13. West Point’s Only Black Student
Benjamin O. Davis Jr. eventually attended the US Military Academy at West Point. There, he faced significant discrimination. His white classmates refused to associate with him, did not speak with him outside the line of duty, and he spent four years without a roommate and having to dine alone. Such “silent treatment” was intended to discourage O. Davis and drive him from West Point, but it only strengthened his resolve. He graduated from West Point in 1936 – the first African American to do so since 1889. When he received his commission that year, Benjamin O. Davis Jr. became only the second black Army officer who was not a chaplain. The second was his father, O. Davis Sr. O. Davis Jr. tried to join the US Army Air Corps but was rejected because African Americans were not allowed. Instead, he was assigned to a black infantry regiment.
