Writer Tells Audience a Story of Two Heroes, the Tuskegee Airmen and a Family Legacy

In 2011, Doug Melville was invited to a preview screening of “Red Tails,” a movie about the Tuskegee Airmen. Melville went with a sense of pride because the patriarch of his family, Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Jr., was the commander of the Airmen.

Melville had understood that actor Terrence Howard would play Davis. But when Howard came on screen, his character had a different name.

“He was addressed as Col. Bullard,” Melville said Wednesday during a Black History Month lunch-and-learn presented by special emphasis program BRIDGE. “I looked around the theater to see if anybody had noticed that they changed the name. All these families were invited to the movie and then the name of my family had been changed.”

Upset by the change, Melville went home to talk to his father about it. His father’s reaction: “What are you going to do about it?”

His father continued: “If you think taking the name out of the movie is bad, let me tell you the story of Ben and his father, who raised me. They were known as the ‘Invisible Generals.’”

When Melville’s father was 7 years old, he moved to Tuskegee with Ben Jr., who was actually his uncle but raised him like he was own son. Melville also benefited from the help and guidance of a man whose role was more like grandfather than great-uncle.

“Ben was the person who paid for my college, brought me to school,” Melville said. “He gave me my first golf clubs, bought me my first car. He was really the centerpiece of my family. For him to have his name changed was something that rubbed me the wrong way.”

That response set Melville on a research path that led to his first book, “Invisible Generals: Rediscovering Family Legacy, and a Quest to Honor America’s First Black Generals.”

The book is about Melville’s great-grandfather, Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Sr., as well as about the younger Gen. Davis. But it goes further back into Melville’s family history.

“In the first chapter of my book, I talk about generational collateral,” he said. “What did people do before us that paved the way for us to be here today? What are the sacrifices that they made?”

Melville encouraged his audience to explore those questions in their own families.

“It’s important that our stories are told by our families and that we get the word out through gifting, through sharing, through posting, and really just encouraging people to go out there and learn that Black history is American history,” he said. “Ask yourself, what is the generational collateral that someone sacrificed to you to be where you are?

Questions such as those led him to Louis Davis, an ancestor who was born a servant, and worked as a babysitter for one of Ulysses S. Grant’s sons. “That gave him access to the elite in Washington, D.C., so when he had a son who wanted to join the military, he was able to give him the means and connections to get there,” Melville said.

That son was Benjamin O. Davis Sr., who joined the Buffalo Soldiers and became an officer in 1901. President McKinley had elevated Davis to an officer, even though he wasn’t able to attend the U.S, Military Academy. Ben Sr. was married with two daughters, and then his wife died while giving birth to their third child, a son. He became a single father raising three children as well as being the only Black officer in the U.S. military.

“To help his son get over a depression he was going through, he brought him barnstorming in an airplane for $5, which was one week’s pay,” Melville said. “When his son came down, he said, ‘Daddy, I want to be a pilot.’”

Ben Sr. supported his son’s wish and told him that he was going to raise him like a Soldier. During those segregated times, Ben Sr. wanted his son to believe that he could live his dream.

“He told him, ‘If we can get you into West Point, and you can graduate in the top third of your class, there’s no way they can turn down a West Point grad who wants to fly on behalf of America.’”

From the time Ben Jr. was 12, Ben Sr. trained him to be eligible for West Point. In 1932, after Ben Sr. moved the family to Illinois so they could be in the only district with a Black congressman, Ben Jr. entered the academy.

Ben Jr.’s time at West Point would not be happy.

“They had not realized he was Black,” Melville said. “So they had an all-hands meeting, and they notified everyone there that they had accidentally let a Black person into West Point and they were to treat him as if he is invisible until he drops out.”

Ben called his father, who told him to stay the course, and that no matter what happened at the academy, there were 8 million people outside rooting for him. “Ben Jr. said, ‘It’s too bad none of them are in here,’” Melville said. “He then hangs up the phone and makes a commitment to go to West Point completely silenced for four years.”

For those four years, nobody talked to him outside of the line of duty. He dined alone because he was never granted permission to sit at other Cadets’ tables. He took a segregated bus to the Army-Navy game. He failed classes where partnerships were involved because he was being treated as if he wasn’t there.

“Right before graduation, they pulled him into the commandant’s office, and he learned that he finished in the top third of his class,” Melville said. “He said, ‘I want to be a pilot.’ They said, ‘Ben, it would be better for you to drop out and become a lawyer than for you to continue your military career, because it’s not legal for Blacks to fly.’”

Ben refused to drop out. He added that he would have graduated first in his class if he were allowed to participate in the classes that he failed. In 1936, he graduated from West Point, becoming, along with his father, one of the two Black officers in the U.S. military.

“The Army did not know what they were going to do with these two men,” Melville said. “So they put them into a jeep and told them to drive to all the Black colleges and teach military science, ROTC and other Army history and tactical training. They did this for four years, together, in a jeep.”

In 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was seeking re-election. He needed the Black vote, which had traditionally gone to Republicans, the party of Abraham Lincoln, and not to FDR’s Democratic Party. Roosevelt sought the advice of the senior Black military advisor—Benjamin O. Davis Sr.—on the best way to turn the Black vote toward Democrats.

“Ben Sr. said, ‘The United States military would be the largest business in America if it was a company,’” Melville said. “You must provide equal opportunities for all Americans. And you must show that Black Americans can hold elite jobs such as flying an airplane.”

FDR asked Ben Sr. who would lead that and Ben said, “My son.” The president funded the Tuskegee Airmen, and Ben Jr. moved to Tuskegee and became the first Black pilot in the Army’s history. He went on to command the Tuskegee Airmen.

“The part of this story that I think is most remarkable is that Ben Jr. had never commanded anyone in the line of duty,” Melville said. “Except for the time when he was 12 years old, he had never even sat in an airplane, because the military was segregated. With almost no training, he was in charge, leading 15,000 people in a 100% air force in World War II. There were 1,000 pilots and 14,000 ground crew.”

Segregation was so strong that if a tool or a part was used on a white pilot’s airplane, it could not be used on a Tuskegee Airman’s plane. This turned out to benefit the Black pilots when they were sent to Ramitelli, Italy, because the Army couldn’t figure out how to get enough parts and planes overseas for them. The Tuskegee Airmen were supplied with P-51 Mustangs, the fastest propeller planes.

But Davis realized that maps were segregated—so his airfield did not appear on Allied maps. To keep from being attacked by people on his own side, he encouraged his men to paint the tails of their planes red to make them visible as part of the Allied Forces, which was the origin of the term “Red Tails.”

The Tuskegee Airmen performed heroically during the war. But when they returned to America, they were unable to get jobs as pilots or other skilled labor because of the contracts they had signed as part of the “Tuskegee Experiment.”

“We call them Tuskegee Airmen,” Melville said, “But the Tuskegee Experiment had different contracts for men who entered the war during that time. Once they came back to America, they weren’t given the same treatment as their counterparts.”

After World War II, President Truman realized that it was time to integrate the U.S. military, partly to improve military efficiency during wartime. Once again, a president called on Benjamin Davis Sr. for advice. The Army was integrated in 1950. Although he was consulted on military integration, the elder Davis was not in the Army when it happened. And when it happened, he was invisible.

“He was forced to retire on July 14, 1948,” Melville said. “Just a few weeks later, Truman ended racial segregation in the military, and Ben Davis Sr.’s name was not on any of the paperwork.”

That motivated Ben Davis Jr. to prove through his performance that he could be an inspiration for others. He moved up the ranks to become a three-star general. But his accomplishments would also have a bittersweet aspect.

“In 1967, on the eve of when he was supposed to get his fourth star, LBJ informed him that he would not be able to give him the fourth star because of race relations,” Melville said. “LBJ had already put Thurgood Marshall on the Supreme Court, and he had already passed Martin Luther King Jr.’s civil-rights agenda, and he didn’t feel that elevating Ben to a fourth star, even though he had earned it, was something that had any political capital.”

Ben Davis Jr. retired. But commercial aviation didn’t hire Black pilots. The Pentagon brought him in to be in charge of special projects under the Department of Transportation in aviation. In 1971, Ben Jr., seeking to make commercial airport travel as safe as military airport travel, created the foundation and principles for what is now the Transportation Security Administration.

In 1998, after 12 years of effort by Sen. John McCain, President Clinton elevated Ben Davis Jr. to four-star general in a White House ceremony, retroactively making Davis America’s first Black four-star. In 2002, Davis passed away on July 4. He had requested a black tombstone at Arlington National Cemetery—one of only three black tombstones at the cemetery.

“He wanted this tombstone to represent himself and his identity, forever and timelessly,” Melville said.

After he saw “Red Tails” and began his quest, Melville made a commitment to himself to go back to the institutions where Ben Davis Sr. and Jr. had thrived and work with them to dedicate buildings or monuments to the two generals.

In 2017, West Point honored Benjamin O. Davis Jr. with the dedication of the Davis Barracks, the academy’s largest barracks, which are in the center of the campus. Melville credited then-USMA Superintendent Lt. Gen. Robert L. Caslen Jr. and Simone Askew, at the time the leader of the Corps of Cadets, with helping his family in their journey to honoring Davis.

During a visit to the Air Force Academy, Melville learned that Ben Jr. had been a lone but strong advocate for allowing women to enter the academy. He also ensured that facilities were transformed for the women. In 2019, the academy named its central airfield the Davis Airfield. The tails of the gliders were painted red.

Melville’s talk was presented by Exchange special emphasis program BRIDGE (Building Resources in Diversity Growth of Employees). Marla Randolph, senior vice president of Europe, SW Asia and Africa; and Denise Hunter, vice president of Services – Health & Wellness, are co-executive champions. Judy Hathaway, Quality Assurance Analyst, is the program manager.

To learn more about BRIDGE, click here. To learn more about Exchange Special Emphasis Programs, click here.

Associates who missed the Melville’s talk can view a recording of it here.