Fist black officer to hold the highest military post

The Army, the largest of the armed services, has made little progress in promoting officers of color, particularly Black soldiers, to commands in the past six years, a USA TODAY analysis found. Black people make up The stakes of fairness and equity are manifest. So, too, is military's ability to defend the nation.

At sixteen he entered the City College of New York. There he found a sense of direction. During the next decade Powell mastered infantry tactics and unit leadership. He then transferred to Fort Devens, Massachusetts, to command a company of the 5th Infantry Division and in was promoted to captain. From December to November Powell was assigned to Vietnam, where he served as an adviser to a South Vietnamese infantry battalion.

By Helene Cooper. Esper, was meant as a thank-you to the commander in chief. But it angered a lot of others, and not just those who erupted on Twitter.

Benjamin Oliver Davis Sr. July 1, — November 26, was a United States Army general. In , he became the first African-American to rise to the rank of brigadier general. Davis Jr.