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TITLE: Breaking the Color Barrier: The U.S. Naval Academy's First Black Midshipmen and the Struggle for Racial Equality
SPEAKER: Robert Schneller
EVENT DATE: 08/10/2005
RUNNING TIME: 71 minutes
DESCRIPTION:
The Veterans History Project sponsored a lecture by Robert Schneller on his book, "Breaking the Color Barrier: The U.S. Naval Academy's First Black Midshipmen and the Struggle for Racial Equality." On hand to salute Cdr. Wes Brown was the Honorable Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton.
Schneller is a Navy historian and has published many volumes on American naval history. In his lecture he stated that "only five black men were admitted to the United States Naval Academy between Reconstruction and the beginning of World War II. In 1949, Midshipman Wesley Brown achieved what before had been impossible and became the Academy's first African American graduate."
"Breaking the Color Barrier" examines the black community's efforts to integrate the Naval Academy and describes life in Annapolis for the first black midshipmen. On hand at the event, Cdr. Brown himself spoke eloquently about staying the course, being determined to succeed and of the need for humor.
Speaker Biography: Robert Schneller is an official historian in the Contemporary History Branch of the United States Navy's Naval Historical Center.