First African American Graduate of U.S. Merchant Marine Academy

Joseph B. Williams, the first African American graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, sailed as a cadet-in-training aboard the Liberty Ship BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.  He remembered Capt. Hugh Mulzac as a "demanding taskmaster," but who taught him "how to be a qualified officer."

Williams graduated from the Academy in 1944.  After the war, he pursued a career in law, eventually serving on the bench of the New York State Supreme Court prior to his retirement.  He died in 1992.