1941 Harvard–Navy lacrosse game

Intercollegiate lacrosse game played in Annapolis, Maryland, US May 2026 February 2015 The Harvard-Navy lacrosse game of 1941 was an intercollegiate lacrosse game played in Annapolis, Maryland, between the Harvard University Crimson and the United States Naval Academy Midshipmen on April 4, 1941. Before the game, the Naval Academy's superintendent told Harvard that the Navy team would not play against a racially integrated team. Harvard's one black player, Lucien Alexis Jr. of New Orleans, left of his own accord after Harvard's athletic director told Harvard's coach to send him home. Harvard's players, supported by their coach, Richard Snibbe, voted to forfeit the game rather than play without him. The game went on as scheduled. Both Harvard's and the Naval Academy's administrations were criticized for their actions. Game On April 3, 1941, the Harvard lacrosse team's 18 players arrived at Annapolis, Maryland, to play the Naval Academy in a scheduled intercollegiate match. That day, the Naval Academy's superintendent, Rear Admiral Russell Willson discovered that Harvard's team included one black player, Lucien Alexis Jr. He informed Harvard's coach, Richard Snibbe, and athletic director, William J. Bingham, that Navy's squad would not play against a racially integrated team.Gup, Doan, Fisher, p. 133. Angry at the Naval Academy's stance, Richard Snibbe and Alexis' teammates elected to forfeit the game and return to Harvard. Bingham intervened and ordered the Harvard coach to send Alexis home and play the game. Learning of Bingham's directive, Alexis voluntarily decided to depart and told his teammates that it was his idea. The game was played as scheduled the next day and Navy won 12–0.Gup, Doan Reaction Harvard's student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, learned of the incident and sharply criticized Bingham and Harvard's administration. The newspaper said of the incident:Fisher, p. 133. Those officials here who asked the negro to return to college should explain the reasons for their actions by which Harvard has kow-towed to Jim-Crowism. Navy bigwigs should also be taught that when this country, this college and the navy itself declare their faith in democratic equality, they mean to practice what they preach. In response Bingham said: "We were guests of the Naval Academy and had no choice in the matter. Had the game been played at Cambridge, I would have insisted that he be allowed to participate." Newspapers in Boston and New York City picked up the story and criticized Harvard's and the Naval Academy's administrations for their actions. The Harvard Council for Democracy in Education complained to U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt about USNA's actions in the incident. The Harvard Corporation told Bingham and the Harvard Athletic Association to inform all future sports competitors that the school would not tolerate further racial discrimination against its student athletes.Gup, Doan, Fisher, p. 134. One week after the incident, Alexis and the rest of Harvard's lacrosse team traveled to West Point, New York, to play a game against the United States Military Academy. In contrast to the reception the Navy had given Harvard's team, at West Point a cordon of cheering cadets, led by black cadets attending the academy, welcomed Alexis and his team.Doan Doris Kearns Goodwin counts this incident among several that pressured President Roosevelt, in June 1941, to sign Executive Order 8802 that prohibited racial discrimination in the defense industry.Goodwin Doris Kearns No Ordinary Time: Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II 1994 Simon & Schuster NY 249ff 9781476750576 https://books.google.com/books?id=Hfv-AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA249 September 16, 2014Danelo, 2005. Later events In 1949 Wesley A. Brown was the first black student to graduate from the Naval Academy.Gup On May 10, 2008, a dedication ceremony was held on the Naval Academy campus for its newest building, the Wesley Brown Field House, named for him.Rucker Philip Facility Dedicated to Black Pioneer: D.C. Resident Broke Institute's Color Barrier When He Graduated in 1949 The Washington Post Company May 11, 2008 https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/10/AR2008051002435.html February 9, 2010Green Patrick (Trident staff) Wesley Brown Field House Dedicated May 15, 2008 Comprint Military Publications ("Naval Academy on dcmilitary.com") http://www.dcmilitary.com/stories/051508/trident_28234.shtml February 9, 2010 https://archive.today/20130102210902/http://www.dcmilitary.com/stories/051508/trident_28234.shtml January 2, 2013 dead mdy-all Brown participated in the ribbon-cutting ceremony with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen, Naval Academy Superintendent Vice Adm. Jeffrey L. Fowler, and Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley. Also present were almost one thousand guests. Lucien Victor Alexis (1887-1981), Harvard '17, was commissioned as a first lieutenant in the US Army and later became the principal of the only black high school in New Orleans."The Negro Einstein", CreoleGen, 5 May 2014, accessed 12 February 2015Harvard Class of 1918: Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Report (1943), Harvard University Archives; Orleans Parish School Board Minutes 9/23/1921, p.467 and 9/14/1923, p.336 (University of New Orleans) His son Lucien Victor Alexis Jr. graduated from Harvard in turn and went into the service in World War II. After his return, he got a degree from Harvard Business School. He later served as head of a New Orleans business college for black students, segregated by state law. He married and had children. He died in 1975.Roger Angell, "Class Report", The New Yorker, 17 November 2008, accessed 12 February 2015 His daughter Lurita Alexis Doan became an entrepreneur, owning her own business from 1990 to 2005, and approved as the first woman and second African American to serve as Administrator of the General Services Administration (2006 to 2008), during the administration of President George W. Bush.http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0506/052606d2.htm Senate confirms FEMA, GSA chiefs May 26, 2006 February 13, 2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20110717013634/http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0506/052606d2.htm July 17, 2011 dead April 30, 2008 Stout David https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/washington/01doan.html Federal Contracting Chief Is Forced Out The New York Times February 12, 2015 See also Golden Thirteen Port Chicago disaster USS Kitty Hawk riot References Notes Sources Doan Lurita Lurita Doan August 2, 2009 http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-doan2-2009aug02,0,4175835.story On race, Harvard still must learn Newspaper editorial Los Angeles Times August 11, 2009 Fisher Donald M. 2002 https://archive.org/details/lacrossehistoryo0000fish registration 133 1941 harvard navy lacrosse game. Lacrosse: A History of the Game The Johns Hopkins University Press 0-8018-6938-2 Gup Ted December 12, 2004 http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2004/12/12/southern_discomfort/ https://web.archive.org/web/20041215011931/http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2004/12/12/southern_discomfort/ dead December 15, 2004 Southern Discomfort Newspaper article Boston Globe August 11, 2009 Category:Anti-black racism in Maryland Category:History of African-American civil rights Category:History of racial segregation in the United States Category:African-American history in Annapolis, Maryland Category:African-American sports history Category:Navy Midshipmen men's lacrosse Category:Harvard Crimson men's lacrosse Category:United States Navy in the 20th century Category:1941 in lacrosse Category:Military history of African Americans Harvard-Navy lacrosse Category:College men's lacrosse in the United States