310
(MILITARY.) West Point graduation program featuring future Tuskegee Airmen commander Benjamin O. Davis Jr.
Estimate:
$800 - $1,200
Passed
Live Auction
Printed & Manuscript African Americana
Description
(MILITARY.) West Point graduation program featuring future Tuskegee Airmen commander Benjamin O. Davis Jr. [21] printed leaves. 8vo, 6½ x 4¾ inches, original embossed gilt limp calf wrappers titled "June Week, West Point," lacking a bit of one corner, scrapbook mount remnants on rear wrapper; a few pencil notations and minimal wear to contents.
[Philadelphia], June 1936
Benjamin Oliver Davis Jr. (1912-2002) was both a son of privilege and a victim of segregation. His father rose to become the army's first Black brigadier general. Benjamin Jr. attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he never had a roommate and dined alone. In 1936, he became the academy's fourth Black graduate and the first since 1889. The still heavily segregated Army refused him admission to the Army Air Corps, and he was assigned to teach military tactics at the Tuskegee Institute. He parlayed this position into the command of the Tuskegee Airmen in World War Two. He was later appointed the first Black general in the Air Force, and retired as a four-star general in 1998.
This 1936 West Point program lists Benjamin Oliver Davis Jr. as one of the graduates. Other notable graduates were Creighton Williams Abrams Jr. (commander of troops in Vietnam and namesake of the Abrams tank), and William C. Westmoreland (the Army's Chief of Staff from 1968 to 1972). Davis is one of four graduates whose name is checked in pencil by an early owner, who noted simply "Black."
With a typescript rendering of the academy's song "The Corps" on United States Military Academy letterhead.
[Philadelphia], June 1936
Benjamin Oliver Davis Jr. (1912-2002) was both a son of privilege and a victim of segregation. His father rose to become the army's first Black brigadier general. Benjamin Jr. attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he never had a roommate and dined alone. In 1936, he became the academy's fourth Black graduate and the first since 1889. The still heavily segregated Army refused him admission to the Army Air Corps, and he was assigned to teach military tactics at the Tuskegee Institute. He parlayed this position into the command of the Tuskegee Airmen in World War Two. He was later appointed the first Black general in the Air Force, and retired as a four-star general in 1998.
This 1936 West Point program lists Benjamin Oliver Davis Jr. as one of the graduates. Other notable graduates were Creighton Williams Abrams Jr. (commander of troops in Vietnam and namesake of the Abrams tank), and William C. Westmoreland (the Army's Chief of Staff from 1968 to 1972). Davis is one of four graduates whose name is checked in pencil by an early owner, who noted simply "Black."
With a typescript rendering of the academy's song "The Corps" on United States Military Academy letterhead.
