United States Air Force General. The son of Army General Benjamin Oliver Davis, Sr., he followed his father's footsteps, spending his career in the armed forces. After graduating from Central High School in Cleveland, Ohio in 1929, he attended Western Reserve University at Cleveland and later the University of Chicago. He entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York in July of 1932, graduating 35th out of 276 cadets in June of 1936, and receiving a commission as a second lieutenant of infantry. Surviving racial discrimination of being the only African-American cadet at West Point, he entered the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia in June of 1937, graduating a year later and assuming duties as professor of military science at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. In May of 1941 he entered the first class at the Advanced Flying School at nearby Tuskegee Army Air Base and received his pilot wings in March of 1942, three months after the start of World War II. He transferred to the Army Air Corps in May of 1942. Despite attempts from critics to downplay the contributions of African-American pilots during World War II, he successfully commanded the 332nd Fighter Group, which was one of the two highly decorated squadrons with African-American pilots that saw action during World War II. After the war, he was assigned to command air fields in Kentucky and Ohio. On September 18, 1947, the United States Air Force was established as a separate branch of the United States Armed Forces breaking away from the United States Army. In 1949 he entered the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama and after graduation, he was assigned to the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Headquarters U.S. Air Force in Washington, D.C. While in Alabama, even though he was a United States Army officer, he and his family were barred from eating in restaurants in the segregated South. During his military career, he fought to end segregation in the army, and later became the first African-American Brigadier General in the Air Force and the first African-American Lieutenant General in any branch. After retiring from the military in 1970, he served as assistant secretary at the Department of Transportation, championing the 55-mph speed limit. On December 9, 1998, he was awarded his fourth star, making him a member of highest-ranking officers and the first African-American officer to receive this honor in retirement. At the age of 79, he published his autobiography, "Benjamin O. Davis, Jr: American: An Autobiography," in 1991, and died at the age of 89 of Alzheimer's disease.