Black History Month 2022: Benjamin Oliver Sr.

1. Benjamin O. Davis Sr. was the first African American to be named a general in the American military.
2. It is believed Davis lied about his age to enlist in the Army without the permission of his parents by almost 3years.
3. Davis attended M Street High School in Washington, D.C., but during his senior year, he took classes at Howard University.
4. Because of his cadet training in high school, Davis entered the U.S. Army on July 13, 1898, during the Spanish American War.
5. He was a temporary first lieutenant assigned to the 8th United States Volunteer Infantry, an all-black unit stationed at Chickamauga Park, Georgia, from October 1898 until the unit disbanded in March 1899 after the end of the war.
6. On June 18, Davis reentered the Army as a private with the 10th Cavalry (Buffalo Soldiers) and was stationed at Fort Duchesne, Utah. Within a year, Davis rose to the rank of sergeant major.
7. He was then mentored by Lieutenant Charles Young, the only black officer in the military at that time. Young encouraged Davis to seek an officer’s commission which he received on February 1, 1901, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, along with another former enlisted African American, John E. Green.
8. In the spring of 1901, Davis received his first overseas assignment when he was sent to serve with the 10th Cavalry as second lieutenant.  He returned to the U.S. in August 1902, and over the next four decades served in a number of capacities, including professor of Military Science at Wilberforce University, military attaché in Liberia, and border patrol along the Mexican-U.S. border.
9. From 1917 to 1920, Davis again served in the Philippines, reaching the temporary rank of lieutenant colonel before returning to the U.S. with the rank of captain. Between 1920 and 1938, Davis served as professor of Military Science at both Tuskegee and Wilberforce again, but that year he took command of the 369th Regiment, New York National Guard, as a colonel. On October 25, 1940, he was appointed brigadier general.
10. Davis was promoted to general at the age of 60. During WWII, he mostly made inspection tours of black troops in Europe where he supported desegregation of the U.S. Army.
11. In 1947 he was appointed a special assistant to the Secretary of the Army.
12. Davis retired after fifty years of military service on July 20, 1948.
13. In 1954, Davis’ son, Benjamin O. Davis Jr., became the second African American to attain the rank of general in the U.S. Air Force.
14. Benjamin O. Davis Sr. died on November 26, 1970, at the Great Lakes Naval Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, and was interred in Arlington National Cemetery.

Credit: Defending the Long Road to Freedom: Benjamin Oliver Davis - Army Heritage Center Foundation