Award Recipients Lanier Phillips, Eddie LeBaron and Bill Cosby Lanier Phillips, Bill Cosby and Wayde Rowsell, Mayor of St. Lawrence, Newfoundland
marching with Martin Luther King, Jr. in Alabama. At the same time, Korean War veteran Eddie LeBaron was throwing touchdowns as the starting quarterback for the Washington Redskins. While they were worlds apart, the three veterans maintained the naval values of honor, courage and commitment long after they left the service. For his part, Cosby has fostered a commitment to education through comedy for decades. “We know that he is one of the greatest entertainers in history,” remarked Virginia Ali, owner of Ben’s Chilli Bowl, a D.C. landmark and one of Cosby’s favorite haunts. “We also know that he is a great pioneer, that he has broken racial barriers on television and movie screens,” she told the crowd as she introduced her long-time friend. During his Navy years, Cosby encountered those racial barriers firsthand, often being forced to sit separately from his fellow sailors in restaurants while traveling in the Southern U.S. For the legendary comedian, those experiences resonate even today. In fact, Cosby nearly refused to accept the Lone Sailor Award – which has previously been presented to presidents, senators and professional athletes – before they agreed to consider another Navy veteran and civil rights activist. 94
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“I thought about it, and I said I will accept only if you look into Lanier Phillips,” Cosby told “Diplomatic Connections.” A pioneer in his own right, Phillips set the Navy on a new course by becoming its first African American sonar technician in 1957. Previously, African American sailors had little hope of achieving more than the rank of mess attendant, with racism as rife in the Sea Service as it was in the South. “When I joined in 1941, racism was at its peak. It was no different in the U.S. Navy than it was in Philadelphia or Mississippi,” recounted Phillips as he accepted his own Lone Sailor Award. Desperate to escape the discrimination he experienced at home in Georgia, Phillips decided that the Navy “was the lesser of the two evils.” Less than a year after he signed up, Phillips’ life – and his worldview – were transformed forever when his ship, the USS Truxtun, ran aground off the southern coast of Newfoundland in Canada. As the only black survivor of the shipwreck, the young sailor was shocked when he received the same attention and care as his white counterparts. Without regard to race, they were all nursed back to health by the people of St. Lawrence, one of Newfoundland’s small mining communities.