March 15 …
The Golden Thirteen were the 13 African American enlisted men who became the U.S. Navy’s first Black commissioned officers, a breakthrough that challenged naval segregation and helped advance military integration.
The origins of the group can be traced back to an officer training program initiated at Camp Robert Smalls, Great Lakes Naval Training Station, in response to rising pressure in 1943–1944 for the commissioning of Black officers. In January 1944, 16 candidates began their training, and by March of the same year, 13 were commissioned as officers on March 15, 1944, with one achieving the rank of warrant officer. They completed their course with impressively high averages, despite facing a shortened timeline and discriminatory conditions.
Key figures in this historic milestone included the 13 commissioned officers: John Walter Reagan, Jesse Walter Arbor, Dalton Louis Baugh, Frank Ellis Sublett Jr., Graham Edward Martin, Charles Byrd Lear, Phillip George Barnes, Reginald E. Goodwin, James Edward Hair, Samuel Edward Barnes, George Clinton Cooper, William Sylvester White, and Dennis Denmark Nelson. They trained under Navy instructors and operated within a chain of command that included senior leaders who had reluctantly approved the program.
The background surrounding this initiative involved the U.S. Navy, which was seeking manpower and responding to political pressures. This included civil rights advocates and Black community leaders who were pushing for opportunities, and the Roosevelt administration’s anti-discrimination efforts, particularly in the context of Executive Order 8802.
The Black enlisted sailors whose records and leadership made this groundbreaking experiment possible played a crucial role during the postwar era when their example laid the groundwork for Executive Order 9981 in 1948, which aimed to desegregate the armed forces. Beneficiaries of their efforts were the commissioned officers themselves and subsequent Black naval recruits and officers who found pathways inspired by this precedent. The broader war effort that benefited from the addition of trained officers while U.S. society gradually moved toward institutional desegregation.
Their achievements gained increasing recognition over time, from contemporary accolades for their academic and professional performance to later institutional honors. This included the dedication of Building 1405 at Great Lakes Recruit Training Command as “The Golden Thirteen.”
The Golden Thirteen received local memorials and dedications, Navy-hosted reunions, and sustained credit for their role in opening naval officership to African Americans, ultimately strengthening the arguments that led to full military integration and broader civil rights advancements in the postwar era.
