Henry Edwin Baker Jr. (September 1, 1857 – April 27, 1928) was the third African American to enter the United States Naval Academy.

My books were mutilated, my clothes were cut, and in some instances destroyed, and all the petty annoyances which ingenuity could devise were inflicted upon me daily, and during seamanship practice attempts were often made to do me personal injury, while I would be aloft in the rigging.

I was shunned as if I were a veritable leper, and received curses and blows as the only method my persecutors had of relieving the monotony ... Baker was nominated by Congressman Henry W. Barry while he was living in Columbus, and was sworn in as a cadet midshipman on September 25, 1874.

[2] Like his predecessors James H. Conyers and Alonzo C. McClennan – the first and second African Americans to attend the Naval Academy, respectively – Baker faced racist attitudes and harassment by other midshipmen.

[3] In order to allay Baker's suspicions, the midshipman showed him a letter from his mother "in which she requested that a slice be given to the colored cadet who was without friends".

[4] Another board was convened to investigate a report of disobedience during a seamanship drill, when Baker stood still after receiving conflicting orders, but it found no misconduct.

[5] Another midshipman, Lawson Melton of South Carolina (who received his appointment from Robert B. Elliott, a Republican African-American congressman) joined in the attack.

The following morning Hood and Melton, armed with clubs, waylaid Baker and beat him about the head before he could break free and make his escape; he reported this incident to the officer in charge.

[6] Baker's studies improved and he passed his annual examinations in June 1875, but the Academic Board recommended that he and twenty other classmates repeat plebe year, and Robeson approved.

A board of inquiry found that, despite his protestations to the contrary, Baker had called Meares a "God damned son of a bitch", but had been goaded into doing so.