Doug Melville | Invisible Generals
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Welcome to the Talks at Google podcast where great minds meet. I'm Kaja, bringing you this week's episode with author Doug Melville. Talks at Google brings the world's most influential thinkers, creators, makers, and doers all to one place. Every episode is taken from a video that can be seen at youtube.com forward slash Talks at Google.

Doug Melville joins us to discuss his book, Invisible Generals, Rediscovering Family Legacy and a Quest to Honor America's First Black Generals. The book takes us on a journey from post-Civil War America to modern-day Europe and Asia, introducing readers to prominent yet hidden heroes inspired by Doug's own story.

In 2011, Doug was thrilled to be invited to an advanced screening of George Lucas' Red Tails, a fresh take on America's first Black aerial squadron, the Tuskegee Airmen. However, that excitement faded quickly when he realized the film had fictionalized the story to the point of omitting all of the names and details of the heroes from the story entirely, including Benjamin O. Davis Jr., the founding commander of the unit and the patriarch of Doug's family.

Inspired, Doug began investigating passed down histories of his family and realized that America's first two black generals, Benjamin O. Davis Jr. and Benjamin Davis Sr., were not only a father and son, but had also raised Doug's father.

He then began unearthing stories of their incredible accomplishments, their perseverance in their trauma, and realized that even when living at the highest ranks of public service, they were treated as if they were invisible because of their race. Doug's book celebrates the everyday heroes behind the scenes, reminding us to utilize our ancestors' victories to broaden our vision of what is possible. Here is Doug Melville, Invisible Generals.

Good afternoon, everybody here in attendance, everybody online. And normally when we introduce someone, we always talk about their professional background. We always talk about the high points of that and why they're here to talk to us at Google. But I want us to take a moment and just reflect a little bit because I want us to think about that time we heard about our family, our family's legacy, the pride we had in that legacy.

Then I want us to kind of imagine if the biggest media company in the world decided to tell that story. Pretty exciting, right? But then I wanted to tell you that when you finally solved the end product, not only was your family's name not mentioned, but the entire legacy that brought you that pride was not even mentioned either. That is the story we're going to talk about today. That is the story that Doug Melville wrote. So without further ado, could you please welcome me in introducing Doug Melville?

Hey, how are you doing today? Good. How are you? Good. I feel great today. I do. Yeah. I get to talk to you again. Okay. This is a win. This is definitely a win. So, Doug, you know, I deliberately didn't say the book that, you know, you wrote, right? Invisible Generals. I gave kind of this broad introduction. Can you talk to us a little bit in your own words? What motivates you to write the book and how did that come about?

So I want to share with you kind of what drove me to write the book and what was really the inspiration. And it was really just family. It was personal. It was something that was a small itch that I got and that inspired me. And that really circled around the movie Red Tails. So I don't know if anyone here in the audience or online has ever seen the movie Red Tails.

But it's the story of the first black fighter pilots of World War II. And at the time, the military was segregated, so their accomplishment was in the highest regard. And in 2012, a movie came out called Red Tails. It was produced by George Lucas, and it was actually his last film before he kind of sold the company off to Disney. And the main character in the movie was Terrence Howard.

And we all know Terrence Howard. We love Terrence Howard. Terrence Howard, you know, he's always in the news, but he was the main character in the movie. And I got invited to the screening. When I got invited to the screening and they introduced Terrence Howard's character on film, he was playing General Benjamin O. Davis Jr., who was the patriarch and the center of my family. So I'm invited there on behalf of the family. I'm excited to see him on the screen. And then when he shows up on the screen...

And he's introduced, his name was changed. It was Colonel Bullard, not Colonel Davis. So I look around the movie theater and I try to wonder, you know, does anybody else in this room know the names of the characters? And after the screening ended, because all the families of the living Tuskegee Airmen were there, I started asking around to the individuals that made the movie and said, hey, by the way, the names in the movie were changed. And they shared with me Doug Bullard.

Of course the names are changed. This is Hollywood. Each character on the movie is actually an amalgamation. So we didn't use the real names. We didn't have to pay the family's royalties. And we were able to create this movie that you see. And I was taken aback. You know, I was really in shock because I did not know how it worked. All I knew was that our family was being abused.

Wait, I want to take that. You grossed over like a very, like, I think, this isn't just a Benjamin Davis or Ben Davis Jr. Doug Melville story. This is a practice. This has implications beyond this. That's what you're actually saying. You're actually saying many times that

We change characters' names. We combine characters into one character. Combine historical figures into one character to get around... Not paying the families. Not paying the families. Yeah, and actually, what I started to learn was all the other movies that we see or go to, the families don't necessarily get paid. And because...

they were public servants because this is a military movie. Once you sign up for the service, your name and likeness is public domain. So that means all these movies that we watch, devotion, you know, hidden figures, all these individuals that work for the government are

They don't have to get paid royalties because the stories are public domain. And I learned whoever writes the story owns the story, but not the person who lived the story or is portrayed or whose name and likeness is on the screen.

And this was a mind-blowing reality for me. So I said to myself, I am not going to sit here and let somebody one day find out my family story and one day go back in history and write the story. I am going to make sure that the family owns the rights to the story, and I'm going to be the first to write it down from the family point of view. And that was really what inspired me to write the book Invisible Generals.

And I think it's really a good learning for everybody to say, once you are in the service for a day, a week, a month...

Your name and likeness is public domain. So whoever writes down the story of your journey owns the copyright. And this is a real big reality check, especially in today's time when you don't really know who's filming something. You don't really know what stories are being written. And I think it's very important to realize as a family member, we have to take control of our own legacies and ensure that they're taught and spoken in a credible and legitimate way.

No, I think this theme, so for one, amazing book, y'all, Invisible Generals, and we're going to definitely unpack, you know, as I was reading it, one of the things, you know, I went, obviously, West Point graduate, Ben Davis Jr., very historical, Ben Davis Sr., historical name, Tuskegee Airmen. These are like things of myths and legends, right? And this is so essential to your family, right?

And when I went into the book, you know, I was thinking I was going to read a historical, you know, novel to individuals and what they had to overcome. But it was much more than that. And as I kind of continue to go through, it's really a story about equity on so many different levels. Right. And so...

Can you kind of walk us through a little bit about what you found on your research? Because this was all new to you as well. Yeah, everything was really new to me. So right after I went to the screening, I went home to my dad and I was like, Dad, this is unfair. You know, they took our names out of the movie. You know, what can we do? What can we do? And my dad, you know, he said to me, you know, Doug, um,

What are you going to do about it? You know, he's a judge, but he's traditional and he's like, you know, complaining is not going to really get you anywhere. And he goes, you know, what I would really like to do is share with you the story of Ben and his father, the two men that raised me in the military. They were known as the invisible generals. And.

And from my standpoint, when I grew up, you know, I knew Ben Davis Jr. as the gentleman who paid for my college and bought me my first car, bought me my first set of golf clubs. So by the time I met him, he was the grandfather figure in my house. I didn't know anything about what this man did in his youth. Wow.

Well, we'll talk about him, but your family has a lot of history here. So we're going to talk about that. So tell us a little bit about. So this is. Yeah. So this is Ben Davis Jr. here. And, you know, growing up with him, you know, I didn't know any of his story. And then my dad started to explain to me, you know, about our family lineage and family history.

And I was trying to understand how Ben Davis Jr. and Ben Davis Sr. became America's first two black generals. And my dad shared with me it really started with Louis Davis Jr.

who was the babysitter for Ulysses S. Grant's son and General Logan in the late 1800s. And because of his proximity to the White House, he was able to protect the family so they could get what they deserved in a time where segregation was heavy. I cannot believe every single time I talk to you, you drop like Ulysses S. Grant.

- The reason why we have a union today. - Yeah, yeah. - Goodness, okay, continue. - You know, actually, what I did learn is Grant's tomb's in New York City. - Yes. - We don't even, you know, I feel like we don't even really know that, but I did go up there, and it was paid for by the citizens of Harlem, because what he did back in the day for, you know, equality and human rights, that really went under the radar most of his life, and so because Louis Davis had proximity to the White House,

the presidents and the generals looked out for the Davis family and then ultimately the Melville family. And that was kind of how we got here today. So the invisible generals is really a story about two men, a father and a son, America's first two black generals and the,

The big statistic that drove me when I was at the very beginning part of learning about my family and hearing my dad say, what are you going to do about it, was at the start of World War II, there was only two black officers in the entire military out of 335,000 people. And it was a father and a son. And it was my family. And I had no idea. I had no idea. Yeah.

And I think even when we learn about the history of America, all those World War II movies we've seen, I didn't even know the military was segregated. I had no idea. You know, you just gloss over. You watch the movie. It's

Some of the characters aren't, you know, authentic. So they put different color characters or women in scenes that weren't actually living those moments. And, um, that was the first time I found out. One, one thing I think is also unique in that regard is, uh, that a lot of people also don't know that, uh,

And black soldiers also many times didn't actually see combat. They were put into positions of support. So to have like a pilot, something that's so instrumental to the battlefield is just huge and just unheard of really at this time. I think we take it for granted now.

But you're talking like honestly just monumental impact. Yeah, it was – looking back at it and you really start to realize that blacks were given at the time what they called pick and shovel jobs. So even though there was millions of people that fought for the United States of America in World War II, I want to say it was 3 million people.

Most of those people had things called pick and shovel jobs, which were every cook, every railroad, every road, every telephone pole, you know, all the builders and the constructors. But skilled positions were actually against policy and blacks were not allowed by policy to even try to have skilled positions. So when the Tuskegee Airmen concept came around, it was really tough.

It was so mind blowing to people that people didn't even know why we would even try such an experiment in the middle of World War II because it could never happen. It's not practical. - Yeah, and I think we're gonna talk about this a little bit later about how, specifically in regards to your family, how having a black officer, what did that symbolize and how did people look at that?

But I think it's also important for the audience to know that you did have black soldiers at one time fighting the Civil War, fighting in World War I. It wasn't until after World War I, and we start to get into the summer of 1917, summer of 1918, and the race riots, then you see this push back. It's like this constant wave of you move forward and you get pushed back a little bit.

And then that's where we get into World War II, where they said, okay, now we will not have black soldiers fighting because of the race riots it caused after World War I. That's exactly right. So in 1901, Ben Davis Sr. became an officer in the United States military, and that was because he wasn't allowed into West Point because of his race. But the presidents, because we were friends with the family—

promoted him when he had earned it. And the problem was in the early 1900s, if black soldiers accomplished a task or the ask that they were supposed to, they didn't get promoted. So for him to actually get promoted in 1901 to become an officer from signing up for a volunteer army seemed...

And actually, he was the only general in American history that signed up in a volunteer army. So equivalent to just, I think it was a buck private where you just walk in and say, hi, my name is, and rose every single level up to the rank of general. So in 1901, he became an officer and his wife dies in childbirth. He becomes a single father with three children.

And he has two daughters and a son. And he's trying to figure out how to move forward. And his son says to him, "Daddy, I want to go for a plane ride." And he decides to use one week's pay for his son to fly for 15 minutes. And when he comes down, he goes, "Daddy, I want to be a pilot."

Now, in a modern time, I think I would probably say it's time to go to ice cream or let's go to Six Flags. You know, it's like I don't have any time for this. And he goes, if you want to be a pilot, there's one way to do it. Even the United States of America can't turn down a West Point grad. So he began to train his son from the time he was seven years old.

to become an officer in the military. So sometimes now we think about Bronnie James or you think about Shador Sanders, but in the levels at this time, he raised his son, get up every day at 4 a.m., sit-ups, the calisthenics, the diet, every day, so he would be prepared for what he was going to go through if he got into West Point. And in 1932, his son, Ben Davis Jr., entered the West Point Military Academy. Wow.

So you're saying waking up at 4 a.m. is not normal? Well, I'm saying it's good training to be an officer. I don't have to tell you. You know all about waking up at 4 o'clock in the morning. But you have another picture here of Ben Singer. Oh,

Yeah, so there's a lot of history. So this is actually the eight presidents that Ben Davis Sr. and Ben Davis Jr. worked for as a senior advisor or as the head of Negro policy, which is what they referred to it at the time. You know, it's funny how Hollywood makes a movie called The Help.

about a family that was the servants in the White House, but there's no movie about this family who worked for eight different presidents of the United States of America, and no one even speaks their name. And one thing I think was unique when we were first talking is how you said they never really voted. They never voted, yeah. That was...

An interesting duality. And actually, they never voted as a family policy. And the reason they didn't vote is because they felt at the time their service was their contribution to the country. And because they were the only two blacks, they didn't know if—

this would be used against them. So if they said they voted for someone, then later on that party, that person, their allies would then say, Oh, well you voted for so-and-so. So, uh, I don't want to, um,

They didn't want to get into the point where they started to show their favor to one side or another. My goodness, just really sticking to duty on our country. Absolutely. So this is Ben Sr. here. So this is 1901 when he became an officer. And this is a picture of it's a little grainy because these pictures were taken in the 30s. But Ben Davis Sr. and Ben Davis Jr. at West Point.

on his first day and then Ben in 1932 with his yearbook photo. And in 1936, in this photo, Ben Davis Jr. became the first black graduate of West Point in the 20th century. And it was a 50-year period of

where he was the only black graduate, but the conditions he had to live with and endure were almost impossible. - So, any academy, any college, any school really, it doesn't even have to be college, we always talk about cooperate to graduate, right? You're getting along, you always need to rely on your peer group to get through, whatever it is. Could be here at work, it could be just anywhere.

I think anybody could understand West Point, you know, military academy. It's just that much. It's a lot of people think about just getting in is the hard part, but I always say it's that 47 month journey afterwards. That's the actual marathon. And so what you did, you, you know, us West Pointers, we, we understand what it means to be silenced, what it means to not have anybody there. Cause we think about the first graduate, you know, Henry O. Flipper. But again,

Your great uncle had no help from anybody. Well, yeah. And when he got in, because he was light skinned, they actually didn't know he was black. So when he arrives there in 1932, they pull him in the commandant's office and have him wait for his rooming assignment. And he would write under the sign that said duty, honor and country. He was waiting. And then they assigned him to a converted janitor's closet at the end of the hallway with no roommate.

So he goes to bed that night and he is scared. You know, he's 18 years old. It's his first day at college. You know, West Point is a beautiful place, but it's also very cold. You know, there's all brick structures and we're in the 30s.

And he wakes up the next day really thinking that he was going to start anew and be positive, even though he had heard things about what happened at the campus. And he realizes there's a meeting in the sinks and it's an all hands meeting. It was all the staff, all the cadets. And they said, you know, we accidentally let a black cadet in. We are to silence him and treat him as if he's invisible until he drops out.

So he went to West Point for four years. At the time, it was year-round, 50 weeks a year with no human interaction. So they wouldn't call on him in class. He had to eat standing up every day because no one would allow him to sit. He failed mandatory classes like boxing and ballroom dancing and CPR because no one would touch him or acknowledge him. They left him outside for weeks at a time.

and then brought right to merits when he came back. So this was a situation where he really was treated like he was invisible, but he ended up meeting his wife at the campus and on weekends they would get together and she kind of kept him sane throughout the process.

And then he made it through and in the top third of his class, he should have been able to fly because that was the purpose he was there. But they pulled him in the commandant's office with a month before graduation and they told him, why don't we pay you to honorably discharge and we'll start a law firm for you. And we'll send you to law school and pay for the law school and pay for your office if you agree to

And he said, I want to be a pilot and they said, it's against policy for blacks to fly or operate heavy machinery. So you're just wasting your time. And he goes, I made a promise to my dad and I want to live my dream just like everybody else here.

and I'm going to graduate. And he ends up graduating in the class in 1936. And what we would come to find out is that he would have graduated near first or first in the class if they didn't mandatory fail him in all the classes that required a partner. It's incredible. Incredible. So that taught me learning that I can never complain again and that every environment that I'm in, I am positive. I'm overly positive. Sometimes people go, Doug, why are you so positive? But

These men lived a life for me to have what I have today. And I feel like it would just be counterproductive to all the hard work that they did for me to take it for granted. My goodness. I mean, it's just like, I don't know if y'all are feeling it, but for me, I'm just like, geez, you can just beaming from it. It's like the pride you have. I'm excited to share every time, you know, I kind of went through my Kubler-Ross stages of grief.

being mad, being upset. But all I thought of was that they made it through it. So for me to read about it, I can't get more upset.

you know, than the people that experienced it. You know, one thing, like I said, we talked about this and initially I thought like, hey, this is going to be a book about the hardships, which there are. You did thorough research and it's just incredible what your family not only endured, but persevered through. And we have so much to thank. But one of the things that really struck me is like how much I was thinking about the future. And you have, you say something in the book about

about being the descendants of your ancestors? Could you just kind of hit on that really quickly? Because I want to, it's going to lead into something else. Okay. So I write in the book that we're our ancestors' wildest dreams. It's hard for me to imagine that they would imagine me at Google or what a Google is. You know, they were living in a time where it was so hand to mouth and there was so few resources.

So for us to live the lives we live where we travel freely, we all have passport capabilities and access to go all around the world and the city and the country. And we're in a time where there's always some conflicts around the world, but they lived through World War I and World War II where it seemed like every day there was a global massive conflict.

So we are our ancestors wildest dreams. And I really take that to heart when I wake up every day or I try to stay focused or lose focus or have kind of like an ADD moment because all I could think about was Ben senior would write in his diary for 50 years that he was in the military, every single room he was in, he got the worst meal chair, heat,

air. So whatever room he walked into for 50 years, he got the absolute worst of whatever was in that room. And he still woke up every day and encouraged his son to do the same thing because the philosophy was this. You have to use the system to diffuse the system. Complaining from the outside has a place and a purpose. But unless you're in the systems,

You cannot have a voice, that voice cannot lead you to have a vote. And that vote cannot lead to the change or evolution that you hope that organization or institution or country or nation state has. And that is something that I think is so reflective of where we are today in the world.

You have to be in the system to have a voice and a vote and help evolve those systems. Because when you're an outsider, it's very hard to get your point across. Now, look, Amen, you got like plus 1000 to it, 100 percent. One thing I wanted to also like talk about is, you know, we talk obviously the book is

two great phenomenals for your family, but you also kind of like hit on some other stuff, right? Like, um,

Can you talk to us a little bit about your interaction with Google, with Ben Davis Jr.? Because this isn't your first interaction with Google here. No, actually, I have a whole chapter in the book about Google. And, you know, it's an honor for me to actually be able to tell the story to you at Google because I think sometimes things just...

you don't see them or they go past you. But when I made the commitment to write this book, I was currently working at the time for Magic Johnson. I was on his executive team. I've heard of him. Living in Beverly Hills. Yep. Magic Johnson. Yep. The greatest to ever do it, by the way. He's really one of my first mentors and I really appreciate him so much. And when I left working for him, I made a commitment that I was going to research and write the book.

Speaker 2 : I'm just saying you dropped these things. You know, she says, grant,

This is the story. I'm happy to be here. It's a little Forrest Gump-y. I'm just in the right rooms. Did y'all hear the flex out there? Magic Johnson, one of my greatest mentors, who says this? We play these in video games. We had to call him Mr. Johnson or Irvin. Magic was like the player, but Mr. J or Mr. Johnson or Irvin was actually the more formal. I'm talking about it casually, but in a work environment, it was a little bit more formal.

It was a little bit more for him. So I was working with him at the time.

And when I saw Red Tails, I had made a commitment that I was going to become a diversity officer. So while I was working for him, we were helping companies be inspired by black America or different markets. And I didn't know diversity officer was actually a job. So I made a commitment that I was going to be a diversity officer. And on the other side, I made a commitment I was going to research the book. So as I'm going through this process with both parallel paths,

We get contacted because I'm the executor of the family estate by Google, right?

Now, at the time, my dad was contacted, but he rarely checks his email, and he was actually the proper executor of the estate at that time. But the estate had been closed. There was really nothing going on with Benjamin O. Davis Jr. We knew he commanded the Tuskegee Airmen. Obviously, people see the Tuskegee Airmen out in the news, but we really didn't have much more going on at that time. And we get contacted from a team at Google.

And they share with us that they're doing a year in search commercial that was likely going to air during the Super Bowl. It ultimately aired at the Grammys. And they wanted to include Ben Davis Jr. because he was the most searched airman of World War II. So the first thing that was shocking was many people were searching for him.

And the second thing was my question was, oh, it's going to be a television commercial. Well, I'm a diversity officer and I'm about equity. How much do the families get paid? And they explained to me that each of the families that they were using in the commercial were going to waive their rights for compensation.

And, you know, LeBron James is in the commercial and Oprah Winfrey and Prince and, you know, all these other Beyonce was in the in the commercial. And I had asked them if they could pay the family thirty thousand dollars because I felt that was equitable, because that's how much the clearance fee was for the image that they were going to use from Getty Images.

And the woman on the phone says, well, you know, all the other families are doing it, you know, as to be part of this great commercial and to really, you know, show about search and the power of search and X, Y, Z. And I said, no, no, that's fine. But could you pay us? Because I think that's fair. My family never got paid and you could write the check to the estate. And the woman says, well, you're you have you could get edited out of the commercial.

Because no one else is charging and the commercial is already running over.

And I said, that's fine. I said, I would rather it be fair and equitable because for what he did to be searched this much. And the woman from Google called me back and said, we found a way to do it. And we're going to compensate you $30,000 for the rights fee. And when I went home and told my dad, my dad was like, it's a scam. No one's going to pay us $30,000. No one's going to pay

to $30,000 to use a name and likeness of Ben, Doug. And I said, no, no, I'm serious. And when Ben Davis Jr sold his life rights to his book, he got paid $2,500 in 1986. So that was his total advance in compensation for his story. So for my dad to hear $30,000, but that $30,000 ultimately was deposited

And we went down to Washington, D.C. We reopened the estate. I became the executor of the estate. And that $30,000 provided enough money for me to go to West Point and go to the Air Force Academy to spend enough time there to talk to them about what is equitable as it relates to recognizing Ben Davis Jr. and his father and the accomplishments in the military there.

So if it was not for Google, quite literally, I don't know if this book would have been written. I don't know if the estate would have been opened. And I don't know if West Point or the United States Air Force Academy would have had monuments dedicated in their honor because Google, through their equitable practices, they did not have to pay the money.

but they did it because they thought it was fair, changed my family's life. Yeah, and I think... I promise you I didn't plant that. But what I... You did not plant that. That is a real story. No, it's... But what I think is just doing the right thing. Mm-hmm. Like, doing the right thing and the impact that that can have, right? And I think you have some pictures of that if we can go up there really quick while I talk through this, is...

Just something that we wouldn't even think twice, right? We're like, yeah, it's our likeness. It's our family. Something that, yeah, we should be paid because let's be frank, there's people who get paid for things that don't belong to them. And so I think that's like really important. Yeah, and here's a picture of the barracks at West Point that they ultimately dedicated to

to Benjamin O. Davis Jr. There's some of the colleagues that you know there, General Caslin, amazing. Simone Askew. Simone Askew, first black female, first captain, which is the highest ranking cadet at West Point. Yeah, yeah. And that was a real big moment because at that time, there wasn't one single item on the entire West Point campus that

that was physically dedicated to a graduate of color as an individual. So the Davis Barracks was built. And then much after that, two years later, the Air Force Academy named their airfield in the center of their airport and their campus in Colorado Springs after Benjamin O. Davis Jr. and then painted all the tails red of the gliders on

So now every single student that learns to fly a plane in the United States Air Force Academy learns in an airplane that has Benjamin O. Davis's name on it and a red tail. That's incredible. And I want to like, so, you know, I would say Air Force Academy, you know, we're not going to, we're going to talk a little bit more about the Army today. They're not the Navy. They're not the Navy. We're safe. We're safe. No, but I think you told me an interesting fact. You said the largest monument slash buildings.

at each service academy is actually named after- The same person. It's named after Benjamin O. Davis Jr. And I thought, what an unbelievable reality is that West Point and the Air Force Academy's centerpiece of both campuses is the same person. And no one really talks about it. But that was the whole point of this book is that this story was invisible in plain sight

And going to a lot of the museums that I went to to read about our family history, a lot of the photos weren't tagged. So they say, you know, President Carter and others, but Benjamin Davis Jr.'s name isn't there. So what I learned is a lot of museums don't tag all the characters in the photos.

And you have to go back manually. And the museums are open to it. You can just fill out a form or you can write a request. But who's actually doing it? So during COVID was an opportunity for us to actually go back. I had someone who was working with me every day to assist on the research, book the appointments so we could go to the museums. And that's when I realized that Benjamin O. Davis Jr. had actually been omitted but was there.

in plain sight and it just took somebody to go back and actually tag the data so he would be visible when people searched.

You know, one of the other things, and y'all, if you can't tell, this is an amazing book. I'm like a fangirling over here. One of the stories I think is really unique is that it's not just a story about what they did in the military, right? And what you've done as well in telling their story. You also, there's some stories in there about, like, impacts we're having today currently. You know, can you talk a little bit about that, like...

I think that's really cool as well. So in 1967, Ben Davis Jr. was scheduled to get his fourth star from President LBJ. Ultimately, he did not get the fourth star and retired in 1970. And they didn't really know what to do with him.

Most people thought he deserved a fourth star, but LBJ had passed the Martin Luther King civil rights agenda. He put Thurgood Marshall in the Supreme Court. So he really felt that there was no more political gain to promote Ben to four star general. So it was a real big blow for Ben. He really wanted that fourth star. He deserved the fourth star, but

But he ultimately decided that that was the fate of his career. And he couldn't get a job as a pilot in the private sector. Most of aviation at the time was de facto segregated. So the military was working with the Pentagon to find him a job.

So they create a new position for him, which was special assistant to the secretary of transportation. And in that job, um, what he did was he, uh,

created two things that we still have around us today, actually more than two. But in 1971, there was a lot of hijackings in the sky. So he came up with the idea to build a national security for all commercial airports. So before you got on the plane, you would actually have to take off your clothing and your book bag and put it into a

a low radiation sensor and that was the metal detectors which became the TSA. So in 1971, he created what would become the TSA for every United States airport in the country. He created the United States Air Marshal Program, which where would we be without passenger 57? See what I'm saying? It's cultural.

He also created the Flying Thunderbirds, and he was the defining vote to ensure that women could get into the Air Force Academy because they were only allowing men in. And he also had his hands in the creation of the doors that lock on airplanes when you sit down commercially because people used to run down the aisle and then jump out of the plane and rob individuals. So he made sure that the doors lock. So those were all of his inventions.

or creations or developments in the early 70s. And he was so successful that

That when the administration changed and Jimmy Carter became president, they asked him if he could do the same thing for ground transportation that he did for aviation transportation. And he was the individual who led the creation of the 55 mile an hour speed limit. And this picture here is a picture of him in the Oval Office unveiling the 55 mile an hour speed limit.

Um, so who would have actually thought beyond commanding the Tuskegee airmen, beyond telling the men to paint the tails red because the maps were segregated beyond all the other accomplishments he had in the military. He was the forefather of airport security and the 55 mile an hour speed limit. So if you take nothing away, take this, uh,

If you got a ticket for speeding at 70 and a 55, it's because of Ben Davis Jr. No, I'm joking. Yeah, actually, these are actually the two things that probably are the most annoying things for people. It's like, hey, let me make two things that you definitely don't want. Airport security and a 55 mile an hour speed limit. Okay, good.

We know you are the most hated man. Oh, my goodness. But those are things that he did after retirement. And then in 1998, after 12 years of lobbying from Senator John McCain of Arizona, Ben Davis Jr. got called to get his fourth star from President Bill Clinton. So in 1998, we all went to the White House together.

and Ben received his fourth star. But talking about the conversation around equity, this moment, which I write about in the book, was really a tumultuous moment because we had to sign a piece of paper that said even though Ben Davis should have received a star in 1967, which was 31 years before this, we would have to forego all compensation for

associated with those 31 years of retirement backwards and also all the years moving forward which would ultimately be 35 years of retirement pay which is over 1.3 million dollars and Ben Davis's wife of 62 years said I will not go and you should not take that star and he said I promised my father I

When I was a young man and he told me that he would pay and sacrifice for me to become a pilot, that I would go all the way to become a four star general and I am gonna receive that honor today. And his wife of 62 years did not go to the ceremony. And that was the first time that I had learned that when people get promoted in retirement or posthumously,

You get the honor of the White House ceremony and the sitting president of the United States pinning you with your fourth star, but you do not get any compensation. And I think when we talk about veterans issues, these are not old issues. These are living issues that we can still change and have an opinion on today.

No, I think, like I said, there's so many other stories in the role. There's Taiwan, China, we didn't really talk about here. Oh, the Taiwan line, yeah. But I do want to give you some time here. And if you all do have any questions in the Dory or in the audience, please just let me know. We can see the questions here. But, you know, one of the things that I think is a theme throughout the book is this idea about telling stories, right?

but at the same time being equitable about telling stories. You know that sometimes people like to tell the story, but they don't want to give credit where it's due. And then when we try to tell the story, they're like, well, you should just be happy because we're just mentioning this achievement, regardless of the name or the person or the time. How do you think, what do you think we can take away, like going forward from now on?

to do this right, to do right by not just our families and the stories we tell, but the communities we're involved in and the stories that we're listening to from other people. Well, I think the first thing is you have to know your history and take the time to learn your family story. If nothing else, I think we, if we look at history as a chain and we're a link,

Maybe our link today is communicating and storytelling. You know, I didn't live this story. I didn't serve in the military, but I feel like my entire life is because my family served in the military. And my contribution is ensuring that this story comes out. And my contribution is working with the military academies in whatever way I can to help amplify the story. And I think the first part of storytelling is to take the skills you have at work,

Take that boisterous person who's loud in the family or the storyteller or the big personality child and say, you know what? Use that on our family story. I think that's the first part of it. The second part is I think we need to take a step back and just look at the shoulders of the people we're standing on and realize that our fathers and grandfathers were

really did so much and our grandmothers and mothers, but all those stories throughout history, we aren't necessarily giving the right shine. And I think Ben would always tell me the impossible takes time, but in time you can accomplish the impossible. And I think that's what we have to commit to this is just the time to do this.

Oh, my goodness. I love that. The impossible takes time. But in time, you can accomplish the impossible. Yeah. So that was that's a really important message. And I think, you know, we have to keep realizing that history was only five minutes ago. You know, I mean, I could tell the story about World War Two, but.

For the last three years, I've been living in Geneva, Switzerland. And when you live in Europe, they talk about World War II all the time because it happened really in Europe. It really wasn't on U.S. soil, most of it. I mean, outside of Pearl Harbor. But in Europe, people know what happened to Poland, what happened to Germany, what happened to France, what happened to Switzerland. And when I moved over there...

I remember the first question that I was asked by my CEO was, "Doug, do you know how many countries are in Europe?"

And I looked and I was like, I don't know. And there's 44 countries in Europe. And I had to learn about each of those countries and how they got their name, their culture. And so much of that was shaped by World War II. And for them, it was five minutes ago. They talk about like we talk about civil rights or Roe v. Wade. And I think sometimes we just don't realize that people alive today were in World War II. My dad is 91 years old.

He was raised by Ben Davis Jr. He used to run fruit and vegetables back from George Washington Carver.

in Tuskegee to the soldiers. And I think we don't realize, I said, dad, your babysitter was George Washington Carver. How young are you that your babysitter was George Washington Carver? And he would have a little thumbnail picture when he was a kid. And he goes, yeah, there's me right there. But the pictures were only this big. And I said to myself, I would have never believed that

that the world is only this old and America has only been around for 240 years and that my dad has been around for 40% of it. - That's incredible. I mean, I'm not gonna ask your dad like what does a peanut butter jelly sandwich taste like from George Washington? - Every time he eats it, he goes childhood.

I go, dad, are you serious? Crunchy or creamy? Let's be serious. Oh my goodness. Crunchy. Oh my goodness. Doug, this has just been, first of all, like, you know, it's been amazing. Any questions in the audience, you know, we are definitely going to be here, but, um,

You know, I do think we have one. I think we kind of answered this, but just to further drive it home, what's the one takeaway from the book you want people to take away? The one thing in the book that I want people to take away is that you can do things that you may not have believed if you just put your mind to it. If you would have ever said, Doug, would you be writing a 70,000-word book about your family and military experience? You count it.

Well, they don't pay you unless you hit the number. So it's like the essay? It's like the three pages? You don't get paid unless you hit the number. I'm just letting you all know, if you ever get a book deal, 65,000 to 70,000 words. So I'm just letting you know, shorter than that, that's called a pamphlet. That's what they call it in publishing. So, you know, I'm sure there's a lot of good pamphlet writers out here, but I'm just saying. Yay.

But I would have never believed that I could do it. But the thing is, once you scratch the itch, once you find a passion, once you're driven by something, your crack in the dam could change the outcome of the world. And I think we have to give ourselves more credit. We have to really lean into our passion, our passion projects, and realize we can change history today.

We just have to put our mind to it and take one step at a time, one day at a time, but never forget that could be our purpose in our family lineage. Oh my goodness. Well, thank you. And thank you, Lauren, for that question. But with that, I just want to say thank you for the conversation. Thank you for writing the book.

you know, to your family. I'm like listening to you. It's like, what did you do? No, you're telling the story, which I think is what we started off with. Right. Which is to be the, how did you say it again? The, our ancestors wildest dreams. And I think that is exactly with what you did by unearthing these stories and motivating us all to look into our own families, to understand those stories. So we can make sure that we,

the right people get credit for it and are told by it in the right way. So thank you for that. And thank you so much for having me here. And, you know, also thank you for the Google alert, because if it wasn't for the Google alert, I would not have known that West Point was planning on building the barracks. So if it really wasn't for the technology that we use, that Google has created and provided,

It's hard to fathom how hard this process and journey would be without the tools that are in the universe. I'm so thankful for Google, and I'm really thankful for the opportunity to share this story. And I just want to inspire everybody. You can do it.

Tell your own family story. Write it down so you can control the narrative. And hopefully one day this will be a movie and I can stand proudly and say this movie was created because I was inspired after the omission from Red Tails. And hopefully that will inspire others to write their own book and see their story come to life. Thank you so much, Doug. Thank you. All right. I appreciate it.

Thanks for listening. To discover more amazing content, you can always find us online at youtube.com forward slash Talks at Google. Talk soon.