When President McKinley turned down Benjamin Oliver Davis for a place at West Point due to the colour of his skin, Davis joined the army as a private. Davis soon worked his way through the ranks to receive his second lieutenant commission in 1901. It would be over 30 years before another black officer would receive his commission, and that would be Benjamin Oliver Davis's son, Benjamin Oliver Davis Jr.
In theory, black troops would be barred from combat, but Benjamin Oliver Davis Jr. would lead the first Black flying squadron, the Tuskegee Airmen, to success during WWII.
For this episode, I'm joined by Doug Melville, a direct relative of Benjamin Oliver Davis Jr. and Sr.
When George Lucas's film 'Red Tails' (2012), celebrating the Tuskegee Airmen, was released, Doug was shocked when he realised that Ben Jr.’s name had been omitted and replaced by the fictional Colonel A. J. Bullard. And Ben’s father, Benjamin O. Davis Sr., America’s first Black general who helped integrate the military, was left out too. The film inspired him to rediscover his family’s story, which spans five generations, and write Invisible Generals: Rediscovering Family Legacy, and a Quest to Honor America's First Black Generals.
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The Covenanter Tank
46 - Fighting Through From Dunkirk to Hamburg
45 - The Jersey Brothers
44 - The Winter War: The British Reaction to the Invasion of Finland
43 - The Red Cross: Humanitarians at War
42 - The Battle of the Coral Sea
41 - Amphibious Operations in WWII
40 - Homefront to Battlefront
39 - Allen Dulles and the German Resistance
38 - The Race for the Rhine
37 - 82nd Airborne at Operation Husky
36 - Volunteers and Pressed Men
35 - Air Campaigns on the Eastern Front
34 - Surviving the Nazis, Gulags and Soviet Communism
33 - The American St Nick
32 - Operation Sea Lion - The invasion of Britain
31 - Shadow Warriors: Daring Missions of WWII by Women of the OSS and SOE
30 - Lucky 666: The Impossible Mission
29 - Selling Hitler
28 - Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina
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