In early 1966, Commander Sam Gravely was skipper of the USS Taussig (DD-746). He was not only the first African-American officer to reach the rank of commander, he was also the first to command a U.S. Navy ship in the 20th century. At that time Ensign Mack Gaston, also an African American, was serving in the destroyer Buck (DD-761). He had heard reports of “the only Negro commanding officer in the Navy” and was filled with anticipation when the Taussig moored alongside. He was eager to meet Commander Gravely, so he went to the Buck's bridge early one morning to wait. In time, Gravely came to the bridge of his own ship, and Gaston sounded off in a loud voice, “Good morning, Captain Gravely. I am Ensign Gaston!”
“Morning, Ensign. What is your first name?”
“Mack, sir!”
With that, Gravely greeted him by name and reached across for a handshake that was both firm and friendly. In late October 2004, Gaston, by then a retired rear admiral, gave a eulogy at Gravely’s funeral. That meeting in 1966 was still fresh in his mind as he described the long-ago handshake: “It was like being touched by God.” The experience symbolized hope and example. It demonstrated that there was a path to follow, because Gravely was blazing a trail for those who came along after. He continued to mark that trail as he became the Navy’s first African American captain, rear admiral, and vice admiral. Thousands of naval officers have climbed the promotion ladders that Gravely helped set up for them.
Admiral Gravely’s achievement was all the more remarkable because there was no established career path for black officers when he came along. He was commissioned in December 1944, nine months after the pioneering Golden Thirteen became the Navy’s first black line officers. But Gravely liked to point out that he was in the two-year V-12 program rather than the three-month training of the Golden Thirteen. He was thus one of the first black officer candidates in the Navy. Hie road ahead was strewn with obstacles both institutional and personal. As an ensign in 1945 he was on liberty in Miami when an Army military policeman arrested him for impersonating an officer. The MP could not imagine that a black man would be one. It took some fast talking by Gravely’s skipper to get him off the hook. After the war, Gravely returned to civilian status and became a railway postal clerk.
Then fortune beckoned in the form of a one-year recall to active duty in 1949. He was to recruit black sailors and officers in the wake of President Harry Truman’s official desegregation of the Armed Forces. As it happened, the one-year tour turned into more than 30, because the Korean War kept him on active duty, and he continued to serve long after the war ended. Sometimes he was welcome in the Navy, sometimes not. When he reported for sea duty on board the battleship Iowa (BB-61), Lieutenant Herb Yarbrough was the only ship’s officer willing to room with him.
Liberty in the Far East did not get him arrested as it had in Florida, but it was still disquieting. As Admiral Gravely reported in his Naval Institute oral history, “I can remember going ashore from the Toledo [CA-133], my next ship. I’d be sitting around bars talking to some girls with big snickering going on, and I couldn’t figure out what was going on. My roommate, who was with me at that time, said that they were trying to find out if Negroes really had tails, because that was one of the stories.”
Things were difficult when Gravely and his family traveled in the United States. And home was not always a safe haven either. In the mid-1950s, when he was assigned to the Third Naval District in New York, he and his wife Alma came home to their apartment in Brooklyn and found that someone had thrown a brick through their window. Another time, a realtor from the Washington area called Alma to offer housing near Gravely’s next duty station. When the couple showed up in person, the realtor, who had assumed they were white, said that nothing was available.
Sam Gravely was irritated by such treatment, but he did not let it defeat him. Instead, he focused on the things he could control, and that meant demonstrating his proficiency in the Navy’s established system—going to sea and doing well. He had to fight to get a job as executive officer of a destroyer and moved from there to command of the Falgout (DER-324), Taussig t and the guided-missile cruiser Jouett (DLG-29). Those who served with him respected his capability. In his oral history he told of returning to the Jouett after a visit with his commodore. Side boys were in place, and the boatswain’s mate piped him aboard with the honors due an admiral rather than captain. It was a wonderful moment after all he had been through.
Admiral Gravely’s success made possible the success of many who followed his example. I remember with pleasure attending a tribute dinner held for Sam and Alma Gravely a few years ago at the North Island Naval Air Station. Dozens of people came forward to embrace the admiral, to express their appreciation for his contributions, and to feel the touch of greatness that had inspired Ensign Mack Gaston and so many others.