Letters to the Editor

A stand-up guy By 1944, only five African Americans had ever enrolled in the U.S. Naval Academy. Subjected to continual harassment, none lasted longer than a year. In 1945, African American Wesley A. Brown enrolled in Annapolis and was subjected to some of the same racism that had plagued his predecessors. During Brown’s first year, a midshipman first class, with a heavy Southern accent, stopped by his room. Brown might have legitimately wondered if this white Southerner was inviting him to some hazing ritual to get him to withdraw from school. Instead, the midshipman extended his hand in friendship and gave Brown some words of encouragement. Brown graduated in 1949 as Annapolis’ first Black graduate. Today, the Wesley A. Brown Field House at the U.S. Naval Academy bears his name. That midshipman was Jimmy Carter, our 39th president, who celebrated his 99th birthday on Oct. 1. Whatever you may think of Carter’s politics and policies, you can never disparage his morality, integrity, and sense of fairness. Paul L. Newman, Merion Station Bad call Although I’m a Pittsburgh Pirates fan, I was disheartened and disgusted by that awful third-strike call on Bryce Harper Thursday night. Sure, I want my Bucs to...