Wesley A. Brown, first black Naval Academy graduate, dies at 85

Three days ago and thus not LBN. The obit:

Wesley A. Brown, first black Naval Academy graduate, dies at 85

By T. Rees Shapiro, Friday, May 25, 8:49 AM
The Washington Post

Retired Lt. Cmdr. Wesley A. Brown, a descendant of Virginia slaves who endured racial taunts and merciless hazing to become the first black midshipman to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy, in 1949, died May 22 at the Springhouse assisted living center in Silver Spring. He was 85.
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Cmdr. Brown, a Dunbar High School graduate who grew up in a rowhouse on Q Street near Logan Circle, served 20 years in the Navy as a civil engineer. He helped design a water treatment facility in Cuba, roads across Liberia, an air station in the Philippines and a nuclear plant in Antarctica.

His lasting mark was his determination to be the first black graduate of the Naval Academy in Annapolis since its 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.
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Eventually, sympathetic upperclassmen came to his aide and helped guide Cmdr. Brown’s development as a future naval officer. Among them was his track teammate, a Georgia peanut farmer’s son named Jimmy Carter.