When the Naval Academy Gave Up Jim Crow
-
When Naval Academy Gave Up Jim Crow
By Paul Dickson
27Mar08 - In the fall of 1872, a black man from North Carolina named James Henry
Conyers was appointed to and accepted by the United States Naval Academy. He arrived
in Annapolis with strict orders from the Ulysses S. Grant White House that he be treated
with "the utmost consideration."
However, shortly after arriving he was set upon by a score of midshipmen who beat and
kicked him.
The gang also attacked the two "colored attendants"
who were appointed by the Naval Academy to
protect him from his white classmates.
A single white cadet with a sword stopped that
particular attack, but the following spring Conyers
was stoned by fellow midshipmen. Four white
midshipmen were discharged from the Academy.
Two weeks later the press - which was following
the Conyers appointment with great interest reported that he had failed to pass his examinations
and was being asked to leave the Academy.
Accounts of his expulsion did not allude to the
earlier assault, or the stoning.
Conyers was one of only three dozen blacks
appointed to the Academy through World War II.
Only six were actually admitted - Conyers and two
others during the 1870s, two more in the 1930s and
one in 1945. The first five were unmercifully hazed,
assaulted and driven out before their first year was over.
Historian Robert Schneller's new book concentrates on the story of the integration of the
Naval Academy in the years following World War II. His self-described "biographical
approach" relies on correspondence, memoirs and the oral histories of dozens of African
American midshipmen who recount their experiences in their own words.
Blue & Gold and Black traces the transformation of an institution that goes from an ugly
Jim Crow environment ruled by a bigoted minority of midshipmen to one which strives to
empower minorites.
This transformation was not without social cost and black midshipmen bore the brunt of
it, first only males and then the black women who were described as "double insults"
because of race and gender.
He meshes this approach with information from the official records to produce a hybrid
which perfectly suits this subject. As he explains in the introduction, most institutional
history is written from the top down, while most social history is written from the bottom
up. This book does it from both perspectives. The result is vivid history which blends the
style of Studs Turkel with the rigor of the best academic writing.
Much to his credit, Mr. Schneller never flinches in getting to the truth of what was going
on. He vividly describes one form of hazing so obscene and perverse that it cannot be
mentioned in a family newspaper and cites hateful jibes and jokes directed at these men
and women that make your skin crawl. That Mr. Schneller is a Navy historian working at
the Naval Historical Center underscores how far we have come in exorcising the demon
of racism from the military. Today, it can be argued that the military is the most
successfully integrated element of our diverse society.
The power of this book is that it allows us to follow these men and women in their own
words.
Readers will meet some remarkable individuals whose ability to prevail and lead is
inspiring. For example there is James Frezzell class of '68, a football player who during
his plebe year was injured tackling running back Larry Czonka (later to post a legendary
career with the Miami Dolphins).
Night after night Mr. Frezzell was subjected to targeted hazing - hour after hour of
standing at attention (even during meals ) and doing pushups. Deprived of countless
hours of normal study time, he was forced to study by flashlight and began losing weight
- 25 pounds in two months. Several white midshipmen tried to help him but never
through any direct action. His coachs and fellow football players did not intervene. Mr.
Frezzell finally concluded that "keeping the team lily-white was more important to the
upperclassmen on the team than winning."
His grades suffered and moments before he appeared before a panel which would expel
him honorably for academic failure, he was advised by an officer that he should file a
discrimination complaint against the Academy with a black Congressman. The officer
had been watching the brutality but did nothing about it. "If you knew this was going on
all year, why didn't you do something about it," we are told he thought, but did not say, at
the time with his jaw agape.
He went on to graduate from college elsewhere and became a successful executive. Years
later, as a member of the Naval Academy Alumni Association, he worked to recruit
minority midshipmen.
When Mr. Schneller asked him why he was willing to help he said, "It's the Christian way
of doing things."
Despite such accounts, there are leaders here who serve as antidotes to the officers who
are complicit - too timid, cowardly or racist - and choose to look the other way. CNO
Elmo R. Zumwalt (1970-1974) and an Annapolis grad, class of 1943, came in at a time of
turmoil - low morale, drug problems, racial tension and the departure from Vietnam - and
issued one of his famous directives, known as Z-Grams, on Equal Opportun-ties in the
Navy.
Z-66 targeted racism at every level of the service including Annapolis. With a great assist
from Zumwalt, the Academy was finally truly on its way to becoming an institution
where equal opportunity was a fundamental tenet.
There are heroic midshipmen as well - some are white, such as star quarterback Roger
Staubach who set a new standard for accepting blacks both on campus and in town - but
the real heroes are the black midshipmen, male and female, whose stories are as varied as
the people who tell them. As Mr. Schneller shows, the vast majority are highly motivated
men and women who despite being subjected to harassment and bigotry prevail and
emerge as leaders not only because of - but often despite - their days in Annapolis.
Paul Dickson is a former Navy Officer whose most recent work of narrative history was
"The Bonus Army: An American Epic," which he wrote with Thomas B. Allen.
BLUE & GOLD AND BLACK: RACIAL INTEGRATION OF THE U.S. NAVAL
ACADEMY
By Robert J. Schneller Jr.
Texas A&M, $45, 437 pages
LOAD-DATE: March 26, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper
BYLINE: By Paul Dickson, SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES
SECTION: BOOKS; B06
LENGTH: 1024 words
Copyright 2008 The Washington Times LLC
All Rights Reserved
The Washington Times
March 23, 2008 Sunday
Rear Admiral Bruce E. Grooms, USN
Rear Admiral Bruce E. Grooms, USN assumed command of Submarine Group Two in
March of 2008. He was the 81st Commandant of Midshipmen at the United States Naval
Academy, responsible for the military and professional development of the Brigade of
Midshipmen, the first African American to serve in this position.
Education
Originally from Maple Heights, Ohio, Grooms
graduated from the United States Naval Academy in
1980 with a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace
Engineering.
He earned a Master’s degree in National Security and
Strategic Studies from the Naval War College,
graduating with distinction and he attended Stanford
University as a National Security Affairs Fellow.
Career highlights
Following completion of nuclear power training, he
served in nearly every capacity aboard a variety of submarines including a tour as
Executive Officer of USS Pasadena (SSN 752) where he twice deployed to the Persian
Gulf.
His command tours include service as Commanding Officer of USS Asheville where he
completed an extremely successful Western Pacific deployment. During his tour the ship
received the Battle Efficiency "E" award, the Golden Anchor and Silver Anchor for the
highest retention in the submarine force. USS Asheville twice earned the Engineering
Excellence "E" award, won the Fleet Recreational Award for best quality of life
programs, and twice won the Submarine Squadron Three Commodore’s Cup as the best
all-around submarine in areas not related to battle efficiency. The ship was the Arleigh
Burke Award finalist for most improved in battle efficiency, and the Pacific Fleet NEY
Memorial Award finalist. Captain Grooms subsequently served as Commander,
Submarine Squadron Six where he was responsible for operations and maintenance of
five fast attack submarines and a floating dry-dock. Additionally, he provided local
oversight for two Guided Missile Submarines (SSGN) undergoing refueling and
conversion.
Captain Grooms’ staff assignments include service as a Naval Academy Company
Officer, the Senior Inspector on the Atlantic Fleet Nuclear Propulsion Examining Board
and service as the Senior Military Aide to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.
He also played varsity basketball for the Midshipman while attending the Naval
Academy.
Awards
Admiral Grooms was selected as the Vice Admiral Stockdale Inspirational Leadership
Award winner for 1999. He has also been awarded the Defense Superior Service Medal,
the Legion of Merit (two awards), the Meritorious Service Medal and various campaign
and unit awards.
Ken Johnson material from Blue & Gold and Black
Chapter 6
In the fall of 1970, the chief of naval personnel ordered the superintendent to
increase minority enrollment at the Academy to achieve Admiral Zumwalt’s goal of
proportional representation. For the rest of his tour as superintendent, Admiral Calvert
investigated and implemented organizational and procedural changes to increase African
American enrollment. Subsequent reports noted Admiral Calvert’s “personal interest in
and emphasis upon increasing the number of black midshipmen.”i
Fortunately for Admiral Calvert, a new officer had just arrived in Annapolis to
spearhead the minority recruiting effort. Lieutenant Kenneth Johnson had been assigned
to the Recruitment and Candidate Guidance Office as the Academy’s first minority
affairs officer in August 1970. Johnson grew up in Hallandale, Florida, where his father
was a hotel cook. After graduating from Iowa State University in 1963, he joined the
Navy and entered officer candidate school. He then went to sea on board three different
ships before coming ashore in Annapolis.
Johnson’s job was to help the Director of Recruitment and Candidate Guidance in
identifying and assisting qualified members of minority groups interested in attending the
Academy. “When I first came here,” he told a reporter near the end of his tour, “there had
been really no active recruitment of blacks. I figured there’d be about 150 black kids—
and I would have considered that small.” In fact, the 4300-man brigade included only
fifty-two African American midshipmen when he came on board.
Johnson perceived three obstacles standing in the way of increased black
enrollment: the Navy’s five-year service obligation for an Academy education; the
Academy’s lily-white image; and the negative publicity surrounding racial incidents in
the armed services. He found it difficult not to be discouraged. As he told a reporter for
the Baltimore Evening Sun, “so many things are against us.” Interest among minority
high school students in becoming midshipmen, even in Baltimore, the Academy’s
backyard, was “negligible.” Most students at Baltimore’s all-black Edmonson High
School preferred to enter historically black colleges and universities where, as
Edmonson’s head guidance counselor put it, “they are assured a good reception.” As
Johnson told a reporter for the Annapolis Evening Capital, “Young black prospects are
just not getting the word.” “Ours is an ‘image’ problem,” he added, “and it’s a bad one.
You tell them all the benefits the Navy can offer them, and you feel you’ve got them in
your corner. Then they go home and their parents tell them, ‘No way, the Navy’s Jim
Crow.’” Johnson later elaborated on the image problem. “I don’t feel . . . that minority
kids turn down the Navy because of an antimilitaristic attitude held by some white
youngsters,” he said. “To them it’s more of an antiwhite attitude, or antisystem. And
when you say system to most minority youngsters, that means white.”
Johnson concluded that the solution was dissemination of information. He devised
a two-pronged strategy to increase the Academy’s outreach into the black community.
The first involved marketing. Johnson spent the fall and winter of 1970-1971 traveling to
black communities around the country and talking to high school students, principals,
guidance counselors, and minority organizations about the opportunities for African
Americans and other groups at the Naval Academy. In one month alone, he visited high
schools in Dallas, Texas; Pensacola, Florida; Trenton, Willingboro, and Camden, New
Jersey; Colorado Springs, Colorado; and Detroit, Michigan. He found that students in
black high schools, even in nearby Baltimore, knew little about the Academy or had little
interest in it. Slowly but surely, he established personal contact with increasing numbers
of potential black candidates.
The second prong of Johnson’s outreach strategy involved integrating the Blue
and Gold organization. When Lieutenant Johnson first arrived in Annapolis, the
organization included only one black officer. Johnson invited black teachers and youth
program counselors to participate in the Blue and Gold Program as affiliates. Johnson
also asked 442 minority Naval Reserve officers to participate in the Academy’s recruiting
effort. By April 1971, sixty-eight of them, including forty-three black officers, had agreed
to become Blue and Gold officers.ii
Lieutenant Johnson’s efforts produced dramatic results. In the summer of 1971,
forty-six African Americans entered with the Class of 1975, marking an important
turning point. Blacks had accounted for an average of 1 percent of each incoming class
entering the Academy between the summer of 1965 and the summer of 1970. In the
summer of 1971, 3.5 percent of the incoming plebes were black. Never again would the
proportion drop below that number. In the summer of 1972, a record seventy-eight
African Americans entered with ‘76, largely due to Johnson’s extensive traveling and the
efforts of the new black Blue and Gold officers and affiliates. Between 1971 and 1975, an
average of seventy-nine blacks entered the Academy each summer and accounted for 5.6
percent of incoming plebes. Similarly, between 1976 and 1998, Annapolis admitted an
average of seventy-four African Americans per year, accounting for 5.5 percent of each
incoming class.iii
To keep up the momentum, Lieutenant Johnson added a section on minority
recruiting in each issue of the Blue and Gold Newsletter. The sections included statistics
as well as advice. Johnson suggested that Blue and Gold officers establish ties with black
community leaders and organizations such as ministers, the NAACP, the Urban League,
and the black press. “Some of the organizations may not be receptive to your appeal,” he
noted in the September 1971 issue, but “you should not let that prevent you from
approaching them again.” That same issue encouraged Blue and Gold officers to also
establish ties with the Navy’s minority recruiting officers at main recruiting stations. In a
later issue he urged Blue and Gold officers to follow up their initial meetings with
interested youths with “something beyond a cursory phone call.”iv
Johnson also sought to mobilize African American naval officers. In 1971, he and
several other naval officers involved in minority recruiting discussed forming an
organization to help them do their work. They realized that the Navy had fewer than one
hundred minority officers and that less than half of them were African American. In
1972, the group founded an organization they dubbed the National Naval Officers
Association (NNOA) during a meeting at the Hilton Inn in Annapolis. The members
dedicated themselves to supporting the sea services in recruitment, retention, and career
development of minority officers. The NNOA soon gained support from the
superintendent of the Naval Academy, the chief of the Bureau of Personnel, and the
secretary of the navy. The organization held its national conference annually during July.
At the time of its 30th anniversary in 2002, the NNOA had forty-two chapters.v
Chapter 7
Many African American non-congressional appointees entered Annapolis via the
NAPS route. By the spring of 1973, NAPS had become what the superintendent
described as “the nucleus of the Naval Academy program to increase the total numbers of
minority midshipmen.” By the 1972-1973 academic year, the number of African
American candidates enrolled at NAPS had risen to forty-six. Commander Ken Johnson
visited NAPS frequently to counsel and guide black students there. . . .vi
Kerwin Miller had long planned to attend West Point and had nominations to the
Military Academy from five different sources. He figured he was a shoe-in, until he took
the physical late in the fall of his senior year of high school. Because he had hay fever,
the doctors disqualified him. After Christmas he received a call from Commander Ken
Johnson, who asked if he wanted to apply to the Naval Academy. Miller said that West
Point had disqualified him for having hay fever. “You don’t have to worry about hay
fever at sea,” Johnson said. Miller agreed and received an appointment to Annapolis from
Representative William Clay (D-MO) of St. Louis. . . .
It was a push from his father that propelled Jeff Sapp into the Naval Academy.
Art Sapp had served as an enlisted man in the Army for nearly 22 years before retiring in
1962 and becoming a real estate broker. Art had dreamed of becoming an officer, but the
Army’s racial policies had prevented him from getting the education he needed for a
commission. As the chance of fulfilling that dream faded, he developed an ambition to
send one of his sons to a service academy to become an officer and live the life he had
wanted for himself. Jeff’s mother Barbara supported her husband’s ambition. An article
in Ebony magazine featuring African American midshipmen inspired Art to target the
Naval Academy for Jeff. He arranged for Jeff to meet retired rear admiral Norman
Colman, a business acquaintance and Blue and Gold officer. He also arranged a meeting
for Jeff with Lieutenant Commander Ken Johnson, who flew out to Colorado to make the
Naval Academy pitch in person. Art and Barbara even enlisted the help of Jeff’s high
school sweetheart, who told Jeff that she wouldn’t mind becoming an officer’s wife. . . .
Cary Hithon was dozing in his senior black studies class in the fall of 1972, when
the teacher startled him with a question. “Cary,” she asked, “what are you going to do
with your life?”
“Well,” he answered, “I’m going to college.”
“Have you ever thought about the Naval Academy?” she asked.
“My grades aren’t good enough for that,” he demurred.
“I don’t know about that,” she said. “I think I’m going to have my husband come
in.” The teacher happened to be Bernadette Johnson, Ken Johnson’s wife. Commander
Johnson did come to the school, met with Hithon, and convinced him to apply. It was the
Academy’s prestige and the opportunity for a free education that attracted him. He
applied to no other schools. . . .
Advertisements to “join the Navy and see the world” sparked Chuck
Cole’s interest. But he didn’t know what the Naval Academy was about until his junior
year of high school. “I used to watch the Army-Navy football game. I knew that West
Point was a military school for Army officers, but I didn’t know where the Navy guys
came from. I didn’t even know there was a Naval Academy until one day a midshipman
came to the school on Operation Information.” Cole applied to the Naval Academy, but
his congressman, Charles Vanik (D-OH), wanted to send him to West Point. Cole didn’t
want to go to West Point, however, because he didn’t want to go to Vietnam. “That’s
where I figured I’d be headed at the time,” he recalled. When one of Vannick’s aides
telephoned to offer him the appointment to the Military Academy, Cole expressed
resentment at not being given the Naval Academy nomination, since he was the best
candidate from the congressman’s district. His mother’s eyes widened as she listened to
her son tell off the congressional aide. “Are you crazy?” she seemed to be thinking.
“What do you mean you don’t want an appointment to West Point?” Cole, however,
remained adamant. He telephoned the Naval Academy admissions office, seeking help.
Commander Johnson arranged for Cole to come to Annapolis with an appointment from
Shirley Chisolm (D-NY). . . .
Chapter 9
Commander Ken Johnson strengthened the support network early in 1972, while
in the process of forming the National Naval Officers Association. “We’re about to start
this organization,” Johnson said at a meeting of the black midshipmen. “We’re going to
provide not only more black input into the Academy, but we’re going to provide a
support network for you who are already here.” Chuck Reddix recalled several meetings
with Johnson. “Periodically we’d meet with him and he’d talk with us to monitor how we
were doing,” Reddix said. As a plebe, Kerwin Miller found it heartening to have black
upperclassmen show genuine concern for his well-being and progress at these meetings.
“Just to have them hit you on the back and say, ‘Hey, how are things going?’ That was
very uplifting to a lot of us,” he said
The tradition continued through ‘79. “The upperclass black midshipmen took it
upon themselves to look out for us,” noted Charlie Boyd, recalling his plebe year. “In
fact, if it wasn’t for their help, many of us might not have made it out. They gave us
hope, set an example, and made sure we had a chance to relieve some of the stress from
time to time.”
Black midshipmen who socialized together and supported each other referred to
themselves by a number of informal nicknames, such as the El Dorado Social Club.vii The
most prominent nickname was the “Seventh Battalion” or “Seventh Batt.” The Seventh
Batt met informally to plan parties and social events, usually associated with the ArmyNavy game and June Week. James Jackson recalled how the group called its meetings. “It
was probably not going to be politically correct to say, ‘We want all the black
midshipmen to go to a meeting in Room 101,’” he said. In the early seventies, the
Academy tested minority midshipmen for sickle cell anemia as part of the physical
examination. “So to outsmart the administration, when we wanted to call a meeting of all
the black midshipmen, we just had an announcement made over the loudspeakers before
dinner requesting all people who got tested for sickle cell to please report to Room 101. .
..”
(Note: As mentioned above, the 7th Batt evolved out of the Eldorado
Social Club of the early 70's. The terminology of the 7th Batt started
taking hold around 1973 and stayed strong up until the mid 80's. The
phraseology somewhat took a back seat during the latter part of the
80's and was later replaced by the more socially accepted and
administration recognized name, the Black Studies Club. That is where
we are today. – Greg Sawyer ‘78)
U.S. NAVAL ACADEMY
1st Black Graduate Joins Elite Group
Groundbreaking Honors D.C. Resident
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.
Brown, a modest young man from Dunbar High
School in the District, was not the first African
American to attend the academy. There had been
five before him, but they were all forced out. Not
Brown.
"Somebody asked me once, did I ever think of
quitting," Brown recalled yesterday. "I said, 'Yes.
Every day.' "
But he didn't, and at age 78, the first black man to
graduate from the Naval Academy secured a place
in the pantheon of U.S. naval heroes yesterday.
Brown, a District resident who retired from the
Navy as a lieutenant commander, joined the likes
of William F. Halsey Jr. and Chester W. Nimitz,
Alfred Thayer Mahan and Hyman G. Rickover
with a rare honor: having a Naval Academy
building named after him.
Wesley Brown, right, the first African American
to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy,
greets a friend before the groundbreaking in
Annapolis. (Photos By Michael Robinsonchavez -- The Washington Post)
PHOTOS
Academy's First Black
Graduate Honored
D.C. resident Wesley Brown was the first black
man to graduate from the Naval Academy in
1949. More than 60 years later, hundreds of
people payed him tribute by breaking ground on
a building bearing his name.
The groundbreaking for the $45 million, 140,000square-foot Wesley Brown Field House was a somewhat unmilitary affair. After a series
of speeches, a motley collection of military retirees, civilian engineers, naval officers and
children picked at a small pile of dirt with golden shovels as a swarm of admirers closed
in to take pictures. But the Navy took it seriously. The event was attended by Adm.
Michael G. Mullen, chief of naval operations and the Navy's top officer, as well as the
school's superintendent, Vice Adm. Rodney P. Rempt.
Both officers showered Brown with praise as he sat on a tent-covered stage basking in the
moment. In addition to the academy honor, it was declared Wesley Brown Day in the
District. ("I haven't had much sleep all week just thinking about it," he said later.)
Mullen noted that the state-of-the-art gymnasium set up overlooking the Severn River
would complement Halsey Field House, an athletic facility named after one of the Navy's
most famous admirals in World War II.
Mullen said that Brown, a 1949 graduate and a veteran of World War II and the Korean
and Vietnam wars, had fought a battle of his own at the academy.
"Wesley Brown represents the service as well as anybody that put on the uniform,"
Mullen said. "What a heroic step, what a courageous move, and what a lasting
contribution he made. . . . I think it is appropriate that this field house is named after an
individual who has fought a war all his life to improve the Navy and the nation."
Now, nearly 23 percent of the academy's students belong to minority groups. Almost
1,600 African Americans have graduated since Brown took that first step, including a
host of admirals and aviators, plus others such as basketball player David Robinson and
talk show host Montel Williams.
Shun T. White, an African American plebe from Memphis who watched the ceremony,
thought back to what he had endured during his tough first summer at the academy and
compared it with what Brown went through.
"I can't even imagine," he said.
Brown's story was not particularly well known until the publication last year of Robert J.
Schneller Jr.'s book, "Breaking the Color Barrier: The U.S. Naval Academy's First Black
Midshipmen and the Struggle for Racial Equality." The Navy historian described the
effort of a group of Southern upperclassmen to force Brown out of the academy by piling
him with demerits and ensuring that he was ostracized by his peers.
Brown, who originally wanted to attend the Army's academy at West Point, N.Y., has
always played down those difficulties, and yesterday, in the presence of his wife, children
and grandchildren, he did the same, only noting that he was glad to still be around.
"It doesn't happen very often to have a building named for you while you are alive," he
said.
(Note: Brown and his wife Crystal enjoy visits from their four children and seven grandchildren, and read
and attend social and sporting events. Brown is a volunteer motivational speaker and particularly enjoys
talking with DC high school students and midshipmen of the USNA Black Studies Club during Black
History Month.
Lt. Cmdr. Brown is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity
established for African Americans.- Wikipedia)
DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060
Publications of the Naval Historical Center
Blue & Gold and Black: Racial Integration of the U.S. Naval Academy, by Robert J.
Schneller, Jr. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-1-60344000-4.
During the twentieth century, the U.S. Naval Academy evolved from
a racist institution to one that ranked equal opportunity among its
fundamental tenets. This transformation was not without its social
cost, however, and black midshipmen bore the brunt of it. Based on
the documentary record as well as on the memories of hundreds of
midshipmen and naval officers, Blue & Gold and Black is the history
of integration of African Americans into the Naval Academy. Author
Robert J. Schneller Jr. analyzes how civil rights advocates' demands
for equal opportunity shaped the Naval Academy's evolution, how
changes in the Academy's policies and culture affected the lives of
black midshipmen, and how black midshipmen effected change in
the Academy's policies and culture. Covering the Jim Crow era, the civil rights
movement, and the empowerment of African Americans from the late 1960s through the
end of the twentieth century, Blue & Gold and Black traces the transformation of an
institution that produces men and women who lead not only the
Navy, but also the nation.
Black Sailor, White Navy: Racial Unrest in the Fleet during the
Vietnam War Era, by John Darrell Sherwood, New York: New York
University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-8147-4036-1.
The Navy's journey from a state of racial polarization to today's
relative harmony was not an easy one. Black Sailor, White Navy
focuses on the most turbulent point in this road: the early 1970s. In
particular, it tells the story of the race riots that occurred on aircraft
carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) and oiler USS Hassayampa (AO
145), as well as a sit-down strike and protest on carrier USS
Constellation (CV-64). Why did the unrest occur? Did institutional racism cause the
turbulence? Did the Navy reform its racial policies as a result of the unrest? Did these
reforms solve the problem? These are the major questions addressed in this book.
Breaking the Color Barrier: The U.S. Naval Academy's First Black Midshipmen and
the Struggle for Racial Equality, by Robert Schneller, Jr. New York: New York
University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8147-4013-8.
Only five black men were admitted to the United States Naval
Academy between Reconstruction and the beginning of World War
II. None graduated, and all were deeply scarred by intense racial
discrimination, ranging from brutal hazing and physical assault to
the racist policies of the Academy itself. In 1949, Midshipman
Wesley Brown achieved what before had been impossible and
became the Academy's first African American graduate. Breaking
the Color Barrier examines the black community's efforts to
integrate the Academy, as well as what life in Annapolis was like for
the first black midshipmen. In a broader sense, their story sheds light
on the American racial dilemma itself. The convergence of forces
that leveled the playing field for Wesley Brown--a push from the black community,
national political imperatives, a shift in racial attitudes among the American people,
direct intervention by leaders, and the strengths and abilities of individuals in the
trenches-presages the convergence of forces that brought about America's "Second
Reconstruction." The story of the first black midshipmen is a microcosm for
understanding racism in America and provides a unique window into the underpinnings
of the civil rights movement.
i
USNACH, 1970-1971, vol. 1, p. 59; Calvert interview; Calvert, telephone conversation with author, 2 November 2000.
Evening Sun, 28 September 1970; Evening Capital, 21 October 1970; “Report of the Board of Visitors to the United States Naval
Academy,” 5 December 1970, file 1531, 1971 box 84, 00 Files, OA; Norman, Memorandum for the Special Assistant to CNO/VCNO for
Decision Coordination, 5 January 1971, file 1531, 1970 box 37, 00 Files, OA; “Report of the Board of Visitors to the United States
Naval Academy,” 30 April 1971, file 1531, 1972 box 78, 00 Files, OA; Evening Sun, 6 June 1973; Del Malkie, “Blacks at the Naval
Academy,” All Hands (September 1976), 28-31; Blue and Gold Newsletter, October 1970 and November 1972, box 4, CG; Christian
Science Monitor, 6 June 1974; Penny Vahsen, “Blacks in White Hats,” Proceedings 113 (April 1987), 67.
iii
“Negroes Admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy as Midshipmen,” n.d., U.S. Naval Academy Institutional Research Office; Blue and
Gold Newsletter, July 1971 and July 1972, box 4, CG; U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association, Inc., Register of Alumni.
iv
Blue and Gold Newsletter, September 1971 and November 1972, box 4, CG.
v
http://www.nnoa.org/origin.php and http://www.nnoa.org/mission.php, 28 June 2002.
vi
Chief of Naval Training to CNO, 15 February 1973, Superintendent, USNA, to CNO, 17 April 1973, and OPNAV Notice 5450, 10
August 1973, file 1531, 1973 box 36, 00 Files, OA.
vii
Kenneth D. Dunn, Class of 1974, conversation with author, 4 March 2004.
ii