1942: Benjamin O. Davis Sr. was promoted to the rank of brigadier general by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the eve of the presidential election, making him the nation’s first Black general in the regular army. (AFRO Archive)
By Sean Yoes
AFRO Senior Reporter
syoes@afro.com
Black men have been fighting and dying in defense of the United States of America, before there was a United States of America.
Crispus Attucks, a man of African and Indigenous American heritage, was gunned down by British military forces during the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770, the first American colonist killed during the American Revolution.
More than 250 years later, a Black man was named U.S. Secretary of Defense for the first time in the nation’s history. Retired U.S. Army four-star general Lloyd Austin became the 28th Secretary of Defense Jan. 22.
The man who blazed the path for Austin’s ascension was Benjamin O. Davis Sr., who, in 1940, was promoted to the rank of brigadier general by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the eve of the presidential election, making him the nation’s first Black general in the regular army (his son Benjamin O. Davis Jr., was the first Black brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force and a commander of the 99th Fighter Squadron and the 332nd Fighter Group of the famed Tuskegee Airmen).
Davis was born in Washington D.C. July 1, 1877, the third child of Louis P. H. and Henrietta Davis. Louis, a government messenger and Henrietta, a nurse, were respected members of Washington’s Black community. And they stressed the importance of a good education for all their children. Benjamin attended the Lucretia Mott School, an integrated grammar school where he had both Black and White friends.
Benjamin’s first exposure to the military was his participation in the Cadet Corps program at M Street High School in D.C. And Davis took college courses at Howard University while he was still in high school. Both his parents urged him to attend college after high school; his mother apparently wanted him to pursue the ministry, while his father wanted his son to work in the federal government. But young Davis was determined to join the military and serve his nation as a soldier.
He entered the military service July 13, 1898, during the Spanish-American War as a temporary first lieutenant of the 8th United States Volunteer Infantry. He was mustered out (discharged) March 6, 1899 and then enlisted as a private in Troop I, 9th Cavalry, of the Regular Army June 8, 1899. Davis was promoted to corporal and then squadron sergeant major. That unit was commanded by Lt. Charles Young, the only Black officer serving in the U.S. military at that time. Young became a mentor to Davis and encouraged his aspiration to become an officer. Young, the third Black man to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, also tutored Davis on the officer candidate test. On February 2, 1901, Davis was commissioned a second lieutenant of Cavalry in the regular army.
His first assignment as a commissioned officer was in the Philippines with the 9th Cavalry on the Island of Samar.
For 40 years, Davis toiled within a segregated and brutally racist military apparatus; he ascended the ranks at a seemingly slower pace than his White counterparts.
In 1938, Davis was made commander of the 369th Cavalry New York National Guard, known as the “Harlem Regiment.” Finally, in 1940, after more than 40 years of military service to his country President Roosevelt negated a military law that prohibited the promotion of those over age 58 (Davis was 63 in 1940) and made Davis a brigadier general. He was given command of the Fourth Cavalry Brigade at Fort Riley, Kansas. The following year 1941, Davis retired from the military. However, with America’s official entry into WWII, following the events of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Davis was called upon to serve once again.
He was called to work in his hometown of Washington, D.C. (perhaps belatedly fulfilling his father’s aspirations for his son) to help the army’s inspector general facilitate and coordinate the induction of about 100,000 Black soldiers into the army. He was specifically tasked with inspecting Black troops around the country and helping mitigate the various racial conflicts that arose during the process.
On July 20, 1948, after 50 years of military service Davis retired from the army and the occasion was marked by a special Rose Garden ceremony at the White House with President Harry Truman. Six days later Truman issued Executive Order 9981, which officially desegregated all United States military forces.
“There shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin,” read the order.
His son Col. Benjamin O. Davis Jr., helped draft the Air Force plan for implementing the integration order by Truman and the Air Force was the first branch to integrate fully.
On November 26, 1970, Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Sr. died at Great Lakes Naval Hospital in Chicago. He was buried alongside his wife Sade Overton at Arlington National Cemetery.
