Only five black men were admitted to the United States Naval Academy between Reconstruction and the beginning of World War II. None graduated, and all were deeply scarred by intense racial discrimination, ranging from brutal hazing incidents to the institutionalized racist policies of the Academy itself. Finally, in 1949, Midshipman Wesley Brown achieved what seemed to be the impossible: he became the first black graduate of the Academy. Robert J. Schneller, Jr., analyzes how the Academy responded to demands for integration from black and white civilians, civil rights activists, and politicians, as well as what life at the Academy was like for black midshipmen and the encounters they had with their white classmates. Based on the Navy's documentary records and on personal interviews with scores of midshipmen and naval officers, "Breaking the Color Barrier" sheds light on the Academy's first step in transforming itself from a racist institution to one that today ranks equal opportunity among its fundamental tenets.