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Invisible Generals: Rediscovering Family Legacy, and a Quest to Honor America's First Black Generals - Hardcover

Melville, Doug

 
9781668005132: Invisible Generals: Rediscovering Family Legacy, and a Quest to Honor America's First Black Generals
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 1668005131 ISBN 13: 9781668005132
Verlag: Atria/Black Privilege Publishing, 2023

Inhaltsangabe

This amazing true story of America’s first Black generals, Benjamin O. Davis Sr. and Jr., a father and son who helped integrate the American military and created the Tuskegee Airmen, is “the book Black America needs in this moment” (Eboni K. Williams, lawyer and cohost of State of the Culture).

Red Tails, George Lucas’s celebration of America’s first Black flying squadron, the Tuskegee Airmen, should have been a moment of victory for Doug Melville. He expected to see his great-uncle Benjamin O. Davis Jr.—the squadron’s commander—immortalized on-screen for his selfless contributions to America. But as the film rolled, Doug was shocked when he realized that Ben Jr.’s name had been omitted and replaced by the fictional Colonel A. J. Bullard. And Ben’s father, Benjamin O. Davis Sr., America’s first Black general who helped integrate the military, was left out completely.

Dejected, Doug looked inward and realized that unless he worked to bring their inspirational story to light, it would remain hidden from the world just as it had been concealed from him.

In this “thoughtful, highly readable blend of family and military history” (Kirkus Reviews), Melville shares his quest to rediscover his family’s story across five generations, from post-Civil War America to modern day Asia and Europe. In life, the Davises were denied the recognition and compensation they’d earned, but through his journey, Melville uncovers something greater: that dedication and self-sacrifice can move proverbial mountains—even in a world determined to make you invisible.

Invisible Generals recounts the lives of a father and his son who always maintained their belief in the American dream. As the inheritor of their legacy, Melville retraces their steps, advocates for them to receive their long-overdue honors and unlocks the potential we all hold to retrieve powerful family stories lost to the past.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Doug Melville is a leading voice in exposing hidden history, his work sitting at the intersection of culture, marketing, and reputation. He is currently a Forbes contributor and host of the weekly podcast DM Me with Doug Melville on the iHeart/Black Effect Network. His work has been featured across hundreds of outlets, including The New York Times, CNN, The Daily Show, and CBS This Morning. He has lectured at Stanford, Georgetown, and Harvard. His is the author of Invisible Generals and Invisible Senators. Find out more at DougMelville.com.

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Chapter One: Generational Collateral ONE Generational Collateral
Our lives are the receipts of our ancestors’ journeys—their experiences, investments, relationships, joy, pain, and tragedies.

No one could’ve anticipated how frigid it would be on March 4, 1873, the day President Ulysses S. Grant was sworn in for his second term. It was the coldest March inauguration on record, and everyone attending was likely bundled up and bracing against the negative windchill. As Grant rode in his custom presidential carriage to the White House, alongside him sat Louis P. H. Davis.

I first learned about Louis Davis from my dad. When I asked other family members about him, I repeatedly heard that his significance could be traced to his purchase of a home in Washington, DC, which would become a launching pad for future generations’ success. Ben Jr., Louis’s grandson, wrote in his memoir:

Louis Patrick Henry Davis, my father’s father, had spent his boyhood as a servant in the home of Gen. and Mrs. John A. Logan. General Logan, who later became a U.S. representative and a U.S. senator from Illinois, had participated actively in the effort to impeach President Andrew Johnson. My grandfather favorably impressed the Logan family and gradually became their son’s companion. Later, as General Logan’s protégé, he worked in the Interior Department. He thus gained a measure of economic security and was able to purchase a home at 1830 11th Street NW, where I was born.1

Even if you’re unfamiliar with Major General Logan, you may know some of the landmarks that bear his name: Logan Airport in Boston, Logan Square in Chicago, and Logan Circle in DC. He was a Civil War hero of the Union Army and became a close friend of Ulysses S. Grant, who had commanded the Union Army. After Logan retired from the military, he entered politics. Between Logan’s military prowess, renown, political swagger, and friendship with the president, he was an extremely powerful person and indispensable ally to have—particularly for a Black family in that era.

The record is unclear on when or how Louis became Logan’s servant. The term “servant” can mean many different things in a modern context, with both positive and negative connotations. Back then, it meant that the livelihood, accommodations, and tasks were solely determined by the provider. But as a servant, Louis was welcomed into the Logans’ home and paid for his labor. He was obviously well thought of and trusted, because he became the companion of Logan’s son, John A. Logan II, and was tasked with overseeing Grant’s son on occasion as well. So it was noteworthy, but no shock, that Louis accompanied the younger Logan in the carriage during Grant’s second inauguration.

Perhaps in appreciation for Louis’s years of faithful service, General Logan used his connections to secure a job for Louis in the Department of the Interior. As an assistant messenger for the Office of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, he earned a salary of $720 a year (equivalent to about $22,000 today). Once he was gainfully employed, he felt confident enough to start a family of his own. He wed Henrietta Stewart on July 7, 1875, and the newlyweds lived in a six-room brick house near Howard University. In 1878, they moved to another home nearby. Over the years they had three children. On May 28, 1880, the youngest boy, Benjamin Oliver “Ollie” Davis was born.2

Louis began making moves into DC’s Black middle-class society. In the early 1880s he received a promotion to head messenger in the Office of the Assistant Attorney General, with an annual salary of $840 (around $25,000 today). Henrietta worked as a nurse, and in 1893, the dual income helped the Davises become one of the few Black families in the city to purchase their own home. With General Logan’s help, they purchased 1830 11th Street NW—a move that firmly cemented their middle-class status. The Davises owned that home for forty years, and it served as both the launching and landing pad for their family. It allowed them to send their children to school, and it provided financial, and thus familial, stability.

Even though the Davises were progressing, life after the end of Reconstruction proved increasingly difficult for Blacks, especially in the American South. Legal and social pressures, as well as threats of violence, limited Blacks’ opportunities. Public accommodations became segregated along racial lines, including in DC. It’s important to recognize that the main reason for Louis Davis’s exceptional ability to navigate these turbulent waters and accomplish things many Blacks could not imagine during that time—secure a public-service job, acquire real estate, and become upwardly mobile—was because of his powerful ally General Logan.

All these years later, I find it remarkable to contemplate how long my family’s influence—over 150 years and across a dozen presidential administrations—can be traced back through America’s history. This knowledge places me in a position of confidence in America, a country where a Black person’s citizenship is so often made to feel more like a privilege than a right. We’ve earned our right to be here as much as any other group.

During Louis’s post–Civil War lifetime, America was in a chaotic state that made many Blacks’ lives precarious. However, his story highlighted something meaningful to me: not all Black families in the early 1900s were destitute, uneducated, and unemployable. That was the impression I’d gotten from media portrayals of Blacks in post–Civil War America. And Black successes in this era weren’t something I was ever taught in school.

Learning his story was evidence that there were beautiful moments where American families of all races could have allies and support, have people looking out for them. People who were similarly pursuing the American dream.

I imagine what it must have been like to consider yourself an American family, yet at every turn, you’re reminded that you are Black—a permanent scarlet letter relentlessly bringing to mind that society considers you less than everyone else. And I think about how self-assured you would have to be in that environment, to raise your family with your head up, with dignity, in a country that your family helped build.

Yet Louis wasn’t ashamed or afraid to ask for assistance when he needed it, including from people like General Logan. For Louis to get where he wanted to go in life—and to maneuver his children even further down the path—he probably didn’t have the luxury of turning down support from powerful allies. The instinct for survival can result in strange bedfellows. Louis likely recognized the inherent unfairness of the world around him, but he also recognized that he had to shape that world to his own needs in order to achieve his goals. While he couldn’t reverse or erase centuries of racism and negativity, he could try to make amends in his own way by living an honorable life.

Louis learned the value of the mentor-mentee relationship—the exchange of expertise and enthusiasm for a common good. These rules of engagement are timeless in their effectiveness. Even as a DEI leader today, these principles are the building blocks for good politics. I can be sitting across the table from someone and disagree with them on 99 percent of the issues at hand. Yet if we can put our differences aside and respectfully engage one another, we have a better chance of compromising on the critical 1 percent on which we do agree. That’s how the needle gets incrementally moved.

In my mind, I often reenact how...

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Verlag
Atria/Black Privilege Publishing
Erscheinungsdatum
2023
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1668005131
ISBN 13 
9781668005132
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
256
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Simon and Schuster Netherlands BV
info@simonandschuster.nl

Herculesplein 96
Utrecht
3584 AA
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