Golden Thirteen
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The Golden Thirteen were the thirteen African American enlisted men who became the first African American commissioned officers in the United States Navy.
In March 1944, John Walter Reagan, Jesse Walter Arbor, Dalton Louis Baugh, Frank Ellis Sublett, Graham Edward Martin, Phillip George Barnes, Reginald E. Goodwin, James Edward Hair, Samuel Edward Barnes, George Clinton Cooper, William Sylvester White, and Dennis Denmark Nelson were commissioned as ensigns. Charles Byrd Lear was commissioned as a warrant officer.
Responding to pressure from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Assistant Secretary of the Navy Adlai Stevenson, the Navy began officer training for 16 African-American enlisted men at Camp Robert Smalls, Recruit Training Center Great Lakes (now known as Great Lakes Naval Training Station), Illinois in January 1944. Although all sixteen members of the class passed the course, only twelve were commissioned as ensigns and one as a warrant boatswain. The class average was 3.89.
President Harry S. Truman officially desegregated the U.S. military in 1948. At the time of the Golden Thirteen's commissioning, there were approximately 100,000 African-American men serving in the United States Navy's enlisted ranks.
Frank Ellis Sublett, the last living member of the group died on September 27, 2006.[1]
[edit] The Golden Thirteen's Legacy
In 1987, the U.S. Navy reunited the seven living members to dedicate a building in their honor at Great Lakes Naval Recruit Training Command, Illinois. Today, Building 1405 at RTC Great Lakes, where recruits first arrive for basic training, is named "The Golden Thirteen" in honor of them.
In 2006, ground was broken on a World War II memorial in North Chicago, Illinois to honor the Golden Thirteen and Dorie Miller.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Last of the "Golden 13" Dies Navy News Wire Service
- Naval Historical Center
- Stillwell, Paul, The Golden Thirteen: Recollections of the First Black Naval Officers (1993)
