Lifetime Achievement Award
when his eight-year-old daughter was denied admission into a white elementary school. Anderson went to a school located two blocks the other way from his house even though he lived right across the street from a white-only grade school. When the landmark Brown versus
Board of Education Topeka case came before the Supreme Court in 1952, Thurgood Marshall argued that separate school systems for Blacks and whites were inherently unequal and thus violated the “equal protection clause” of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
But the doctrine of separate educational facilities didn’t just apply to public education. As a teenager, Anderson recalled
sitting in the Blacks-only section of movie theaters, scouting in Black-only troops, going to the Black YMCA, and riding across town on his bicycle with good buddies to use a swimming pool set aside for Blacks.
A Lifelong Lesson Anderson also remembers
stumbling upon a lesson that would last him a lifetime. “I was a straight A student and my
dad gave me a dime for every A that I got, so it was a big deal,” he explained. “One time I got a B in class,” Anderson said. “So I asked the teacher why I had a B when I had the best work. She said, ‘Because you didn’t work up to your full potential to earn an A.’” “That response from my teacher in
the third grade set the foundation as I’ve gone forward in life. It’s not about how much I can get away with but how much I can do,” Anderson said. His teacher’s unforgettable words, joined with what his parents taught him, provided the foundation upon which the seven-year-old built lasting values. Joseph Benjamin Anderson Sr., the son of a minister, worked for years as a laborer for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. He was Topeka’s only Black photographer and the film projector operator. A lot like her husband, Mrs. Pearl Anderson, the daughter of a Baptist minister, took her son to piano lessons, escorted him
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on library runs to borrow books, and shepherded him to the local Calvary Baptist Church religiously each Sunday.
The Road to West Point Once introduced to his local
American Legion, young Anderson had the opportunity to take part in Boys State, an educational program run by the Legion, which is still the nation’s largest veterans service organization aimed at advocating patriotism across the United States. Boys State provides government
“I had a level of discipline. A respect for authority balanced with self control and independence that emanated from family, church, and the values of the overall Black community. When there were requirements to do things, you just did them. As opposed to trying to fi gure out, how can I get away with not doing something?”
instruction for high school students. The training centers on the structure of city, county, and state governments. Operated by students elected to various offices, Boys State activities include legislative sessions, court proceedings, law-enforcement presentations, assemblies, bands, choruses, and recreational programs. When Anderson joined several
hundred other Boys State participants in Wichita, the largest city in Kansas, for a statewide session, he was elected mayor. He was also voted by his peers to be one
Change Makers:
WORLD I M PA C T
of the two representatives from Kansas to attend Boys Nation in Washington, DC.
Two representatives from the 50
Boys State programs represented their state at Boys Nation in Washington, where the young men receive an education on the structure and function of the federal government. At the annual event, each delegate acts as a senator from his Boys State. The young lawmakers caucus at the beginning of the session then organize into committees and conduct hearings on bills submitted by program delegates. “I had a good experience in
Washington, DC,” he said. “In my senior high school, year I got a postcard from West Point congratulating me on being one of the two young men from Kansas, along with an invitation to apply to the United States Military Academy at West Point.”
Anderson went through the
application process successfully and was one of the candidates recommended by the senator from Kansas.
Preparing for Leadership On July 7, 1961, the exemplary
eighteen-year-old from Topeka started his career at West Point as the first African-American cadet from his state. One of 900 cadets that year,
Anderson was also part of a tiny minority: Only six of the 900 new cadets were Black. Four years later, of the 596 cadets that graduated, only four of them were Black. During the first Christmas break,
when freshmen were required to stay on campus, giving proud parents and guardians time to visit the campus famous for its rich beauty, architecture, and history, Anderson was tapped to serve as a battalion commander once all the upperclassmen were gone. Over the following Easter break, he
was named Regimental Commander, one of the top three cadets of his class. “I had a level of discipline,” he said,
a respect for authority balanced with self-control and independence that emanated from family, church, and the values of the overall Black community. “When there were requirements to do things, you just did them. As
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