Document created: 20 June 00
Air & Space Power Journal

Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., American: An Autobiography by Benjamin O. Davis Jr. Smithsonian Institution Press (http://www.si.edu/organiza/offices/sipress/start.htm), 470 L’Enfant Plaza, Suite 7100, Washington, D.C. 20560, 2000 (paper reissue of 1991 hardcover), 442 pages.

Were life equitable, Benjamin O. Davis Jr. would be known as an extremely capable military officer who had a distinguished 34-year career characterized by dignity, professionalism, and ser-vice. After graduating 35th in the US Military Academy class of 1936, he led men in combat; won a Silver Star, croix de guerre, and other medals; and attained the rank of lieutenant general. But Davis is black. There has to be much frustration in having an irrelevant physical characteristic overshadow everything one has accomplished. As Davis says, “I do not find it complimentary to me or to the nation to be called ‘the first black West Point graduate in this century’ ” (p. 423). However, he is the first black airman to earn his wings, the first black Air Force general, and the son of the first black general. Until the world becomes color-blind, that is how history will record him.

This autobiography is thorough. Initially, there’s a spark—almost of bitterness—in the narrative. Davis records the racism that faced him at West Point, at Tuskegee in hostile white Alabama, and everywhere he went in the segregated South. As did his father, he preferred overseas assignments. There is still an undercurrent of anger in his writing about events of half a century before, such as the racism that silenced him at West Point and that assigned him to segregated units, including the Tuskegee Airmen, which he led into combat during World War II. His tone mellows, however, as he describes how he rose through the ranks and how society became officially less segregated.

Davis, a man of much dignity and reserve, has not written a kiss-and-tell book. He provides personal experience with discretion; there is a level below which he does not go. In some respects, he comes across as apolitical. For example, he dismisses Watergate, which occurred while he was an undersecretary in Richard Nixon’s Department of Transportation, in a paragraph. And he discusses the Vietnam War only as it affected his support mission as commander of Thirteenth Air Force at Clark Air Base in the Philippines.

Writing an autobiography is difficult because of the built-in conflict between being complete and being accurate. Not everything in a life matters beyond the moment, and an accurate reading of a life requires the writer to emphasize some things and deemphasize others. If Davis has a problem, it is that in his pursuit of completeness, he loses sight of truly significant events. His father told him early on that he should keep a record of his life; clearly, the young man took that advice. Indeed, the autobiography sometimes seems to be no more than an expanded diary filled with names and places.

A more elaborate context could have made this a really excellent man-and-his-times work. Autobiographers routinely supplement their memories and records with secondary material. For the most part, Davis does not. Only for an episode that he could have written in his sleep does he turn to an outside expert. In talking of the demise of segregation, he relies on Alan Gropman’s The Air Force Integrates rather than his personal knowledge. There just might be too much reserve in this American general.

Although not perfect, this book is still a solid autobiography. The career of Benjamin O. Davis Jr. shows the gradual transition from a segregated to an integrated military. The Smithsonian Institution Press has done a good job of reissuing the work in paper.

John H. Barnhill
Tinker AFB, Oklahoma

Disclaimer

The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University.