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In his autobiography, "Silent Gesture," Smith explained that the raised fists were not a "Black Power" salute, but a "human rights salute." But in that era of the black power movement and Black Panthers, to many folks all raised black fists looked alike.

Although the current cadets weren't talking as the matter is investigated, NPR helpfully quoted the Facebook page insights of Mary Tobin, who graduated from West Point about 13 years ago. The raised fists, she wrote, were not a "sign of allegiance to any political movement," but "an act of unity amongst sisters and a symbol of achievement."

"Our attrition rates are on par with the class at large," she wrote, "but can you imagine what it must feel like to live, train, study, eat, cry, laugh, struggle and succeed in an environment where for 4 years, the majority of the people there don't look like you, it's hard for them to relate to you, they oftentimes don't understand you, and the only way to survive is to shrink your blackness or assimilate."

It's a familiar story to many of us who ever have been one of the first members of a minority group in a school or workplace. Having an extended family of "brothers" or "sisters" who share the pain helps ease anxieties, even when your signals of celebration alarm folks who don't know much about black folks besides crime stories.

More than a century after Henry O. Flipper became the first African American to graduate from West Point in 1877, the 16 cadets in the photo represented all but one of the black women in a graduating class of about 1,000, according to the Times.

Yet, as an Army veteran from the last century, I am proud to see even that tiny percentage of black women. It signals a growing respect in this country for the contributions that every race and gender can make to our nation's defense, even if we sometimes make each other nervous.

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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@tribune.com.)

(c) 2016 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.