A clip from the podcast Really? No, Really? recently highlighted a story of resilience from the United States military. Author Doug Melville recently sat down with Jason Alexander of Seinfeld fame and producer Peter Tilden and shared the experiences of his ancestor, General Benjamin O, Davis Jr. The story of the commander of the Tuskegee Airmen and his four years of complete isolation at West Point went on to amass over 450K views on TikTok. According to Melville, the situation began the moment Davis Jr. arrived at the academy in 1932. In the video, he noted that since Davis Jr. was fair-skinned, the administration did not initially realize his race. Once they discovered he was mixed, Melville claimed, “so they held him in the commandant’s office and told him to wait under a sign that said Duty, Honor, and Country, and they assigned him a converted janitor’s closet.” The following morning, the staff held a meeting and decided that since they had “accidentally let a black cadet in,” they would force him to drop out by making him invisible. Melville narrated, “every student, every faculty, every staff was in the meeting but one person. They got out of the meeting, and for four years he went to West Point 50 weeks a year with not one human interaction.” Despite this, the General was committed to becoming a pilot. It was a similar path to what his father had pursued According to Military.com, Davis Jr. was born on December 18, 1912, to the Army’s first Black general, Benjamin Davis Sr., and his wife, Elnora. His father, whose own career was reportedly hindered by deep-seated prejudice, made sure to teach his son about the evils of segregation and the necessity of fighting against it. Davis Jr. eventually earned a nomination to the United States Military Academy in 1932 from Representative Oscar S. De Priest, who was the only Black congressman in America at the time. This made Davis the first Black individual to be admitted to the academy since Reconstruction. @reallynoreallypodcast The unbelievable true story of General Benjamin O. Davis Jr – West Point tried make him quit. He made history. #tuskegeeairmen #westpoint #blackhistory #dougmelville #reallynoreally ♬ Mysterious and Sad – Beats by Lucky As a result of the social isolation at West Point, Melville claimed Davis only “failed three classes that require a partner, boxing, ballroom dancing, and CPR, because no one would touch him or talk to him. Never called on in class. Never a study buddy. Whole campus segregated. Went to the West Point Army-Navy game on a bus by himself to Yankee Stadium with a black driver.” Even with these obstacles, per Military.com, Davis finished 35th in the 276-member Class of 1936. However, even that impressive standing could not convince the Army Air Corps to let him into flight training. Melville noted that the administration offered Davis a deal, telling him that if he took an honorable discharge, they would pay for him to go to law school and start a firm in Chicago. Davis Jr. refused. When Davis graduated, he couldn’t do much. As Melville noted, “Blacks can’t command whites. Him and his dad are the only two black officers. They go to black colleges for four years telling young students ‘Keep their heads up. Stay Tight. Stay Focused.’” It paid off a few years later. When facing World War II, President Franklin D Roosevelt hired Davis Sr to head Black Policy. On his suggestion, to promote fairness in the military, the Tuskegee Airmen were established under the command of Davis Jr. Thanks to their years of talking in colleges, recruitment was easy. Melville recounted, “35,000 black Americans went down. They hired 15,000. One thousand pilots, 14,000 ground staff, commanded by a guy who went to West Point, and not one single person talked to him.” View this post on Instagram TikTok was in awe of Davis Jr’s story. One user wrote, “This level of racism should be classified as a mental disease.” Another commenter reflected on the strength required to survive such an ordeal, noting, “imagine how mentally strong he had to be for those 4 years.” In a different case of racism, a woman confronted library staff after she was allegedly targeted for a noise complaint. Others questioned the patriotism required to serve in such conditions, with one user asking, “Why serve a country that hates you? I never understood it.” In a recent case of potential racism, a woman was allegedly interrogated while waiting for a client. Davis Jr. continued to serve with distinction, eventually becoming the first Black officer to receive a fourth star in retirement, which was awarded by President Bill Clinton on December 9, 1998. He passed away in 2002 at the age of 89, leaving behind a legacy as a warrior and a trailblazer. As one commenter on the Instagram reshare simply put it, “The level of inhumanity in America is crazy scary.”