Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.

(1912–2002), first black lieutenant general

Born in Washington, D.C., the son of a black army officer, Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., young Benjamin Davis attended school in Tuskegee, Alabama, and Cleveland, Ohio, and the University of Chicago, before entering the all‐white U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where the last African American had graduated in the 1880s. Davis graduated in 1936 (35th in a class of 276). His request for assignment to the Army Air Corps was refused because there were no black aviation units; instead, he was assigned to an all‐black infantry regiment and then to Tuskegee Institute as an instructor. In 1941, the War Department finally allowed blacks into the Air Corps, although in segregated units. Davis established a flight program at Tuskegee, and as a lieutenant colonel took command of the 99th Pursuit Squadron (the “Black Eagles”), the first black air unit.

In 1943, during World War II, he led the unit to North Africa. Subsequently, he commanded the 332nd Fighter Group, a larger all‐black flying unit, and as a colonel, flew sixty combat missions in the Italian theater. In 1948, following President Harry S. Truman's desegregation order, Davis designed the implementation program for the U.S. Air Force. In 1954, he was promoted to brigadier general, in 1959 to major general, and in 1965, he became America's first black lieutenant general, serving with the air force in Germany and the Philippines during the Vietnam War before his retirement in 1970. Afterward, he served in the early 1970s in the U.S. Department of Transportation on issues involving air hijacking and aviation safety.

[See also African Americans in the Military.]

Bibliography

• Bernard C. Nalty, Strength for the Fight: A History of Black Americans in the Military, 1986.
• Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., American: An Autobiography, 1991

Davis, Benjamin Oliver, Jr. (1912-) U.S. army officer and aviator. Davis Jr. was born in Washington, D.C., the son of the first African-American general. He graduated from West Point in 1936 as an infantryman, but he was among the first group of blacks admitted to pilot training in 1941, and became the first to make a solo flight. He organized and commanded the all-black 99th Fighter Squadron and 332nd Fighter Group, both which he led with distinction in European combat. After the war he served as chief of the fighter branch for the new U.S. Air Force, and in 1953 he took over the crack 51st Fighter-Interceptor Wing in Korea. He became the first black major general in 1959, and the first to get a third star in 1965. When he retired in 1970 he was deputy commander of the U.S. Strike Command. After retirement he served in a number of important government posts including assistant secretary of transportation. In 1998 President Bill Clinton promoted Davis to full general on the retired list.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

air force officer; transportation consultant

Personal Information

Born Benjamin Oliver Davis, Jr., on December 18, 1912, in Washington, DC; died on July 4, 2002, in Washington, DC; son of Benjamin Oliver (an officer in the U.S. Army) and Sadie (Overton) Davis; married Agatha Scott, June 20, 1936.
Education: United States Military Academy, West Point, BS, 1936.
Politics: Democrat.
Religion: Protestant.

Career

U.S. Air Force, lieutenant, 1936-42, commander of 99th Fighter Squadron, 332nd Fighter Group, 477th Bombardment Group, and 332nd Fighter Wing, 1942-49, Air War College professor, 1949-50, fighter branch chief, U.S. Air Force headquarters, 1950-53, commander, 51st Fighter Interceptor Wing, Suwon, Korea, 1954-54, director of operations and training, Far East Air Forces headquarters, 1954-55, promoted to brigadier general, 1954, commander, Air Task Force 13, Taiwan, 1955-57, deputy chief of staff, operations headquarters, U.S. Air Force, Europe, 1957-61, promoted to major general, 1957, director of manpower and organization, U.S. Air Force headquarters, 1961-65, promoted to lieutenant general, 1965, chief of staff, United Nations Command and United States Forces, Korea, 1965-67, commander, 13th Air Force, Philippines, 1967-68, deputy commander-in-chief, U.S. Strike Command, MacDill Air Force Base, 1969-70; Cleveland city government, director of public safety, 1970; U.S. Department of Transportation, director of civil aviation security, assistant secretary of environment, safety, and consumer affairs, 1971-1975.

Life's Work

Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., fought and won both military and civil rights battles. As a World War II fighter pilot he engaged Axis forces across the European theater. At the same time, he helped defeat segregationist policies in his own country by proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that black soldiers were in every way as competent as their white counterparts, and deserving of equal standing. In 1948 the United States Military became one of the first American institutions to adopt a policy of complete integration--in part because of the stellar performance of Davis and his men.

Davis was born on December 18, 1912, in Washington, D.C. His father, Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., was a career military man who rose from the rank of private to that of brigadier general in charge of an all-black cavalry unit. In Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., American: An Autobiography, his son noted that his last promotion, made on the eve of World War II, was "motivated primarily by the hope of winning black votes in the 1940 election ... but my father had richly deserved it for many years." According to Washington Post Book World contributor Joseph Glattharr, Davis's parents gave their son a simple set of values by which to live: "Treat others ... as you wish them to treat you. Feel sorry not for yourself, but for those whose blinding prejudice bars them from getting to know your wonderful qualities. And work hard at everything you do."

Endured Racism Early

Davis was taught to face squarely even the most virulent forms of racism. In the early 1920s, while the elder Davis was stationed at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, the Ku Klux Klan organized a march in support of a policy requiring an all-white medical staff at a nearby black veterans hospital. Black residents were advised to stay indoors with their lights out during the demonstration, in order to avoid any eruption of violence. But Davis's father had his own notion of how to properly deal with the Klan; donning his white dress uniform, he seated his entire family under a bright porch light and stood defiantly as the Klansmen--hooded and carrying flaming torches--passed within inches of him.

Memories of his father's courage undoubtedly helped Benjamin Davis, Jr. endure the trials he faced upon entering the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1932. His entrance qualifications were impeccable, but the prestigious academy's tacit racist practices were designed to force his resignation. Davis's fellow cadets--encouraged by their superiors--subjected him to a variety of mental cruelties they called "silencing." For four years, no one roomed with him, ate with him, acknowledged his presence--even if he asked a direct question--or spoke to him, except to issue an order. Davis stood firm against their mute, solid front and graduated 35th in a class of 276, becoming the first black in the twentieth century to complete four years at West Point, and only the fourth black ever to have graduated from the Military Academy.

His high standing in his class entitled Davis to choose which branch of service he would enter. Flying had been a lifelong dream, and accordingly, he selected the Air Force. Officials curtly informed Davis that blacks, no matter what their standing at West Point, were not eligible to become part of the flying elite. Instead, the young lieutenant was assigned to Fort Benning, Georgia. There he and his wife, Agatha, endured another "silencing" ordeal. Davis wrote that his exclusion by the Fort Benning Officers' Club was the most deeply insulting of all the racist behavior that dogged his career. After a transfer to Fort Riley, Kansas, the couple found themselves in slightly better circumstances; but they were still barred from the Officers' Club and had to attend a segregated movie theater on the base.

Commanded First Black Fighter Pilots

Just as they had for his father, election-year politics finally gave Davis the break he deserved. President Franklin Roosevelt's need for the black vote led him in 1941 to approve what was billed as a bold military experiment--giving black men the chance to serve as fighter pilots. Only the best and the brightest were chosen for the 99th Pursuit Squadron; Davis was selected to command them. The Air Force's attitude toward the 99th paralleled West Point's treatment of Davis: officially they were accepted, but off the record, they were encouraged to fail. According to veteran pilot and Smithsonian contributor Edward Park, the squadron was given inferior equipment and sketchy training. "Usually, when new units arrived at a World War II base, they got a thorough briefing and a flight or two with an old hand during their initial combat missions. Not the 99th. With the squadron formed and Davis in command, the black Tuskegee pilots arrived at a dirt airstrip in North Africa and simply started flying missions.... [The] attitude was: let 'em sink or swim." Davis told Park, "Fortunately, before our unit was deployed, three old pilots gave us a hand.... They showed us some of the tricks and how to survive." Park concluded: "Ben Davis had two wars to fight--one against Hitler's Luftwaffe, the other against the prejudice of the U.S. Army Air Forces."

During their first months in action, the 99th's performance was comparable to any new squadron's. Still, white air corps officers sent an unfavorable report back to the Pentagon stating that "the Negro type has not the proper reflexes to make a first-class fighter pilot." Herbert Mitgang pointed out in the New York Times that "this language matched the theories of racial inferiority espoused by the Klan and by Hitler." As General Davis told Jet magazine years later, "All the Blacks in the segregated forces operated like they had to prove they could fly an airplane when everyone believed they were too stupid."

Davis, fearing that the 99th would be assigned to routine coastal patrols, went to Washington to personally defend his squadron's right to remain in combat. When he returned to the war zone, it was to command four black squadrons known as the 332nd Fighter Group. The 332nd saw action throughout Europe; in two days during January of 1944, they shot down 12 German fighters over the Anzio beachhead in Italy. By July of 1944 Davis was a full colonel, and a highly-classified study by the Air Force had acknowledged that the 332nd's record was equal to that of any other unit in the Mediterranean. According to Jet the 332nd Fighter Group was said to have never lost any plane that relied on them for support.

Helped Integrate U.S. Armed Forces

In 1948, due at least in part to the wartime accomplishments of Davis and his men, the U.S. Armed Forces became one of the first institutions in America to adopt an official policy of full integration, thus becoming the first workplace in which black Americans could hope for equal opportunity. Davis played a key role in the integration process, and later went on to command the integrated 51st Fighter Wing in Korea and the 13th Air Force in Vietnam. By 1965 he had reached the rank of Lieutenant General.

In 1970 Davis retired from the Armed Forces. The first charge he was given after his military duties were finished was the federal sky marshal program, which he was put in charge of to stop airline hijackings. The following year he was named assistant secretary of the Department of Transportation, where Davis was a leader in the development of airport and aviation security and an advocate of the 55-mile-per-hour speed limit designed to save fuel and lives.

Throughout his career Davis overcame prejudice because he "refused to acknowledge race distinctions," wrote a reporter for Jet. He demonstrated the strength of his convictions when in February of 1991 a press conference announcing the publication of his autobiography was billed as the opening event of Black History Month. As recounted by Jet, Davis issued a statement saying that his military career was "not a Black History Month feature" and that his accomplishments were "but a footnote in American history to the hundreds of Black airmen who stood shoulder to shoulder with their White counterparts." In Davis's autobiography--which Glattharr called in Washington Post Book World "must reading for anyone interested in race relations or American military history"--Davis further detailed his belief that focusing on color divisions only served to perpetuate them. He wrote: "I do not find it complimentary to me or to the nation to be called the first Black West Point graduate in this century." He also took issue with black leader Jesse Jackson's suggestion that black Americans identify themselves as African Americans, for in his opinion, "We are all simply American."

Davis, who left the military as a Lieutenant General with three stars--the senior black officer in the armed forces at the time--was awarded a fourth star in 1998 by President Clinton. While awarding Davis the star, Clinton stated, according to Jet, magazine that "General Davis is here today as living proof that a person can overcome adversity and discrimination, achieve great things, turn skeptics into believers and through example and perseverance, one person can bring truly extraordinary change."

On July 4, 2002, Davis died at the Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He was 89-years-old. Davis left an extraordinary legacy behind him. As President Clinton said, "To all of us General Davis [was] the very embodiment of the principal that with firm diversity we can build stronger unity. If we follow [his] example we will always be a leader for democracy, opportunity, and peace. I am very, very proud of [his] service."

Awards

Selected: Three Distinguished Service Medals with two Oak Leaf Clusters; Croix de Guerre with Palm; Star of Africa; Army and Air Force Silver Star; Distinguished Flying Cross; three Legions of Merit; Air Medal with five Oak Leaf Clusters; made a 4-Star General by President Clinton, 1998; numerous honorary degrees.

Works

Selected writings

• Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., American: An Autobiography, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991.

Further Reading

Books

• Davis, Benjamin O., Jr., Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., American: An Autobiography, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991.

Periodicals

• Air and Space Power Journal, Spring, 2003, p. 16.
• American History Illustrated, July/August 1991.
• American Visions, April 1991.
• Chicago Tribune, January 27, 1991.
• Foreign Affairs, Summer 1991.
• Insight, March 4, 1991.
• Jet, February 11, 1991; September 5, 1994, p. 52; December 28, 1998, p. 24; July 22, 2002, p. 14.
• New York Times, February 20, 1991.
• Publishers Weekly, January 4, 1991.
• Smithsonian, March 1991.
• Washington Post, February 4, 1991.
• Washington Post Book World, March 17, 1991.

— Joan Goldsworthy and Catherine V. Donaldson

For more information on Benjamin Oliver Davis, Jr., visit Britannica.com.

Davis, Benjamin Oliver, Jr., 1912–2002, American air force general, b. Washington, D.C.; son of Benjamin Oliver Davis. After studying at Western Reserve and Chicago universities, he attended West Point, graduating in 1936. At the academy, Davis was the only African American in a white student body and was ostracized by the majority of the cadets, who would speak to him only in the line of duty. Following graduation he served as an infantry officer, entered the U.S. air force, and completed his flight training in 1942. During World War II he distinguished himself as a combat pilot, leading the Tuskegee Airmen. In 1954, Davis became the first African-American general in the U.S. air force; from 1965 to 1970 he served as lieutenant general. In 1971 he became an assistant secretary for the department of transportation, leaving the department in 1975.

Bibliography

See his autobiography (1991).

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)