West Point graduates largest class of Black women

| May 12, 2019

It is a shame when those who do set the right example for success are overlooked by the Media.

Thirty-two Black women will graduate from the U.S. Academy at West Point later this month — the largest class of Black women in the school’s history.

The news comes just a year after Lt. Gen. Darryl A. Williams became the first Black officer to assume command at the 216-year-old academy, and Simone Askew became the first Black woman to lead the Corps of Cadets.

Some of the graduates recently posed for photos to memorialize this significant moment in history.

“My hope when young Black girls see these photos is that they understand that regardless of what life presents you, you have the ability and fortitude to be a force to be reckoned with,” cadet Tiffany Welch-Baker told Because of Them We Can, a website that features Black news and photographs.

West Point, founded in 1802 along the west bank of the Hudson River 50 miles north of New York City, didn’t graduate its first Black cadet until the Reconstruction in 1877. No Black cadet had graduated in the 20th century when Benjamin O. Davis Jr. arrived in there in 1932.

Davis ate alone, roomed alone and was shunned by fellow cadets because he was Black. After he graduated in 1936, he went on to command the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II and retired as an Air Force general in 1970. West Point recently named cadet barracks for Davis.

An African American did not become first captain of the Corps of Cadets until 1979, when Vincent K. Brooks was tapped for the role. He later advanced to the rank of general and commanded U.S. forces in Korea from 2016 until his retirement in 2018.

Col. Kristin Baker was tapped to be the first female first captain of the Corps of Cadets in 1989. She went on to command Joint Intelligence Operations Center Europe, Analytic Center.

Women make up about 20 percent of cadets, who are usually commissioned as first lieutenants in the Army upon graduation. The academy created a diversity office in 2014 with the goal of recruiting more women and African Americans and increasing diversity among department heads and other leaders.

Outstanding, congratulations to those fine Americans.

Source: West Point graduates largest class of Black women | Across America | phillytrib.com

Category: Army News, Diversity, Historical

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5th/77th FA

BZ Ladies. We Salute your accomplishment!

Wonder if any of these graduates will be asked to join the Stacey Abrams Campaign? Or the Al Sharpton security detail?

It will be interesting to see if this is carried by the lame stream media when they toss the hats into the air, cast off Kaydette grey, and don the (GO) Army Blue.

Mason

First LTs? I thought they were commissioned 2LT.

I digress. Congrats on graduating, Ma’ams. I wish you all the luck as you go forward and lead.

Sapper3307

Another “First”.
At some point it will stop.

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

Wish you Ladies all the best on your new careers.

Ex-PH2

Strange. Must be something wrong with my eyes. The only color I see up there is cadet gray.

Congratulations, ladies. Well done.

HMCS(FMF) ret

Congrats to the women in the photo, and to all of the service academies graduates of the Class of 2019!

11B-Mailclerk

I will be a very happy man when no one who really matters gives a (crap) about skin color.

A Proud Infidel®™

You and me both!!!

sj

Amen.

OWB

Way to go, ladies. I just hope I live long enough to see that day when it no longer matters what color/whatever you are. Being a “first” whatever just adds pressure on folks who usually don’t need the extra negative attention.

Well done, as others have said, to these and all the various academy graduates. And to all those entering them in the fall. (Get kinda puffed up when thinking of a friend’s son who if off to the Naval Academy. Great kid who will do wonderful things down the road.)

Toxic Deplorable B Woodman

I’ll wait and see how well these ladies perform “out in the field”. Are they truly “all that and a bag of chips”? If so, congratulations to them all.
Or they affirmative action graduates like Gen Colin Powell? If so, it’s going to take a lot longer to wash the O’Bozo PC stench out of the military.

T1B

Except GEN Powell didn’t go to USMA. He is an ROTC graduate. He also was the CJCS, so affirmative action probably had little to do with his success. An he refilling before Obama was president, so not sure where your comment is coming from…

11B-Mailclerk

The ripoff of “affirmative action” , and its intended put-down” is that anyone in the “protected” minority group is immediately assumed by many to be otherwise incompetent and incapable, selected and promoted solely on minority status and not on ability.

If someone keeps insisting you need “help”, they do not consider you equal.

David

And in contrast, a law school professor at Harvard, the first African American dean of one of their residence halls, is being forced out because as a lawyer he is one of Harvey Weinstein’s defenders. Apparently MeToo political correctness outtrumps African American political correctness, and if you are perceived as unclean you do not deserve a defense. Can’t make this shit up.

Mason

I saw that. I’m no defender of Weinstein and think he deserves everything coming to him, but when a lawyer can’t ply his trade without losing his other job, we have a problem. The leftists really can’t see how this sort of thing is going to backfire on them?

11B-Mailclerk

No, they don’t. It will only be used on the “bad” people, who are unpersons and only have themselves to blame for badthink. Why of course Mommy’s precious snowflake is “good” and “right” , because snowflake shrieks loudly and flings poo at the “bad” ones.

RCAF-CHAIRBORNE

Well done ladies!
Those cadet uniforms look sharp. Ours look more like a bellhop’s livery than a military uniform.

Just An Old Dog

West Point also has recently graduated such stellar Americans as Spemcer ” Commie” Rapone, so there’s that.
Until the Clintonistas and Obamites are purged from the ranks the spector of PC quotas will loom.

Mike W.

No “black power salutes” visible, good.
It’s an accomplishment when truly high standards are met, congratulations to the ladies and all USMA graduates.

Eden

What did they end up doing with that bunch? I hope none of these new 2LTs were in that group.