The Arthur 'Soldier Boy Grip' Taylor Chronicles: On Meeting Gen. Benjamin Davis

Description

MY GRANDFATHER ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS RECALLED TO ME THE STORY OF HOW HE GOT TO MEET GEN. BENJAMIN DAVIS, SR., THE FIRST BLACK GENERAL IN US MILITARY HISTORY...IN 1940, HE WAS APPOINTED BRIGADIER GENERAL OF THE US ARMY BY US PRES. FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT...THE APPOINTMENT WAS CONSIDERED AN UNPOPULAR MOVE BY MANY IN THE US AND CREATED A LOT OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL PROTEST AND CONTROVERSY FOR MANY WHITE AMERICANS... HOWEVER TO MANY BLACK AMERICANS LIKE MY US SOUTHERN BORNED AND RAISED GRANDFATHER , THEY SAW GEN. DAVIS AS A SOURCE OF PRIDE AND INSPIRATION AND A MIRACLE WHO WAS A BEAUTIFULLY FORMED ROSE THAT GREW OUT OF THE SEEMINGLY IMPENETRABLE CONCRETE OF UNITED STATES AKA JIM CROW RACISM , INEQUALITY AND SEGREGATION...GEN. DAVIS WAS COLIN POWELL BEFORE THERE WAS A GEN. POWELL!!! BEFORE GEN. DAVIS WAS MADE A GENERAL HE OVERSAW THE NEW YORK 15TH NATIONAL GUARD UNIT IN HARLEM DURING THE 1930S...THE NEW YORK 15TH NATIONAL GUARD UNIT BY THAT TIME WAS KNOWN BY ITS LEGENDARY NICKNAME 'THE HARLEM HELLFIGHTERS', A NAME GIVEN TO THE ORIGINAL MEMBERS OF THE UNIT BY THE FRENCH BECAUSE THEY SERVED BRAVELY, PROUDLY AND FOUGHT FEROCIOUSLY IN WORLD WAR ONE , NEVER LOSING AN INCH OF GROUND OR FELLOW SOLDIER TO ENEMY CAPTURE... A NATIVE OF WASHINGTON. DC , GEN. DAVIS WAS A CAREER SOLDIER'S SOLDIER SERVING HIS COUNTRY HONORABLY AND WITH DISTINCTION FOR SEVERAL DECADES AT HOME AND ABROAD...GEN. DAVIS HAD A SON NAMED BENJAMIN DAVIS, JR. AND LIKE HIS NAMESAKE HE WAS AN EXCEPTION TO THE RULE AS WELL <b>...</b>

Keywords

gen. benjamin davis, sr., gen. benjamin davis jr., harlem hellfighters, tuskegee airmen, black history, us history, us military history, world war one, world war two, civil rights, franklin roosevelt, west point, american history

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