By 1862, following an observation of the performance of these stewards, cooks and powder boys, the ranks of regular seamen were opened to African Americans. American officers on active duty at the same time. Reason is a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, while Newton was commissioned through college ROTC and Wilson, through Officer Candidate School after six years as an enlisted man. As I came through high school, I looked very closely at affiliating with the Navy and letting them participate in my education. He attended three colleges before being accepted at the Naval Academy.
Reason comes from a family of educators.
His parents were both educators. His father was a professor of romance languages who later became director of university libraries at Howard University here for more than 40 years. His mother was a high school science biology and chemistry teacher and college professor. Reason's sister specialized in international area studies and wrote travel handbooks for DoD personnel traveling to foreign countries in the 1950s and 1960s. Her husband and two daughters are lawyers.