#BlackHistoryMonth Wesley Anthony Brown (April 3, 1927 – May 22, 2012) was the first African American graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy (USNA), in Annapolis, Maryland. 
He served in the Korean War and the Vietnam War and served in the U.S. Navy from May 2, 1944, until June 30, 1969.
Born in Baltimore, MD, Wesley Anthony Brown grew up in Washington DC, where his father delivered groceries and his mother worked in a dry cleaning shop. Brown’s great-grandparents were slaves.
He was a 1944 Dunbar High School graduate and served in the Army reserves as a teenager. Brown grew up in a row house on Q Street near Logan Circle.
Regarding Annapolis, since it’s founding in 1845. Five other Black midshipmen had come before him; none had graduated. Most were forced to resign from the academy because of a hostile racial climate.
On June 3, 1949, Cmdr. Brown was commissioned as a Navy officer, graduating 370th out of his class of nearly 800. Many newspapers covered his graduation as a landmark achievement in military history.
Cmdr. Brown saw it differently. “I feel it is unfortunate the American people have not matured enough to accept and individual on the basis of his ability and not regard a person as an oddity because of his color,”
Cmdr. Brown told the New York Times in 1949. “My class standing shows that around here I am an average ‘Joe.’ ”
Cmdr. Brown retired from the Navy in 1969. To date, more than 1,700 Black students have graduated from the Naval Academy, including Navy admirals, Marine Corps generals, basketball star David Robinson and NASA administrator Charles F. Bolden.
From 1976 to 1988, he was the facilities planner for Howard University. In 2008, the Naval Academy dedicated its $50 million indoor track facility in Cmdr. Brown’s honor.”
At his home, Cmdr. Brown kept a prized letter from Carter, his former track teammate. “I ran with you,” the 39th president wrote to Cmdr. Brown, but “you were better.
Brown retired as a lieutenant commander in June 1969 after serving 20 years in the Navy's Civil Engineer Corps.
There Brown was responsible for building 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.
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 the Service Academy Selection Board of DC's Congressional Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton. He retired from the University .
Brown was a volunteer motivational speaker and spoke with Washington, DC high school students and midshipmen of the USNA Black Studies Club during Black History Month.
Then Captain, now Admiral, Bruce E. Grooms (left) and Wesley Brown (right) at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Wesley Brown Field House, March 25, 2006
Brown also participated in the ribbon-cutting ceremony with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen, Naval Academy Superintendent Vice Adm. Jeffrey L. Fowler, and Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley.
Wesley Brown, a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, died of cancer on May 22, 2012 in Silver Spring, Maryland at the age of 63. A great contributor to #BlackHistory
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