1917-2002 Charity Adams Earley was a pioneer in the success of both women and African Americans in the U.S. Army. She served as one of the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) first black officers, and ultimately attained the rank of major. A Studious Start Earley was born on December 5, 1917, in Columbia, South Carolina, to
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1844-? Cathay Williams was the only known female African American Buffalo Soldier. She was the first black woman to be documented for her service in the U.S. Army before women were officially allowed to enlist. Buffalo Woman Williams was born in September of 1844 in Independence, Missouri. Aside from this lone fact, details of her
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1907-1996 Nicknamed “Chief” by his aviation students, Charles Alfred Anderson, Sr.. served as the Chief Civilian Flight Instructor for the Tuskegee Institute ’s groundbreaking program to train black pilots. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt established a military aviation program at Tuskegee in 1941. Anderson was tasked with training the famous World War II Tuskegee Airmen.
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1912-2002 Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., was one of the pioneering African Americans who attended the military academy at West Point before the second World War. The Air Forces first black general, he commanded the legendary Tuskegee group of fighter pilots in World War II. Service in the Blood Davis was born on December 18, 1912,
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1920-1978  Daniel “Chappie” James dedicated his life to an extraordinary career in the U.S. Air Force. Over the course of three wars, in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam, he completed more than 160 combat missions as a fighter pilot. In recognition of his achievements, he received the honor of being the first African American in America’s
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1856-1940  Henry Ossian Flipper was the first African American to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. After an unwarranted dishonorable discharge from the Army, he enjoyed a long, distinguished career as a mining engineer, legal authority, and author. Breaking Ground at West Point Flipper was born in Thomasville, Georgia, on March 21,
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1848-1933  John Robert Clifford published the leading African American newspaper of its era, and as the first black attorney admitted to the West Virginia state bar, he won a trailblazing victory in Williams v. Board of Education that found discriminatory practices in public education illegal. Studies in Chicago Clifford was born in Williamsport, Virginia, in
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1894-2005  Mark Matthews first enlisted in the U.S. military at the age of 15, became one of the original “Buffalo Soldiers,” and served his country with distinction through numerous conflicts and wars, and racial segregation in the armed forces. Born to Ride Matthews was born in Greenville, Alabama, on August 7, 1894. His family moved
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1877-1970  Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. dedicated his entire life and career to the military, beginning at a time when African Americans were consigned to support service roles with no command authority over whites. He rose to the rank of full General, advised the Army on integration strategies, and in the process contributed to the dismantling
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1798-1866 James Pierson Beckwourth was the only African American pioneer to record his exploits in the early days of the western frontier. He was involved in major events from Canada to Mexico and Florida to California, where he discovered the Beckwourth Pass through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Like his better-known contemporaries Daniel Boone, Kit Carson,
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