Wesley Brown USN Ret
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Wesley Anthony Brown USN Ret (1927 - 2012)

LDCR Wesley Anthony Brown USN Ret
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, United Statesmap
Husband of [private wife (1930s - unknown)]
Husband of — married about 1964 [location unknown]
[children unknown]
Died at age 85 in Silver Spring, Montgomery, Maryland, United Statesmap
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Biography

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Native of Maryland

Wesley Anthony Brown broke the color line in the U.S. Naval Academy as its first African American graduate in 1949. He served in the U.S. Navy for twenty years, retiring in 1969 with the rank of Lieutenant Commander.

Said Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff:

He fought a war his whole life for all of us to improve who we are as individuals, who we are both as a Navy and a nation. It was his noble calling and it was his call to service and citizenship that led to lasting change in our Navy and in our nation.[1]

He was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1927,[2] the only child and son of William Brown and his wife Rosetta Katherine Hicks,[3] and moved to Washington, D.C. with his family, or possibly just his mother. His parents may have separated for at least a time in 1940, as he was counted on the census that year with his mother, but not his father, in the household of his maternal foster grandmother in Washington D.C. He was thirteen years old,[4] so he and and his mother may have been there without his father simply to be closer to historic, academically superior Dunbar High School, in preparation for the next school year. After graduating from Dunbar,[5] he was accepted into Howard University, and became the first in his family to attend college.[2]

On June 3, 1949, Brown was the first African American to graduate from the Academy, ranking 370th out of nearly 800 graduates. President Jimmy Carter was a classmate. One year earlier, President Harry S. Truman had issued the executive order desegregating the military.

He didn't think of himself as a hero:

Many newspapers covered his graduation as a landmark achievement in military history. Cmdr. Brown saw it differently. “I feel it is unfortunate the American people have not matured enough to accept an individual on the basis of his ability and not regard a person as an oddity because of his color,” Cmdr. Brown told the New York Times in 1949. “My class standing shows that around here I am an average ‘Joe.’[6]

But he'd endured years of hazing and being shunned by many of his fellows.[6] In a 2005 interview with the Baltimore Sun, he said that he learned to not be frustrated when faced with a situation that couldn't be changed.

When I came to the Academy, I learned that there were all kinds of prejudices - against Jews, Catholics, even the Irish - and I looked around and thought that these prejudices were instilled in them by their families and they could not be blamed for feeling the way they did," he said.[1]

And,

In a 2005 interview with the [Annapolis] Capital, Brown said he spent his four years at the academy without a roommate by choice. He said he didn't want the academy to order an unwilling white midshipman to room with him. He also didn't want to subject friendlier whites to abuse.[7]

Said Navy historian Robert J. Schneller Jr., who wrote about Commander Brown's years at the Naval Academy in his book Breaking the Color Barrier: The U.S. Naval Academy's First Black Midshipmen and the Struggle for Racial Equality,

It's important for America to remember Wesley A. Brown. He was a pioneer like Jesse Owens and Jackie Robinson.[8]

Military Career

As a member of the Navy's Civil Engineer Corps, he served in Korea and Vietnam; he helped build houses in Hawaii, roads in Liberia, wharves in the Philippines, a nuclear power plant in Antarctica, and a seawater desalination plant in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.[2][9] Lt. Cmdr. Brown had a prestigious military career that included earning a Navy Commendation Medal on August 7, 1964, [citation needed] and the 2009 National Society of Black Engineers Golden Torch Legacy Award-First Honoree.[2]

After retiring from the Navy in 1969, Brown worked for the New York State University Construction Fund, the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York, and Howard University.[2]

Family

He had four children from his first marriage in 1950 in Washington D.C., to Jean Beverly Alston, which ended in divorce:[10][6]

His second marriage was in 1964 to Crystal Malone, and lasted until his death in 2012.[6]

Death and Burial

Lt Cdr Brown died on May 22, 2012,[11] in Silver Spring, Maryland. He is buried in the US Naval Academy Cemetery, Annapolis, Maryland.[12][13]

Legacy

The Wesley Brown Field House at the U.S. Naval Academy is named in his honor.[14]

Research Notes

William Brown was Wesley's father figure and the man considered to be the patriarch of the family. Based on current sources on the profiles of William Brown and Rosetta (Hicks Shephard) Brown, William may (or may not) be Wesley's biological father. McGee-1611 11:58, 18 April 2021 (UTC)

Sources

  1. 1.0 1.1 "First African-American Graduate From Naval Academy Dies," CBS Baltimore,' May 24, 2012.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Wikipedia contributors, "Wesley A. Brown," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wesley_A._Brown&oldid=1081461328 (accessed April 26, 2022).
  3. "Brown, William," obituary, Evening Star The (Washington, D. C. USA), 19 March 1955, page A-8, column 1, "Deaths," item 11; U. S. Library of Congress, database with images, "ChronicilingAmerica" (https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1955-03-19/ed-1/seq-8/ : accessed 15 April 2021).
  4. "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K7S6-9RN : 7 May 2020), Wesley Brown in household of Katie Shepherd, Tract 50, District of Columbia, Police Precinct 2, District of Columbia, District of Columbia, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 1-63, sheet 17A, line 39, family 231, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 555.
    Katie Shepherd Head Female 68 Virginia
    Harriet E Tyler Daughter Female 47 Washington District Of Columbia
    Granville Johnson Foster-son Male 23 Washington District Of Columbia
    Rosetta Brown Foster-daughter Female 27 Washington District Of Columbia
    Bessie Carter Foster-daughter Female 19 Washington District Of Columbia
    Wesley Brown Foster-son Male 13 Maryland
    James Williams Lodger Male 49 Virginia
    Marjorie Baker Lodger Female 15 Washington District Of Columbia
  5. Alison Stewart, First Class: The Legacy of Dunbar, America's First Black Public High School, (Chicago, IL: Lawrence Hill Books, 2013)
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Sun, 04.03.1927, Wesley Brown, Naval Engineer born," The African American Registry, https://aaregistry.org/story/wesley-brown-a-naval-hero/
  7. Tina Reed, "First African American to Graduate from Naval Academy Dies," capitalgazette.com, Capital Gazette, June 21, 2019.
  8. Robert J. Schneller Jr., Breaking the Color Barrier: The U.S. Naval Academy's First Black Midshipmen and the Struggle for Racial Equality, (New York, NY: NYU Press, 2005)
  9. "LCDR Wesley Anthony Brown," Military Hall of Honor.com
  10. Washington DC Marriage Record, 22 Apr 1950, Wesley Anthony Brown, age 23, to Jean Beverly Alston, age 19, Marriage Records. District of Columbia Marriages. Clerk of the Superior Court, Records Office, Washington D.C. Ancestry Record 61404 #900210278
  11. "United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K49V-WV2 : 12 January 2021), Wesley A Brown, 22 May 2012; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
  12. Frederick N. Rasmussen, "Lt. Cmdr. Wesley A. Brown, Broke Color Barrier at Naval Academy." baltimoresun.com. Baltimore Sun, June 7, 2019.
  13. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 18 April 2021), memorial page for Lt. Cmdr. Wesley Anthony Brown (3 Apr 1927–22 May 2012), Find A Grave: Memorial #90774350, citing United States Naval Academy Cemetery, Annapolis, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, USA; Maintained by Charles A. Lewis (contributor 47162573).
  14. Rucker, Philip (May 11, 2008). "Facility Dedicated to Black Pioneer". The Washington Post Company. Retrieved February 1, 2021. [D.C. Resident Broke Institute's Color Barrier When He Graduated in 1949]

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Hi Sandy,

Please be advised that this profile has been selected by the USBH project for "Platinum Profile" status and editing. I'll be making minor changes in the coming days to try to highlight important details and polish the formatting and writing, if I can. Let me know if you disagree with any changes I make-- I'm sure we can come to agreement. Thanks for the work you've contributed in this collaborative effort!

posted by Stephanie Ward