William Goines (born 1936) is a retired Navy SEAL and the first African American to become a member of the Navy SEALs. Though Engineman Second Class Fred "Tiz" Morrison has often been credited as being the first African American Navy SEAL - he served in World War II and Korean War in the Navy's Underwater Demolition Teams - the precursor to Navy SEALs, he was not part of the Navy SEALs formed in 1962.