January 24, 1900 Wilson Brown, Medal of Honor recipient, died. Brown was born in 1841 in Natchez, Mississippi. During the Civil War, he enlisted in the Union Navy and was assigned as a landsman to the USS Hartford.
Tag Archives | Navy
Wesley A Brown – June 3rd in African American History
June 3rd, in 1949, Wesley A Brown graduated from the US Naval Academy, becoming the first African American to do so. The Annapolis Naval Academy had never, before this date, witnessed an African American succeed beyond the first academic year. Brown received his commission as a naval officer on this momentous occasion, joining one of […]
March 2nd in African American History – Frank E. Petersen, Jr.
March 2, 1932 Frank E. Petersen, Jr., the first African American Marine Corps aviator and the first African American Marine Corps general, was born in Topeka, Kansas. Petersen enlisted in the United States Navy in 1950 as a seaman apprentice.
March 1st in African American History – Emmett Littleton Ashford
March 1, 1980 Emmett Littleton Ashford, the first African American umpire in major league baseball, died. Ashford was born November 23, 1914 in Los Angeles, California.
January 19th in African American History – Carl Maxie Brashear
January 19, 1931 Carl Maxie Brashear, the first African American to become a United States Navy master diver, was born in Tonieville, Kentucky. Brashear enlisted in the navy in 1948 and graduated from the U.S. Navy Diving & Salvage School in 1954, becoming the first African American navy diver. In 1966, while involved in the […]
January 3rd in African American History – Samuel Leamon Younge, Jr.
January 3, 1966 Samuel Leamon Younge, Jr. was shot to death after he tried to use the “Whites only” restroom at a Standard Oil gas station in Macon County, Alabama. This senseless death became the first black college student killed as a result of his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. Younge was born November […]
December 4th in African American History – Joe Brown
December 4, 1997 Joe Brown, hall of fame boxer, died. Brown was born May 18, 1925 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He began his professional boxing career at the age of 17 but it was interrupted by World War II. During his almost two years in the United States Navy, Brown took part in seven Pacific […]