BENJAMIN O. DAVIS, SR.

Davis began as a private and career spanned 50 years. Benjamin Oliver Davis, Jr., (born 1912) took a sledgehammer to the walls of segregation in the military. In 1954, he became the first black general in Air Force history, but perhaps his greatest achievement was organizing and commanding the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African-American military flying unit. The Tuskegee Airmen fought heroically in Europe during World War II, flying thousands of missions, destroying 261 enemy aircraft, and winning 850 medals. After World War II ended, Davis helped plan the desegregation of the Air Force.

BENJAMIN O. DAVIS, JR.

Davis (1912- ) graduated West Point as only the fourth black student and the first of the 20th century in 1936. He served as aide for his father, the first African American general, and then was a member of the first black class accepted for air corps pilot training. During World War II he commanded the Tuskegee airmen’s 99th Pursuit Squadron, later the 332nd Fighter Group, which escorted bombers and could proclaim that it never lost one to enemy aircraft. For his work commanding his unit, David was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. He was promoted to Lt. General in the Air Force before retiring in 1970.

Reference
Smith, Jessie Carney, ed. Notable Black American Men. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Research, Inc., 1999. 255-259.

HENRY O. FLIPPER

Flipper (1856-1940) was born in Thomasville, Georgia. He was attending Atlanta University when he was selected to attend West Point. He graduated from the military academy in 1877, the first African American ever to do so. The next year he was assigned to e 10th Cavalry Regiment, the all-black regular army unit that with three others became known as the Buffalo Soldiers. In 1881 charged for failure to mail checks were leveled against him, and though he was acquitted of mishandling company funds, he was dismissed from the service the following summer. Fluent in Spanish, he returned to civilian life as a surveyor and engineer, and writing a book on Spanish law which allowed land claims to be settled in the West. He ended his career working for an oil company in Venezuela in the 1920s.