoration Day/Memorial Day we examine the remarkable life and career of Benjamin O. Davis Sr., the first Black man to attain the rank of General in the U.S. Army. Born in Washington, D.C. in either 1877 (his assertion when he enlisted) or 1880 (the more likely date), Davis attended the famed M Street/Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, where he excelled academically, enough to be able to attend classes at Howard University during his senior year. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1898 and almost immediately saw action in what would later be known as the Spanish-American War, as part of the 8th United States Volunteer Infantry (an all-Black regiment).
After the war the 8th Infantry disbanded and Davis joined the 10th Cavalry (aka, the Buffalo Soldiers), and rose to the rank of Sergeant Major. One of Davis's mentors at the time was Col. Charles Young, himself one of West Point's first Black graduates and the first-ever Black man to reach the rank of Colonel (and almost certainly the topic of a future lesson in this series). With Young's recommendation, in 1901 Davis received a field officer's commission and became a Second Lieutenant. Over the course of the next few decades he served in a number of distinguished positions, to include teaching roles at Wilberforce University and also Tuskegee (for the duration of World War I). He married Elnora Dickerson in 1902, with whom he would raise a son and a daughter. By 1920, while stationed in the Philippines, Davis attained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He made full Colonel in 1938, assuming command of the 369th Regiment (the "Harlem Hellfighters"), and in 1940 was appointed to the rank of Brigadier General.
By the time World War II was underway, Davis was nearly into his sixties when he was at last promoted to the rank of General. While he was stationed in Europe, he himself saw little action --relegated mostly to an inspection role-- but he made use of his elevated rank to push for desegregation amongst the units. After World War II he was appointed Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Army, and in 1948 at last retired from military service in a ceremony presided over by President Truman. General Davis died in 1970 and is interred at Arlington National Cemetery.
Significantly, Davis's son Benjamin O. Davis Jr. would one day himself break barriers by becoming one of the very first Black men to attain the rank of General, in the U.S. Air Force.
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