1st black to graduate from Naval Academy dies

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — The Naval Academy says Retired Lt. Cmdr. Wesley Brown, the first African American to graduate from the Academy, has died. He was 85.

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ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — The Naval Academy says Retired Lt. Cmdr. Wesley Brown, the first African American to graduate from the Academy, has died. He was 85.

The Capital of Annapolis reported that Brown died Tuesday. An Academy spokesman did not know where Brown died.

Brown was appointed to the Academy in 1945. He ran varsity track and cross country, and was a cross country teammate of former President Jimmy Carter.

Brown graduated from the Academy in 1949. He was the sixth black admitted, but the first earn a degree.

Brown, a veteran of World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, had a 20-year career with the Navy.

In 2008, the Naval Academy constructed the Wesley Brown Field House to accommodate physical education classes as well as the academy’s athletic programs.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

In this April 12, 2012, photo, provided by the U.S. Navy, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert, right, welcomes retired Lt. Cmdr. Wesley Brown to the historic Tingey House at the Washington Navy Yard in Washington. Brown, the first African-American to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy, has died, the Academy said Tuesday, May 22, 2012. He was 85. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy, Spc. 1st Class Peter D. Lawlor)

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