Wesley A. Brown, commissioned June 3, 1949

Brown graduated from Dunbar High School, where he was Cadet Corps Battalion Commander during his senior year. He became the first in his family to attend college, at Howard University in Washington, D.C. A retired naval officer, Lt. Cmdr. Brown became the first African American to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy. He was nominated for admission and later appointed by New York Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Brown entered the academy on June 30, 1945 and graduated on June 3, 1949.

He served in the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Brown also built military service member homes in Hawaii, roads in Liberia, wharves in the Philippines, a nuclear power plant in Antarctica, and a desalination plant in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Brown was an accomplished athlete, running cross-country with Jimmy Carter, the 39th president, who was also a Naval Academy graduate.

When he retired, Brown consulted on construction projects and joined the faculty at Howard University as a physical facilities analyst. He served as chairman of D.C.'s Congressional Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton’s Service Academy Selection Board.  Brown was a volunteer motivational speaker and particularly enjoyed talking with DC high school students and midshipmen of the USNA Black Studies Club during Black History Month.

In the July 2008 USBE Online interview below with Lango Deen,  Lt. Cmdr. Wesley Brown, said that the Naval field house named after him went a long way toward convincing young black men and women to come to the Academy.

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Let's Go Navy! The Life and Times of Lt. Commander Wesley A. Brown

Build it and they will play. That’s what US Naval Academy personnel probably thought as they broke ground for a new field house in 2006. Two years on, in May 2008, the modern $45-million complex, which houses the most advanced technology to boost the combat preparedness of Annapolis’ midshipmen, was dedicated to the first black graduate. Lt. Cmdr. Wesley Brown, 81, told USBE Online, that the Naval field house named for a living African American went a long way toward convincing young black men and women to come to the Academy.

USBE: Commander Brown, you entered the Academy in 1945 and retired from the Navy in 1969. How would you compare Navy recruiting in your day to now?
Lt. Cmdr Brown: Circumstances are quite different. Those who have watched this [recruiting efforts] very closely realize that, perhaps, we don't have enough people in the services. The Iraq war is certainly not popular, and double and triple tours of duty are not encouraging to anyone. There is also the question of whether we still need troops in Japan, Germany, and other places. I think the fact that the [Iraq] war is not popular has had an effect. What is happening in Iraq is now a matter of snipers and guerilla warfare, which is difficult to fight.

USBE: How has the world of soldiering changed since WW II?
Lt. Cmdr Brown: Tom Brokaw has spoken about our generation as “the Greatest Generation,” and there is some merit to that. Studs Terkel referred to WW II as “the Good War.” I was born in the twenties. By 1930-31, we had the Great Depression . It’s impossible to describe to you what universal depression was like. Very few men had jobs. Most people lived with their grandparents, parents, or with others. I can recall people knocking on our back door asking for a slice of bread, which they’d split among four people. My father made a dollar a day, and he was one of the few men who had work. He was a truck driver, and delivered produce to restaurants in Washington, DC.

The war in Europe required the United States to rearm; consequently plants opened up to build tanks and aircraft; and created administrative jobs. I was 15 years old, in high school at the time, but I was able to get a job working six nights a week from 4-12 pm in the Navy. I had about $5,000 saved up by the time I graduated from high school. Then I enlisted in the Army. Under the ASTP (Army Specialized Training Program), I went to Howard University as an electrical engineering major . I had the choice of other schools, but most colleges were segregated.

USBE: The conditions and opportunities that got young, black people like you into the military and your field were unique.
Lt. Cmdr Brown: Prior to that time, African Americans weren’t allowed to enlist. I joined the Navy [switching from Howard University] when the Naval Academy offered to pay for me to go to school. I graduated with a bachelor of science degree with a mechanical engineering major , and then went to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. I graduated in 1951 with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering .