This African American 'Old Grad' Delivered a History of Race at West Point
Vietnam veteran and CEO of TAG Holdings, LLC, Joseph Anderson Jr. speaks at the 2021 Henry O. Flipper Awards Dinner at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. (U.S. Military Academy)
"There are plenty of Black folks who can sit in at counters," Col. Jim Fowler, the fifth African American graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, told Cadet Joe Anderson Jr. "Your job is to get through West Point."
There were only 11 Black cadets at West Point when Anderson began his plebe year in 1961. It was the early days of the Civil Rights Movement, and he was struggling with not being out marching in the streets.