ABSTRACT
Since Colonel Charles Young’s 1 graduation in 1889, no other black American had graduated from the United States Military Academy until Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., graduated in 1936, and only one other is believed to have received an appointment prior to the ending of World War I. 2 Exactly how many blacks sought admission into West Point between 1889 and Executive Order 9981 in 1948 may never be known. But several applied, a few were accepted, and fewer still, only eight, graduated. The Naval Academy continued to lag behind USMA. Its graduation rate was zero for blacks before E.O. 9981. That, however, was not due to lack of attempts. Beginning in 1936 two additional black midshipmen entered the Naval Academy with no success. This chapter examines the struggle of those individuals who sought education at the military and naval academies.
For the past three days, the senior cadet in charge of the New Cadet Barracks has ordered that I and two other colored [emphasis added] boys be brought out and run around the mass formation of new cadets in the so-called “Central Area.” We “double-time” around the formation several times until we perspire and then we join the formation to march to the mess hall for breakfast looking sweaty and dirty while the others are cool and clean looking. Although we are not supposed to talk to each other, we whispered each other’s names. One of them is named Morgan (last name) and he is from Detroit. I did not understand the other boy’s name. But very sad today, they are planning to resign. I have whispered to them NOT to resign. I will never resign. But they say that they have separately been told that each of us is resigning, and that they (each of them) will be left as the only colored man in the class. I whispered that this was a trick to get us all to resign. I am afraid it may be too late for they say they have “signed some papers.” 3
The above quote described how three black cadets were singled out, and two tricked into resigning, shortly after their arrival at West Point in 1941. Black cadets during this era found, as did Henry O. Flipper more than sixty years earlier, they were not welcome at West Point. The first confirmed black cadet to enter since Charles Young’s graduation was Alonzo Parham.