Viewing page 9 of 14

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Page 3

The first hurdle was the entrance examination. One doesn't enter the United States Military Academy by appointment alone. The tests to which its entrants are subjected, bot physical and mental, are most rigid. Yet it must be honestly said that Ben did not give these tests serious thought in the spring of 1931. At first he was too excited over the unexpected appointment. Later his feeling became quite different.

Years of denial and restriction sometimes leave mark[[strikethrough]]a[[/strikethrough]]s on people, even people as young and eager as Ben Davis, sophomore. A boy who has been allowed to feel that he hasn't a fair chance in life is likely to ask why, and the answer – if it is not a good one– may leave him bitter. Perhaps the first slight beginnings of such a feeling had come into Ben's mind. He has never said so, but it is a fact that he went to his examination in an indifferent, sceptical moo[[strikethrough]]n[[/strikethrough]]d. His first joy had vanished. He frankly doubted that he would be permitted to attend the military Academy at West Point, even though he met all the requirements. People kept telling Ben what had happened to the last colored boy who made the attempt, and the way they told it made the outlook seem very discouraging indeed. That had been no more than a year ago, and the young cadet in question had been dropped because of a failure in mathematics. The people who talked to Ben thought there might have been another reason. Ben saoked in a a lot of this talk as the time of the examination approached, and little by little he convinced himself that he hadn't a chance. He would be sidetracked. Somewhere along the way individuals who did not really practice democracy would find ways to work behind the scenes, with a wink here, a nudge and a hint there, to make sure "something happened" to prevent another colored boy from wearing the uniform of a West Point Cadet. Ben thought of such things a great deal in 1931, and presently he found that his first excitement at being appointed to West Point had vanished entirely. He didn't even bother to review algebra or otherwise get in shape for the tests. What was the use when you knew you couldn't win?

In a dull, listless mood Ben Davis went down and took the examinations. He failed.

But sometimes the seeds the victory are planted in defeat. Sometimes failure lights the way to success. Sometimes death is the forerunner of life. Sometimes a flunked exam is the best thing in the world to put a fellow wise to himself. Ben Davis' failure to pass the entrance examinations to West Point in 1931 was all of these things. The most important result, however, was something as slight as a hunch, an impression. Ben came out of that set of examinations with the definite feeling that he could, if he turned on the heat, make Uncle Sam's Military Academy.The tests hadn't been so bad. And the fellows who sat with him for the tests were good sports, no different from the ones around