Wesley A. Brown, 85, first African-American to graduate from U.S. Naval Academy

When retired Lt. Cmdr. Wesley A. Brown entered the United States Naval Academy in 1945, he was the sixth African American to attend the institution. Four years later, he became the first black man to graduate, despite enduring intense racial hazing.

Mr. Brown, who started a family in Philadelphia while stationed at the Philadelphia Navy Base in the early 1950s, died of metastatic cancer Tuesday, May 22, at his home in Silver Spring, Md. He was 85.

Willetta B. West of Elkins Park, Mr. Brown's daughter, said that although her father faced racial hazing and received numerous demerits at the academy, he was determined to graduate.

West said her father did not talk to her and her siblings about the racism he faced at the academy until they were adults.

She said, "I remember an incident where he said some racial epithets were coming at him from upperclassmen."

West said her father told her that fellow midshipman Jimmy Carter, the future president, came up and put his arm around him. "Those other midshipmen then walked away," she said.

Carter, who was on the track team with Mr. Brown, often encouraged him to persevere despite the racially charged atmosphere, West said.

"My father lived by himself during the years he was at the Naval Academy. He did not want others to experience … any hardship for being associated with him," West said.

In 2008, the Naval Academy named a new athletic facility, the Wesley Brown Field House, in his honor. Mr. Brown had been appointed to the academy by U.S. Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. of Harlem.

Mr. Brown was born in Baltimore on April 3, 1927. An only child, he moved with his family to Washington at an early age. His father drove a produce truck and his mother was a laundry worker.

After graduating from Dunbar High School, Mr. Brown attended Howard University. Mr. Brown, who had been interested in the Navy since his childhood, transferred to the Naval Academy in 1945.

After graduation in 1949, he married Jean Alston, a graduate of Girls High and Cheyney University. The couple, who later divorced, had four children.

In 1964, Mr. Brown married Crystal Malone Brown, with whom he lived until his death.

Mr. Brown served in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and retired from the Navy in 1969.

A civil engineer, he worked on construction projects throughout the country and around the world.

West said her father worked in the Philippines; Guantánamo Bay, Cuba; Antarctica; and Liberia. He later worked in construction engineering at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

He then worked at Howard University, from which he retired in 1988 after serving in campus planning.

Bob Schneller, a military historian for the Navy, said Mr. Brown received numerous "spurious conduct reports" from upperclassmen during his freshman year. In his first semester, Mr. Brown received 165 demerits based on such reports, Schneller said. The next semester, he received only five demerits. Schneller said students with 300 demerits were ousted from the academy.

"People refused to talk to him, but there were many who tried to help him," Schneller said. "He got support up and down the chain of command."

Schneller said black people in the area gave Brown moral support.

"The black community in Annapolis considered him a hero," Schneller said. "African Americans would shout encouragement to him."

West said her father told her that dealing with the racism at the academy was troubling but not unbearable.

"He had issues with those who thought he shouldn't be there, but he felt that prejudice was not only directed at him but at Jews, the Irish, the Catholics," West said. "He just felt that what he needed to do was focus on his studies."

In addition to his wife and daughter, Mr. Brown is survived by sons Gary and Wesley Jr.; and daughter Carol Jackson.

A public memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday, June 6, in the chapel at the U.S. Naval Academy. A private ceremony will be held before the service.

Contact Vernon Clark 215-854-5717 or [URL]vclark@phillynews.com.