Benjamin 0. Davis, Jr., American
Davis, Benjamin 0. Jr.
BENJAMIN 0. DAVIS, JR. AMERICAN: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY Benjamin 0. Davis, Jr./Smithsonian Institution Press 442 pp. $19.95 Dave Shiflett I t was reported recently that a gentle- ' man, on hearing...
...This might not seem like much these days, but back in the 1920s it could take authorities quite a while to answer a black man's call to 911...
...THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JULY 1991 39...
...It was bad enough that black MPs carried sidearms when they drove their Jeeps into town, and indeed the locals demanded that these men be disarmed...
...He graduated thirty-fifth in a class of 276, then set out to get himself into a command cockpit...
...19.95 Dave Shiflett I t was reported recently that a gentle- ' man, on hearing that the jetliner he had just boarded was being piloted by a female, promptly deplaned...
...Davis's men had other plans for members of the master race...
...If a proposed facility had environmental effects that were too severe, then it was open to gum38 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JULY 1991 tion whether the community would really be served by it...
...If there isn't a lot of style in this book, there is a wry sense of humorat work...
...reports in this autobiography, a 1925 War College report put blacks lower on the human totem pole because of "their smaller cranium, lighter brain, [and] cowardly and immoral character...
...By the time we get to his remembrances of life as a bureaucrat, we find this: "Transportation is a public service, and therefore its benefits had to be assessed in terms of broader societal goals...
...It wasn't too long ago we were particular not only about who flew our passenger planes, but who was allowed to drop bombs on our enemies...
...Consider the times in which the general was raised...
...Davis inherited his father's guts...
...The result of this study was that blacks were not encouraged to fly, and absolutely forbidden to command white pilots...
...How times have changed...
...mention but one incident, young Davis and his family were confronted by the Ku Klux Klan during one of that organization's intimidation exercises...
...Well, a man's got to earn a living somehow...
...The 99th Pursuit Squadron, headquartered at Thskegee, Alabama, was a great step forward, but hardly the answer to the local white community's prayers...
...Davis was chosen commander...
...That he was the only chicken speaks highly of our society, which believes that all God's children should have the opportunity to smash 747s into the sides of mountains...
...Even though Davis had graduated in the top fifth of his West Point class, that War College study, with its lighter brains, smaller craniums, and other goblins, put a command position out of his reach...
...The Davis family declined to hug the floorboards, and instead took to their front porch, with Davis's father, a regular Army officer, reviewing the sad parade in his dress uniform...
...During the 1920s, to Dave Shiflett is deputy editorial page editor at the Rocky Mountain News and TAS's Rocky Mountain editor...
...The press's first reaction to those victories was to downplay them, as did Time magazine in a piece that drew a response from Agatha Davis, whose letter was full of blood, guts, and razor blades...
...On Christmas Day," General Davis writes early in the book, "besides celebrating with decorated trees, fruitcakes and assorted nuts, we flew an escort mission to provide cover for a bomber formation attacking Brux, Germany...
...These were lonely times for the young man: he had no roommate, nor did anyone talk with him except in the line of duty...
...Davis feared he would spend his life teaching, but was saved from that fate when FDR ordered the creation of the nation's first black air squadron...
...Worse yet was the fact that these black men had wings—P-40 fighters, to be exact...
...One can imagine Jim Bob and friends looking up from their fishing holes to see these fellows zoom past, machine guns and bombs glistening in the sun...
...No record is spotless...
...even great Americans can get a little heavy on detail...
...The idea that blacks were unfit for air combat was destroyed once and for all over Anzio, when on two days in 1944, twelve Teutonic gentlemen were blasted from the sky by black pilots, which no doubt did not go over well with the welcoming committee at Valhalla...
...Visions of the Apocalypse, no doubt...
...As Gen...
...D avis is at his best when describing the war years, but the book could have benefited from some tighter editing...
...Local black residents were advised to lie low, preferably under their beds, lest their presence inspire the marchers to set the neighborhood afire...
...Readers should also turn the other cheek when the general admits to having been a Mondale supporter and a fan of affirmative action...
...Heavy flak awaited him...
...Davis is the man who broke the color barrier, doing so with quiet dignity, and surely leaving many observers with a bad case of the shakes...
...Black Americans were denied this opportunity (as are women, for the moment...
...Why was this...
...The Klan was riled over plans to award many of the jobs at a new black VA hospital to, of all people, blacks, and in an attempt to reverse the decision the Klansmen donned sheets, lit torches, and went marching past the Thskegee Institute and environs...
...T he general's book has attracted the 1 greatest attention for its section on West Point, which he entered in 1932, having been nominated by a black Republican representative who was not a member of the Congressional Club...
...The 99th failed to live up to these expectations, readying themselves for battle rather than dive-bombing the local country clubs...
...The silent treatment went on for four years, the social monotony broken only when Davis met his future wife, Agatha...
Vol. 24 • July 1991 • No. 7
