This will be an extremely short diary, but I just wanted to share something amazing I read in the NY Times this morning.
It was an obituary of Wesley Brown, who died recently at age 85, and was the first African American graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. (He deserves a diary of his own, and that will probably come later.)
A few other African Americans had enrolled in the Naval Academy, but racist hazing caused every one of them to drop out. Brown was the first to survive.
The reason he survived was that for the first time, the academy commandant was supportive of a Black cadet, as were a small handful of other midshipmen.
One senior midshipman in particular, a southerner, visited cadet Brown and encouraged him to "hang in there." Brown did survive, graduate and have a successful career in naval engineering.
That fellow student who encouraged and supported Wesley Brown was midshipman James Earl Carter.
UPDATE: I'm honored that his landed on the rec list!