Invisible Generals

Invisible Generals tells the true story of Benjamin O. Davis Sr. and his son, Benjamin O. Davis Jr., who became the first Black generals in the United States armed forces. Together they helped integrate the American military and were instrumental in creating the Tuskegee Airmen.

Doug Melville is the great-nephew of Davis Jr., who commanded that pioneering squadron. When George Lucas's Red Tails, a film honoring the first Black flying squadron in America, reached the screen, Melville was stunned to find that his great-uncle had been left out. The character who took his place was the fictional Colonel A. J. Bullard, and the elder Davis did not appear at all. Melville concluded that unless he took up the task of telling this family history, it would stay as hidden from the public as it had been from him.

The book traces Melville's search for his family's past across five generations, moving from America after the Civil War to present-day Asia and Europe. The Davis family was denied the recognition and the compensation it had earned, yet the father and son never gave up their faith in the American dream. Along the way, Melville discovers how devotion and self-sacrifice can accomplish a great deal, even in a society that makes people unseen.

Melville retraces his relatives' steps, campaigns for the honors they should have received long ago, and shows readers how to recover powerful family stories that time has swallowed.