Lanier Phillips
In 2014, we honored Lanier Phillips, (1923-2012). In 1957, he was the first African American to become a U.S. Navy sonar technician. But that is just one of his accomplishments.
Lanier was born in 1925 in Lithonia, GA. His mother and father were sharecroppers. His great-grandparents were slaves. He grew up in a racist south where he witnessed the horrors of the Klu-Klux-Clan firsthand.
At 18, seeing no future in Georgia, he decided to enlist in the Navy. Once in the Navy, he was destined to be nothing but a steward or a mess attendant. In February 1942, the U.S. warships Pollux and Truxtun went aground at a cove on Newfoundland’s Burin Peninsula, near the towns of St. Lawrence and Lawn. Lanier Phillips was one of the survivors of the Truxtun. 203 sailors lost their life that night and Phillips was on of 186 survivors. He almost didn’t survive, and he tells the story of himself along with a couple of other black mess attendants and one Pilipino mess-man standing on the sinking ship and deciding whether to try and make it ashore. The men thought they were off the coast of Iceland and figured if they did make it to shore, they might be lynched when they arrived. At the time Iceland did not allow Blacks to enter its shores. Taking his chances, Lanier jumped on the last raft leaving the ship. He was the only African American to survive the shipwreck.
Once ashore, the townspeople cared for all the sailors that made it ashore and brought them back to good health. All the sailors were covered in oil from the shipwreck. When they realized the oil was not coming off of Lanier, he got worried but so did his caretakers. They thought the oil had soaked into his pores because no amount of washing and rubbing was getting the oil off. Lanier worried that if he told them it was not oil on his skin, they would let him die. None of that happened. When he told his caretakers he was a Negro, they simply said “we never saw one before”.
The humanity shown to him in St. Lawrence changed his entire philosophy of life – it gave him dreams and ambitions; it gave him a newfound sense of self-worth; and it made him realize that he could shape his own future. Lanier went on to serve as mess-man on several different ships during and after World War II, but he never forgot the kindness the people of Newfoundland showed him. For the rest of his life, he told the story of his treatment from those good people that forever changed his life.
After giving 20 years of service, Mr. Phillips retired from the Navy in 1961. He became very active in the Civil Rights Movement, from marching with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr to traveling around the country on speaking engagements telling his story. In a 2006 interview, Phillips said, “I’ll tell it again and again,” I’ll tell it until the day I die, because I think it should be told. To me, it’s a lesson in humanity and love for mankind, and I hope the whole world hears about it. I just wish other people would experience the same love.” In his retirement, Mr. Phillips worked for NASA as a technician in our space program, and he worked with the ALVIN deep water submersible team. He also worked with the famous underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau and assisted in the development of the deep-sea lamp technology.
Please visit the links section of OBMG website and view the three-part YouTube video of Lanier Phillip’s life titled “A World without Racism The story of Lanier Phillips”
Please visit the links section of our website and view the three part YouTube video of Lanier Phillip’s life titled “A World without Racism The story of Lanier Phillips”