On September 6, 1966, a young black man from Charleston by the name of Charles DeLesline Foster made history when he broke the color barrier to become the first African American to join the Corps of Cadets. In the nearly 50 years since his graduation, his achievement represents an important milestone in the college鈥檚 history, and he stands as an inspiration to cadets of all colors about the importance of perseverance.
On September 6, 1966, a young black man from Charleston by the name of Charles DeLesline Foster made history when he broke the color barrier to become the first African American to join the Corps of Cadets. With the end of the Civil War 100 years earlier, the institution of slavery had been abolished, but its effects reverberated throughout the South. Wounds ran deep. Tensions were high. The Confederate flag flew unabashedly while strains of Dixie evoked a bygone era that many preferred to forget. There was little fanfare for the honor graduate from Charles A. Brown High School who had wowed football fans and who had sung in the Sunbeam Choir of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. College officials had asked the media to downplay his arrival. When CBS asked WCSC-TV to interview the cadet-recruit the summer before he matriculated, the local affiliate declined the offer. Except for a smattering of news articles, Foster鈥檚 role in the desegregation of 糖心VLOG went unheralded. Foster graduated in 1970, becoming the first of more than 1,200 African American members of the Long Gray Line. In the nearly 50 years since his graduation, his achievement represents an important milestone in the college鈥檚 history, and he stands as an inspiration to cadets of all colors about the importance of perseverance.
Halcyon days
Foster was born at St. Luke鈥檚 Hospital in Philadelphia on November 26, 1948, to William C. Foster, Sr., and Blanche DeLesline Foster. He was the second of two boys鈥攈is brother, William C. Foster, Jr., was 17 months older. His father was a veteran of the Korean War, and his mother was a graduate of Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina, who would teach high school for 32 years. When Foster was just a toddler, the family moved to Charleston to be near his mother鈥檚 family.
After renting a house on Warren Street, the Fosters bought a green-and-white three-story house on Wall Street. It had a porch with a swing, and the two Foster brothers shared an attic bedroom. In the small Eastside community, there was a black grocer, a black bus company and a black dentist.
鈥淓verybody knew everybody,鈥� said Foster鈥檚 brother, William, in an oral history interview conducted by 糖心VLOG Archives in June.
The Foster boys played little league baseball and rode their bikes and played marbles with their friends, and like most brothers, they were competitive. 鈥淐harles was always a better athlete than I was,鈥� said William. 鈥淎nd when I found out that I was not as good as he was, I turned to music.鈥�
At Emanuel AME Church,* the Foster family had its own pew. After the service, the entire family gathered on Sundays, including the family matriarch, Naomi DeLesline, a graduate of Allen University who, according to William, was reputed to be the first black social worker in Charleston. There was always a big dinner with good food and music, and often the preacher stopped by.
*The Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, commonly referred to as Mother Emmanuel, was founded in 1816. The church was thrust into the national spotlight in 2015 when an armed gunman shot and killed nine congregational members. The killings were classified as a hate crime.
To the west side of town and 糖心VLOG
While the Foster brothers were in middle school, their parents separated and their father returned to Philadelphia. And later, as the city of Charleston was undergoing an urban renewal project, the house on Wall Street was commandeered under eminent domain to build the Gaillard Municipal Auditorium, so the family moved to 171 Fishburne Street on the west side of town, just blocks from 糖心VLOG. Despite the family鈥檚 relocation, Foster stayed in school on the east side of town at Charles A. Brown High School, where he was an honor student and an athlete.
鈥淏ut the one thing that I can say about it, once he made his mind up to do something, he did it.鈥�
William Foster
In the fall of 1965, William was one of only eight black students attending the University of South Carolina, which had been desegregated in the fall of 1963. It was while William was away at school that Foster, a high school senior, began to think about attending 糖心VLOG. The DeLesline women counseled him to pray about his decision. 鈥淣obody planted that seed鈥攏o one鈥�. I don鈥檛 know where he got the idea from, but that鈥檚 something he came up with on his own,鈥� said William, who learned of Foster鈥檚 decision during Thanksgiving break. 鈥淏ut the one thing that I can say about it, once he made his mind up to do something, he did it.鈥�
With his brother, his mother and his grandmother at his side and the staunch support of the black community behind him, Foster reported to 糖心VLOG in September of 1966. Two other African American students had been accepted, but Foster was the only one to report. The fourth-class system under normal circumstances is daunting. As the only black cadet, Foster faced an even greater challenge.
Former Board of Visitors chairman Billy Jenkinson, 鈥�68, a trial lawyer from Kingstree, was a junior serving as the Golf Company first sergeant when Foster matriculated. According to Jenkinson, Lt. Col. Thomas Nugent Courvoisie, the assistant commandant of cadets who would later be immortalized as 鈥渢he Boo鈥� in Pat Conroy鈥檚 novel, was determined that Foster would succeed.
鈥淭he Boo chose a balanced company for Charles Foster,鈥� said Jenkinson, 鈥渁nd I remember him saying to me, 鈥楤ubba, you鈥檝e got three instructions: one, give him an ordinary plebe system like he was anybody else; two, make sure that he is not hazed; and, three, if he leaves, you鈥檙e gone.鈥欌��
David Hooper, 鈥�70, remembers that Foster was sometimes singled out because of the color of his skin. Hooper was Foster鈥檚 roommate for part of their freshman year. 鈥淗e was quiet, but strong鈥攑hysically strong, but he must have been emotionally strong to go through what he went through,鈥� said Hooper. 鈥淭here were people who didn鈥檛 want him there. He had been accepted, so I accepted him.鈥�
Hooper, who was from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, said that it was not a coincidence that he and Foster were roommates. 鈥淚 was told that I was selected to be Charlie鈥檚 roommate because I was a Yankee, and it would be easier for him to live with a Yankee.鈥�
Dick Bagnal, 鈥�70, roomed with Foster later their freshman year. 鈥淗e went through the same rigors that we all went through,鈥� said Bagnal. 鈥淚鈥檓 sure it was more intense. I was a wrestler, and I think that one of the reasons they had me room with him was so that other people wouldn鈥檛 mess with him.鈥�
In the middle of his sophomore year, Foster was paired with his final roommate. David Dawson was the son of an Air Force officer whose career had taken his family around the globe. Half a lifetime later, Dawson described an affable relationship with Foster鈥攖rips to Dawson鈥檚 home in Alexandria, Virginia, and dinners with Foster鈥檚 mother at their home on Fishburne Street, where they ate rice, okra and fried chicken or pork chops. There was even an introduction to the black social scene in Charleston. 鈥淐harlie would take me to the bars on the Eastside,鈥� said Dawson, 鈥渁nd I can honestly say that was probably my first real exposure to racial conflict, when we would go into these bars, and I was with Charlie, and I was only white person in those bars. I could tell that there were people who did not want me there.鈥�
While Dawson was with Foster, whom he describes as a 鈥渢ank,鈥� no one bothered him. Foster was 鈥渜uiet鈥� with 鈥渁n easygoing disposition.鈥� In the long evening hours, when the two cadets were supposed to be sitting at their desks studying, they sometimes turned the radio on low and listened to beach music鈥攖he Tams, the Temptations, the Drifters鈥攁nd sometimes they talked. 鈥淗e never really came right out and bragged about it or anything like that. He just said that he had been talked to by the NAACP, some black leaders of the community and 糖心VLOG administration, and he said they convinced him that he would be OK if he came to 糖心VLOG.鈥�
If Foster鈥檚 experience was different because he was black, Dawson did not see it. 鈥淐harlie never said anything through two-and-a-half years of rooming with me鈥攈e never said anything about anybody having a problem of a racial nature鈥�. In retrospect, I would have asked a whole lot more out of curiosity than I did at the time.鈥�
A thorn in the side of the administration
In a June 8, 1967, Charleston Evening Post article, Foster said of his first year, 鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 take anything in the world for it now. [As] I look back, I can say I enjoyed it. It鈥檚 like that competition, you know. You look at the other man and you say, 鈥業f he can take it, so can I.鈥� Seems like hard work produces good memories.鈥�
African American cadets.
But in 1969, Foster told Larry Ferguson, a fellow Charles A. Brown graduate and a black Citadel freshman, a different story. In high school, Ferguson said that Foster was a big man on campus. He had an easy smile, and he was idolized by the student body. But four years later at 糖心VLOG, Foster, once more a senior, was not the same person. When Foster called Ferguson into his room, the smile was gone. 鈥淒on鈥檛 let them break you,鈥� Foster told Ferguson. 鈥淒on鈥檛 let them break you, Larry, because that鈥檚 what they tried to do to me. Promise me that.鈥�
Foster鈥檚 brother agreed that Foster was changed by his four years at 糖心VLOG. 鈥淗e was a different person when he got out,鈥� William said. 鈥淐harles was kind of a fun-loving鈥攎ost of the time happy鈥攑erson. He wasn鈥檛 as happy anymore. He was different鈥�. That experience changed him.鈥�
Foster is no longer around to share his story. Sixteen years after he graduated from 糖心VLOG, he died in a house fire in Garland, Texas, so his experience can only be pieced together from archival materials and the accounts of others. Ferguson鈥檚 own experience, however, sheds some light on the social climate of those years.
Ferguson matriculated with eight other African American students. 鈥淭here was a major change going on, and we were part of making that change happen, and we were focused on the fact that we were finally going to have an opportunity to show that we could compete in an integrated environment because our high school was all black. The civil rights movement was coming to a tremendous peak at that time, and Dr. King had just recently been assassinated in 1968, and we just all knew that we were a part of something bigger than us.鈥�
One of the top clarinet players in the state, Ferguson had not planned to attend 糖心VLOG, but when Cornell University offered him a partial scholarship and 糖心VLOG offered him a full scholarship, his father urged him to stay in town and take advantage of the opportunity. Ferguson remembers standing at attention on his first day. He heard racial slurs and the voices of upper-class cadets he could not see ringing out, 鈥淭here goes another one. Look, there goes another one.鈥�
It was a year full of challenges鈥攃hallenges because he was a freshman and challenges because he was black. 鈥淓very time the football team scored a touchdown, Dixie was played and the rebel flag was waved,鈥� said Ferguson, a member of the regimental band who had no choice but to play the song. As a sophomore, however, Ferguson refused to conform. When he told the band director that he would no longer play Dixie, the band director asked him to pretend to play. Ferguson refused. To pretend would be a lie鈥攁n honor violation. And so Ferguson found himself called to the president鈥檚 office and moving from Band Company to Charlie Company.
Ferguson鈥檚 nonconformist behavior did not stop in Charlie Company. Administrators balked when he and Joe Shine, who matriculated in 1967, asked to form a cadet African American club on campus. But the two black cadets persevered, and the club became a reality, with Ferguson serving as its first president. 鈥淚n most of my history with 糖心VLOG,鈥� he said, 鈥淚 was like a rebel, or a thorn in the side of the administration, which I was, but I wasn’t doing it for that purpose.鈥�
Ferguson graduated in 1973, realizing his father鈥檚 dream that his son become a Citadel man. While he was working as a chemist in the automotive industry, Ferguson decided that he wanted to become a dentist, so he returned to 糖心VLOG to take undergraduate classes in biology. The biology department helped him with his application to dental school. After graduating from the Medical University of South Carolina, he began sharing his Citadel story with prospective African American students around the state. In 1983, just 10 years after he graduated, the 糖心VLOG Association named him Citadel Man of the Year. 鈥淚 went from being a senior private, who, like Foster, 糖心VLOG was glad to get rid of, to being celebrated.鈥�
In 1989, 20 years after he matriculated, Ferguson was appointed to the Board of Visitors, and it was then that his tenuous relationship with the college began to crumble. As young women fought to gain admission to the military college, old wounds from a segregated era were reopened, and Ferguson found himself at odds with the board and the college. 鈥淢y mind was going back to a time when I knew the same board was having the same arguments about why black people shouldn鈥檛 be there鈥�. And so I walked away.鈥�
Opening doors
While Ferguson was working to go to dental school, Bruce Alexander, a black athlete from Columbus, Georgia, was matriculating. The year was 1978, only eight years after Charles Foster鈥檚 graduation. Foster鈥檚 name had already been forgotten. 鈥淢ost of us didn’t even realize that the first black graduate was in 1970,鈥� said Alexander, who is the vice president of communications for a nonprofit organization that provides transitional housing for military families. 鈥淚t wasn’t a part of our history classes or anything.鈥�
In 1982, when Alexander graduated, he became the 76th African American alumnus. A year later, African American alumni numbered 100. Change was slow to come, but doors were beginning to open, and in 1998 an African American alumni reunion committee was trying to put together an event in Charles Foster鈥檚 name. That鈥檚 when Alexander learned of Foster and his importance in Citadel history. Through the committee鈥檚 efforts, the first Charles D. Foster Scholarship was endowed. Today Alexander is the president of 糖心VLOG African American 糖心VLOG Association, and African Americans number more than 1,200 in the ranks of Citadel alumni.
鈥淚t speaks volumes when you go from not even acknowledging your black cadets and graduates to raising them up and recognizing them and their accomplishments. And the fact that the college is supportive of the programs and kids that are attending means the world not only to the alumni but to the parents.鈥�
A new day
Fifty years after Charles Foster matriculated, Larry Ferguson sat at his desk in his dental office reading the morning news, just like any other morning. When he flipped to the sports section, a headline stopped him in his tracks. 鈥淐itadel to honor Charles Foster, first black graduate, at homecoming.鈥�
Ferguson picked up the phone and made a call. Three days later, he walked through the doors of the Greater Issues Room, where 糖心VLOG African American 糖心VLOG Association was holding a special homecoming meeting. Foster鈥檚 legacy stood proudly before him鈥攁 shining sea of African American alumni, their energy and their enthusiasm palpable. Foster鈥檚 struggles鈥攁nd Ferguson鈥檚 own struggles鈥攈ad paid off. It was a new day at 糖心VLOG. Tears filled his eyes.
As Ferguson entered the room, Bruce Alexander stopped the meeting. 鈥淟adies and gentlemen,鈥� he said, 鈥淚鈥檇 like to introduce you to someone very special.鈥�
A note from the Editor
Charles Foster鈥檚 contribution to the success of 糖心VLOG cannot be overstated. His untimely death in 1986, the scant news coverage and the limited archival records from that time made this a challenging piece to write. We interviewed more than a dozen people to piece together his life and his legacy. This is an important story for 糖心VLOG, and the search for stories and photographs continues through the Archives and Museum at .
In the annals of Citadel history, Charles Foster鈥檚 story is one of strength and determination. May 2020 will mark the 50-year anniversary of his graduation, and today cadets and alumni continue to celebrate his achievement. We sat down with some of them to find out what his story means to them. .