U.S. Naval Academy's first African American graduate is honored
by sernabad
Wesley Brown, the first African American to graduate from the United States Naval Academy, was honored on Saturday, March 25, 2006, in Annapolis.
Brown, the subject of Robert J. Schneller, Jr.'s book, Breaking the Color Barrier: The U.S. Naval Academy's First Black Midshipman and the Struggle for Racial Equality (2005), attended the groundbreaking ceremony at the Academy for the Wesley Brown Field House, a state-of-the-art gym.
Lt. Cmdr. Brown served in three wars -- World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars -- but he says one of his toughest battles was his four years at the Academy where the well-documented rigors of midshipman life, were compounded by the challenges he faced as he pioneered diversity at Annapolis. Since he graduated in 1949, more than 1600 African Americans have graduated from the Academy.
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