Attempting To Identify A Black WW2 General

I read a story in a memoir that mentions an unnamed African American general during World War II. I don't imagine there were many of those and this one should have really stood out since he was supposed 6'6" tall. The general in question came to inspect Special Services operations in Lexington, VA in the latter part of the war and stayed with a white officer's family assigned there because of local segregation issues.

Benjamin Oliver Davis Sr. is the obvious candidate, but I can't find anything that would confirm his stateside activity nor his height. All my searching for black generals in WW2 only turns up mentions of him because he was the first black general (in 1940).

 

Concur with OpanaPointer. He's the only US Army's black general of WW II.

He was given the cold shoulder and silent treatment during his training at West Point.

 

Brigadier General Benjamin O Davis, Sr., USA, was not a USMA graduate; he did not attend West Point. His son, General Benjamin O Davis, Jr., USAF, on the other hand, was West Point class of 1936 and, yes, he was not treated well by his fellow cadets.

 

How was he promoted after a brief while as General again to General? Just curious.

 

He joined the army during the Spanish American War of 1898. He rose to the rank of Brigadier in 1940. I think his son, who graduated West Point in 1936, was the head of the Tuskegee airmen.

 

One can hold temporary rank of general without a permanent appointment to that rank. We saw a lot of that in WW II (and especially the American Civil War).

 

At the risk of stating the obvious, in wartime the military expands, but everyone knows it’s going to revert to normal when the crisis is over, so temporary promotions are made; in the Civil War era these were called brevet promotions, but I don’t know if that’s a standard term. I recall Eisenhower in Crusade in Europe writing how pleased he was to be promoted to brigadier general in the regular Army.

 

Custer became a major general of volunteers and commander of a cavalry division. In the Union organization, there were no full generals and only two lieutenant generals, Grant and later Sherman. Corps and full armies were commanded by major generals.

 

Speaking of black generals, Harriet Tubman was recently made an honorary general.

They should have just called her a general by brevet.

During the late unpleasantry there were jokes like mules being brevet horses or turkey-vultures being brevet turkeys.

 

Kai-Petri, Jul 7, 2022
I believe that the question asked was due to a misread of the "General Benjamin O Davis, Sr. was not a USMA graduate; he did not attend West Point. His son, General Benjamin O Davis, Jr., on the other hand, was West Point class of 1936" comment.

I believe the correct answer to the question asked is that they were father and son, not one individual.