We all know that in World War II and before, blacks in the American military were segregated into their own units. (The Korean War was the first war fought with an integrated military, due to an Executive Order by Truman not long after WWII ended.) Would any of those all-black units have black COs? Were there any black officers? How large were the all-black units at their peak? (squadron? platoon? brigade?)
Look up the Tuskegee airmen.
OK, how do I know they held the highest rank?
Their commander Benjamin O. Davis Jr was the highest ranking pre-integration officer in the US armed forces I believe. Though it doesn’t explicitly mention that on his wiki page.
Are you sure you don’t mean his father, Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. the first African-American general officer in the U.S. Army?
Ah, very, possibly. I remember that factoid from a I podcast heard about about him, but it could have been his father that reached that milestone…
WOW that was interesting