Obit of the Day

Obit of the Day: 1st African American Graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy

When Lt. Commander (Ret.) Wesley A. Brown entered the U.S. Naval Academy in 1945, the military was still segregated. It would not be until President Harry Truman issued Executive Order 9981 in July 1948 that every branch of the armed forces were required to treat all members, black and white, equally. That would not prevent Lt. Cmdr. Brown from becoming the first black graduate of the nation’s second oldest military academy.

Lt. Cmdr. Brown was not the first black midshipman at the Academy. Five had preceded him but none had managed to graduate. Fortunately for him, he had served as Cadet Corps Battalion Commander* while at Baltimore’s Dunbar High School as well as in World War II prior to entering the Academy.

While at the USNA, Lt. Cmdr. Brown was a successful athlete on the track and cross-country teams. He would often find himself running with fellow midshipman, and future President of the United States, Jimmy Carter.

Following his graduation from the Academy in 1949, Lt. Commander Brown would serve in the Korean and Vietnam Wars as well as Liberia, Cuba, and the Philippines. He would retire from the Navy in 1969.

In 2007, the Naval Academy dedicated the Wesley A. Brown Field House in his honor. Lt. Commander Wesley Brown died at the age of 85.

(Image is copyright of Simmie Knox, who was also commissioned to paint the official White House portraits of former President Bill Clinton and former First Lady Hillary Clinton, as well as Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.)

*The military-like program was similar to today’s JROTC

Obit of the Day: Radio Pioneer

Hal Jackson was a man of many firsts. As an African American in radio, Mr. Jackson would overcome obstacle after obstacle while continuing to grow his own reputation as one of the legends of the medium.

Attending Howard University in the 1930’s, Jackson became the first African American sports broadcaster as he called not only college games but Negro League contests as well. Not long after graduating Jackson was hired by Washington, D.C.’s WINX, a recognizable achievement since only weeks earlier the station owner had told Jackson, “No nigger will ever be on my radio station.” (Note: I could not find any mention of what changed the owner’s mind. I assume Mr. Jackson’s talent outweighed the color of his skin.)

By the mid-1940’s Jackson was hosting four different radio programs on four different stations in the D.C. area. By the 1950’s Hal Jackson was in New York City where he became the first African American host on WABC.

Mr. Jackson’s next great breakthrough occurred in 1971 when he co-founded Inner City Broadcasting Corporation (ICBC) with Percy Sutton. The two men would become the first African Americans to own stations on AM and FM when they purchased the signals for WLIB. They would change the FM call letters to WBLS (“the Total BLack Experience in Sound”), eventually becoming the number one R&B station in New York.

For his work in the medium, Hal Jackson was the first African American inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame (1990) and the Radio Hall of Fame (1995). He was also named a “Giant of Broadcasting” by the American Library of Broadcasting (2010).

Hal Jackson, who was hosting his Sunday afternoon radio show on WBLS until a few weeks ago, died at the age of 96.

Note: ICBC declared bankruptcy in 2011 and were forced by a court to sell a majority share to other investors, most famously Magic Johnson Enterprises.

Additional sources: New York Daily News and Wikipedia.org

(Undated image of Hal Jackson is courtesy of BET.com)