Benjamin O. Davis, Sr.

Military leader

• Born: July 1, 1877
• Birthplace: Washington, D.C.
• Died: November 26, 1970
• Place of death: North Chicago, Illinois

As the United States’ first African American general, during World War II Davis investigated racial tensions within the U.S. military and suggested policies that promoted its integration.

Early Life

Born in Washington, D.C., on July 1, 1877, Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., was the youngest of three children of Louis P. H. Davis, a messenger for the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, and his wife, Henrietta, a nurse. Descended from Virginia slaves and freemen, Louis and Henrietta had begun in household service and, with some assistance from influential white employers, entered middle-class occupations and achieved home ownership. Davis began his education at the integrated Lucretia Mott elementary school, where a Civil War veteran led both black and white children in military drills during recess. Davis would not encounter segregation until his high school years, when he enrolled at the all-black M Street High School instead of the school nearest to his home.

Encouraged by his high school drill instructor, Davis joined the District of Columbia National Guard in 1898 as a second lieutenant. Later that year, he accepted a first lieutenant’s commission in the Eighth U.S. Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Upon the Eighth’s dissolution in 1899, Davis attempted to gain an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy but was unable to find support because of his race. After enlisting as a private in the Ninth Cavalry Regiment, in 1901 he passed a competitive examination to obtain the commission of second lieutenant in the Tenth Cavalry, with which he traveled to the Philippines (1901) and Fort Washakie, Wyoming (1902). The Army promoted him to first lieutenant in 1905.

On a thirty-day leave in October, 1902, Davis returned to Washington to court and marry his longtime friend Elnora Dickerson. The couple went on to have three children: Olive (1903), Benjamin, Jr. (1912), and Elnora (1916). Davis’s wife died in 1916 of complications from childbirth. Three years later, Davis married Sadie Overton, an instructor at Wilberforce University.

Life’s Work

Although Davis was ambitious, the military’s reluctance to place white soldiers under the command of an African American officer limited his range of assignments—and, as a result, his opportunities for promotion. From 1912 to 1915 and 1917 to 1920, Davis served with the all-black Ninth Cavalry; from 1938 to 1941, he commanded the 369th Infantry Regiment of the New York National Guard. Aside from these leadership positions, however, the U.S. War Department generally detached Davis from his regiment to serve as a military attaché or instructor. From 1909 to 1911, he served as U.S. military attaché to Liberia; from 1924 to 1928, he instructed a black unit of the Ohio National Guard. Otherwise, Davis taught military science and tactics during several stints at Wilberforce University and the Tuskegee Institute. During the 1930’s, he also escorted Gold Star Mothers (women who had lost their sons or daughters in World War I) on segregated tours of European battlefields.

Davis was promoted to captain in 1915, major in 1917, lieutenant colonel in 1918, and colonel in 1929, at which point he became the U.S. military’s highest ranking African American officer. Responding to pressure from the African American press, the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration promoted Davis to brigadier general on October 26, 1940. After briefly commanding the Second Cavalry Division’s Fourth Cavalry Brigade, Davis retired in June, 1941.

As the pre-World War II draft had expanded African American military representation, however, Davis immediately returned to active duty as the inspector general’s special adviser on African American units. In this capacity, he visited the units at their bases and training camps, inquired into conditions and race-related incidents, and reported back to the Inspector General’s Office with specific recommendations. In 1942, Davis visited black units stationed in Great Britain, where he met with General Dwight D. Eisenhower and advised Major General John C. H. Lee. On Davis’s recommendation, Lee created a special board—which Davis led—to nominate African American candidates to Officer Training School (OCS), a measure that would significantly increase the number of black officers available for command. In 1942, Davis also was appointed to the Advisory Committee on Negro Troop Policies, a board established in response to criticisms from the African American press.

As the U.S. military began to experience manpower shortages, Davis saw opportunities to push for increased African American combat participation and integration of segregated units. In 1943, he opposed Army attempts to transfer Class 5 enlisted men—a category comprising a disproportionate number of African Americans—from combat to service units. He also was instrumental in persuading the Army to assign the Ninety-second Division to combat in Italy. To draw home-front attention to African American combat service, Davis helped to edit and publicize a motion picture, The Negro Soldier (1944), and to create footage for its sequel, Teamwork (1946), which focused on African American combat service.

In December, 1944, Davis and Lee proposed that black service troops be allowed to volunteer as individual replacements for fallen soldiers, a plan that would have gradually integrated all-white combat units. Modifying Davis and Lee’s idea, Eisenhower instead adopted a system of unit replacement that permitted African American service and support soldiers to volunteer for segregated combat units that would reinforce the front lines. While this policy fell short of Davis’s hopes, it nevertheless expanded African Americans’ combat opportunities. In 1945, Lee appointed Davis as an adviser to the European command regarding African American troops. Davis also served as head of the General Inspectorate Section’s Colored Troops Affairs Division.

Recalled to the United States in 1945, Davis began to address the challenges of demobilization on both the European and domestic fronts. In an effort to avert postwar race riots, he created a program to educate white servicemen on the experience of black soldiers. With his son (then) Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., he also testified on the success of the black replacement units before a military policy-making board, to which he argued that desegregation, supported by appropriate educational programs, would increase military efficiency. In 1946, Davis attempted to pressure officials to implement the Gillem Board’s recommendation that the Army end racial segregation. The next year, he briefly returned to Liberia as head of a U.S. delegation.

Davis retired for a second time on July 20, 1948. Six days later, President Harry S. Truman ordered the racial integration of the armed forces through Executive Order 9981.

In retirement, Davis unofficially advised the Army and served on a number of local committees. After the death of his wife, Sadie, in 1966, Davis moved to Chicago to live with his daughter Elnora Davis McLendon. He died of leukemia on November 26, 1970, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Significance

As the first African American general in the U.S. military, Davis became an inspirational figure in the African American press—even as he excited controversy with his strategy of pursuing gradual change within the existing power structure. During World War II, Davis perceived the military necessity of increasing manpower, morale, and efficiency, and he used these motivations to push for small but crucial steps toward the racial integration of the armed forces. Meanwhile, he publicized African American combat achievements and developed educational programs to improve military race relations. While Davis’s efforts did not directly influence Truman’s Executive Order 9981, they arguably laid the groundwork for its success.

Bibliography

Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., Collection, 1893-1974. U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle. Filling fifty-five archival boxes, this primary-source collection heavily documents Davis’s work during World War II.

Fletcher, Marvin E. America’s First Black General: Benajmin O. Davis, Sr., 1880-1970. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1989. Prefaced by comments from Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., Fletcher’s monograph is the definitive biography of Davis, Sr.

Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., and Cornel West. “Benjamin O. Davis, Sr.: The General.” In The African American Century: How Black Americans Have Shaped Our Country. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002. This profile offers a summary of Davis’s career in the context of African American history.

Mershon, Sherie, and Steven Schlossman. Foxholes and Color Lines: Desegregating the U.S. Armed Forces. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. This scholarly monograph places Davis’s wartime role within the broader context of U.S. military desegregation.