Celebrating Black History Month: Margaret Bailey, first African American Nurse Corps colonel

 

Margaret Bailey, born December 25, 1915 in Selma, Alabama, graduated from nursing school in 1938 and worked at Mercy Hospital in st. Petersburg, Florida, the only primary care facility for the black community. A year later, resigned her position and went to work at Seaview Hospital on Staten Island, New York, which specialized in tuberculosis treatment and was also non-segregated.

She joined the US Army Nurse Corps in June 1944 and was assigned to the "all-Negro unit" in the corps. She completed basic training at Fort Huachuca in Arizona and was commissioned second lieutenant. She was assigned to Florence, Arizona to care for German POWs.

After WWII, Bailey served in domestic and international facilities, such as France, Germany, and Japan.  she faced racism, but she advanced through the ranks.  She was promoted to captain in 1950 after completing a six-month psychiatric nursing course at Brooke Army Medical Center.

In July 1964, she was promoted to lieutenant colonel, becoming the first black nurse to achieve the rank. She was transferred to the 130th General Hospital in Chinon, France.  In 1966, she became the first chief nurse of the unit and the first black nurse to lead a non-segregated unit.

Bailey received the Army Commendation Medal in February 1969 and in January 1970, she became the first African American person to achieve the rank of colonel, the highest military rank possible within the United States Army Nurse Corps.

She retired from the Army in 1971 or 1972, and worked as a Consultant to the Surgeon General with a special responsibility to promote increased participation of minorities in the Army Nurse Corps. Throughout her lifetime, she was awarded the World War II Victory Medal, the American Campaign Medal, National Defense Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, and the Legion of Merit, the second hightest non-combat military award.

Bailey passed away in August 2014 in Washington DC, at the age of 98. 

Speech by Col. Margaret Bailey

Celebrating Black History Month: Ruth Lucas, first African American woman to become a colonel in the US Air Force

 

Ruth Lucas, born November 28, 1920 in Stamford, Connecticut, became the first African American woman in the US Air Force to be promoted to colonel.  She graduated from the Tuskegee University in Alabama in 1942.

Shorly after, she enlisted in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) and was one of the first black women to attend the now Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia. She transfered from the Army to the Air Force in 1947.

She was stationed at an Air Force base in Tokyo in the 1950s where she taught English to Japanese students. She received a master's degree in educational psychology from Columbia University in 1957.  

When Lucas was promoted to colonel in 1968, she was a general education and counseling services assistant in the office of the deputy assistant secretary of defense for education at the Pentagon. She retired from the Air Force in 1970. 

She passed away in March 2013 in Washington, DC.

A Tribute to Ruth Lucas

Celebrating Black History Month: Carl Brashear, first African American US Navy Master Diver

 

Carl Brashear, born January 19, 1931 in Tonieville, Kentucky, enlisted in the US Navy in February 1948, four months before President Truman desegregated the US military.  He graduated from the US Navy Diving and Salvage School in 1954, becoming the first black man to attend and graduate from the school, and one of the first African American divers in the US Navy.

During his career, he worked retrieving 16,000 rounds of annumnition that feel off a barge with had broken in half and sunk.  He also worked on salvaging airplanes and recovering multiple dead bodies from the sea. 

He was achieved the rank of Chief Petty Officer in 1959, and worked in Guam for three years doing mostly demolition dives. 

In 1966, he was dispatched to find and recover a nuclear bomb lost off the coast of Palomares, Spain after two US Air Force aircraft collided during an aerial refueling maneuver. During the recovery operations in March 1966, an accident with a lifting cable and pipe crushed Brashears' left leg, but doctors were unable to save it.  His lower left leg was eventually amputated.

Brashear recovered and rehabilitated from the amputation for almost a year.  In March 1967, he was assigned to the Harbor Clearance Unit Two, Diving School and in april 1968, he became the first amputee diver to be recertified as a US Navy diver.  In 1970, he became the first African American master diver.

He retired from the Navy in April 1979 as a Master Chief Petty Officer.  He passed away  from respiratory and heart failure in July 2006 in Portsmouth, Virginia.

Interview with Carl Brashear

"Grand Budapest Hotel" wins 4 Academy Awards 2015

Grand Budapest Hotel won four Academy Awards at the annual ceremony held February 22, 2015. The film had received nine nominations, the same as Birdman or (the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).  Grand Budapest Hotel won Best Music (Original Source), Best Production Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, and Best Costume Design.

The film received nominations for Best Picture, Best Directing for Wes Anderson, Best Writing (Original Screenplay), Best Film Editing, and Best Cinematography. 

Grand Budapest Hotel wins Oscar for Production Design

Sting and Steely Dan win Grammys 2001

 

Sting won his 16th Grammy Award and Steely Dan won their very first at the annual ceremony held February 21, 2001. 

Sting won Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for his song She Walks the Earth.

Steely Dan won Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album for Two Against Nature. The album was awaarded Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.  They also won Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for Cousin Dupree.  

John Williams won Best Instrumental Composition for The Theme from Angela's Ashes.

The Foo Fighters won Best Short Form Music Video for Learn to Fly. They also won Best Rock Album for There is Nothing Left to Lose. 

Celebrating Black History Month: Olivia Hooker, first African American woman in the US Coast Guard

Olivia Hooker, born February 12, 1915 in Muskogee, Oklahoma, was the first black woman to enter the US Coast Guard.  Olivia was living with her parents and siblings during the Tulsa Race Riots in 1921.  Her family fled to Topeka, Kansas and then Columbus, Ohio. 

While she was at Ohio State University, she advocated for African American women to be admitted to the US Navy. She applied to the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES), but was rejected becauses she was black. She disputed the rejection and was accepted, but she had already decided to join the US Coast Guard.

Hooker reported in February 1945 and sent to basic training in Brooklyn, New York. She became a Coast Guard Women's Reserve (SPARS), being one of only five black women to enlist in the SPARS program.  After basic training, she was assignedd to the Separation Center  in Boston and earned the rank of Yeoman Third Class in the Coast Guard Women's Reserve.  In June 1946, the SPARS program was disbanded and Hooker earned the rank of Petty Officer 3rd Class.

After WWII, she obtained her PhD in clinical psychology and helped form the American Psychological Associatoin's Division 33: IDD/ASD to hep increase quality of life for individuals with IDD/ASD.

She passed away of natural causes in November 2018 at the age of 103.

Interview with Olivia Hooker

Celebrating Black History Month: Charles B. Hall, first African American to receive Distinguished Flying Cross

 

Charles "Buster" Hall, born August 25, 1920 in Brazil, Indiana, was the first African American combat pilot to be awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. He enlisted in the US Army Air Corps as an aviation cadet in 1941, and assigned to attend Advanced Flight Cadet Training at the Tuskegee Army Airfield in 1942. 

He graduated July 3, 1942, earning his wings and being commisssioned as a 2nd Lieutenant.  Hall was assigned to the 332nd Fighter Group's 99th Fighter Squadron.

During WWII, he flew 198 missions over North Africa, Italy, the Meditarranean, and Europe. On July 2, 1943, while on a riad on Castelvetrano Airfield in Sicily, Itlay, Hall shot down a German plane, making him the first African American combat fighter to shoot down an enemy aircraft.

For this action, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, making him the first black man to receive an award. He shot down two more enemy planes in January 1944 over Anzio, Italy. 

After the war, like many other African American WWII veteran pilots, he could not find a job with commercial airlines or commercial transport companies.  He moved to Oklahoma, where he became an insurance agent and in 1949, worked at Tinker Air Force Base until 1967, when he took a position at the Federal Aviation Administration in Oklahoma City.

He died on November 22, 1971

Interview with Charles Hall's son

Celebrating Black History Month: Tidye Pickett, first African American woman to participate in Summer Olympic Games

Tidye Pickett, born November 3, 1914 in Chicago, Illinois, was the first African American woman to represent the United States at the Olympic games.  She and Louise Stokes were chosen to participate in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.  

Pickett competed in the 100-m dash and won, placing her third in the semi-finals. She qualified for the final, and placed sixth.  

Pickett and Stokes were selected to be in the 4x100 relay, but were left out of the finals.  It seems racism played a role in the omission from the games, but the ruling remains disputed. 

After the Olympics, Pickett became a school teacher and served as principal at an elementary school in East Chicago Heights, until her retirement in 1980.  She passed away in November 1986.

A brief history of Tidye Pickett

Celebrating Black History Month: Charles Young, first African American colonel in US Army

Charles Young, born March 12, 1864 in Mays Lick, Kentucky, was the first African American to achieve the rank of colonel in the US Army. His parents were slaves, but his father escaped slavery by fleeing to Ohio and enlisted in the 5th United States Colored Heavy Artillery Regiment near the end of the Civil War.

Charles entered West Point Academy in 1884 and roomed with the only other black cadet, John Hanks Alexander.  As usual, Young experienced brutal hazing incidents and racism throughout his term.  However, he perservered and graduated in 1889, with the rank of second lieutenant,  becoming the third black man to do so.  Alexander had graduated in 1887. Young served mostly with the Buffalo Soldiers,  first assigned to the Tenth US Cavalry Regiment and then the Ninth US Cavalry Regiment in Nebraska.  

During the Spanish-American War, he was temporarily promoted to major of volunteers in May 1898. He was mustered out of the volunteers in January 1899 and reverted to his rank of first lieutenant.  He was promoted to Captain in the 9th Cavalry Regiment in February 1901. 

By the time of the 1916 Punitive Expedition by the US into Mexico, Young had been promoted to major.  Because of his exceptional leadership of the 10th Cavalry in Mexico he was promoted to lieutenant colonel in July 1916.  In 1917, he was promoted to colonel, the first African American to achieve this rank.

Just before the beginning fo WWI, a white lieutenant did not want to be outranked by a black man and complained to the Secretary of War Newton Baker, who refused to transfer him.  President Woodrow Wilson overturned Baker's decision and transferred the lieutenant. Baker realized that if Young was allowed to fight in Europe, he would be eligible for promotion to brigadier general. That meant he would be commanding white officers, so the War Department placed him on the inactive list due to "high blood pressure".  

In November 1918, Young traveled from Wilberforce, Ohio to Washington DC on horseback to prove his physical fitness and was reinstated to active duty as a colonel.  In 1919, he was assigned as military attache to Liberia.

During a reconnaissance mission in Nigeria in late 1921, Young was taken ill and died of a kidney infection in January 8, 1922.  He was the fourth soldier to receive a funeral in Arlington Memorial Ampitheater.

In February 2020, Young was posthumously promoted to honorary brigadier general in Kentucky by then Governor Andy Beshear. 

Brief history of Col. Charles Young

Celebrating Black History Month: Buffalo Soldiers, first all-black Army regiment

 The Buffalo Soldiers were the first all-black Army regiment established by US Congress in 1866.  During the Civil War, the government formed regiments known as the United States Colored Troops, but they were disbanded in 1865.  The Buffalo Soldiers first participated in wars against the Native Americans, escorting US mail, and bulding roads in the southwestern area and Great Plains regions.  

They participated in two of the largest range wars, battles in the American Old West fought between large cattle rangers against smaller ranchers and farmers who competed for land, water, and livestock. 

Buffalo Soldiers participated in WWI and WWII, but in 1948, President Truman desegrated the US army.  The Buffalo Soldiers were disbanded on December 12, 1951. 

Over its history, more than two dozen soldiers received the Medal of Honor for their service.

Buffalo Soldiers brief history

Celebrating Black History Month: Harriet Pickens and Frances Wills, first African American women commissioned in the US Navy

 

Harriet Ida Pickens, born March 17, 1909 in Talladega, Alabama, and Frances Wills, born July 12, 1910 in Philadelphia, Pennyslvania, were the first two African American female officers to be commissioned by the US Navy.

The WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) was established in 1942 during WWII, and many African American women wanted to enlist.  Then-Secretary of the US Navy Frank Knox refused their admission, following his death in April 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt authorized their inclusion in the WAVES.  Pickens and Wills were the first African American women chosen as recruits. They were enlisted on November 13, 1944.

Pickens passed away in 1969 in New York City after a stroke.  Wills died in January 1998 in New York City. 

Harriet Pickens and Frances Wills

Peter Tork of the Monkees born 1942

 

Peter Tork, born Peter Halsten Thorkelsen February 13, 1942 in Washington, DC, rose to fame as a member of The Monkees, a television show that aired in the 1960s. He began piano lessons at nine and learned to play banjo and guitar.  Tork joined the folk music scene in Greenwich Village.

Tork was cast in The Monkees with Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz and Michael Nesmith.  He left the show in 1969 and began a solo career.  He appeared on numerous television shows and movies into the 2010s.

He passed away in February 2019 from cancer.

Milkshake by Peter Tork

Celebrating Black History Month: Nancy Leftenant-Colon, first African American in US Army Nurse Corps

 Nancy Leftenant, born September 29, 1920 in Goose Creek, South Carolina, became the first African American in the regular US Army Nurse Corps in March 1948. She trained at the Lincoln School for Nurses in the Bronx and joined the US Army Nurse Corps in 1945 as a second lieutenant.

In 1946, she was promoted and assigned to the 332nd Station Medical Group on Lockbourne Army Air Base in Ohio.  Leftenant-Colon became a flight nurse in the US Air Force and served in Korea and Vietnam. 

She was promoted to major and retired from the military and her post as Chief McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey.  She passed away in January 9, 2025 at 104 years old.

Nancy Leftenant-Colon at 102

Celebrating Black History Month: James H. Conyers, first African American admitted to the US Naval Academy

James Henry Conyers, born October 24, 1855 in South Carolina, was the first African American admitted to the US Naval Academy.  He was nominated by South Carolina congress Robert B. Elliott, also an African American.  After completing his exams, he was sworn in September 24, 1872 as a cadet-midshipman.  

Life at the academy was particularly harsh and Conyers was the target of brutal hazing, being spit on, and physically attacked.  In one incident, his fellow midshipmen tried to drown him. Nine cadets were dismissed from the academy after one brutal attack, but Conyers resigned in October 1873.

He returned to South Carolina and lived a quiet life until he passed November 29, 1935.  

James H. Conyers 

Celebrating Black History Month: Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., first African American brigadier general in US Air Force

 

Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., born December 18, 1912 in Washington, DC, was the first African American brigadier general in the US Air Force.  His father was Benjamin O. Davism, Sr., the first African American brigadier general in the US Army.  

He entered the US Military Academy at West Point, graduating in 1936, become the first black man to do so since 1889.The US Army assigned him to the all-black 24th Infantry Regiment at Fort Benning, Georgia. He then taught military tactics at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.  In 1941, he entered aviation cadet training and graduated in 1942, becoming one of four first African American combat pilots in the US military.  

In September 1943, Davis was assigned to command the 332nd Fighter Group, and went overseas.  During WWII, the airmen he commanded flew more than 15,000 sorties, shot down 112 enemy planes, and damaged or destroyed 273 planes on the ground, losing only 66 of their own planes and 25 bombers.  Davis received a Silver Star for a strafing run into Austria and the Distinguished Flying Cross for a bomber-escort mission to Munich June 9, 1944. At the end of the war he had been promoted to colonel. 

When President Truman ordered the racial integration of the armed forces, Col. Davis helped draft the Air Force plan for implementing this order. He returned to combat when he assumed command of the 51st Figher-Interceptor Wing in Korea in 1953. 

He was promoted to major general in 1959 and brigadier general in 1960. He retired from the Air Force in 1970. 

President Clinton promoted Davis to four-star general in 1998.  

He passed away in July 2002.

Benjamin Davis Jr. interview

"The Ritual" premieres 2018

 

The Ritual, a British horror film released in October 2017, premiered on Netflix, February 9, 2018.  It stars Robert James-Collier from Downton Abby fame.  The movie follows four friends who travel to the Swedish countryside to perform a ritual, in memory of their friend, murdered during a store robbery.  When one of the group twists his ankle, they decide to take a short cut through a dark forest to their destination.  They soon realize they are being stalked by a supernatural being.

I really enjoyed this movie.  It has a creepy Blair Witch vibe to it when the friends try to find shelter at night in the dark forest during torrential rain.  I admit the film lost some of its horror when the monster is finally revealed, but it's still an exciting, scary movie.

https://youtu.be/Vfugwq2uoa0?si=vnD4VgQnWV7K1SEG

Celebrating Black History Month: Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., first African American to promoted to brigadier general

Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., born July 1, 1877 in Washington, DC, became the first African American to be promoted to brigadier general in the US Army.  He graduated from Howard University in 1898, and joined the 8th volunteer Infantry for the Spanish-American War, receiving a commission as a first lieutenant.

He joined the regular army as a private and then became a on-commissioned officer.  In 1901, he was appointed second lieutenant of Cavalry.  He served in the Philippine-American War and Wrold War I.  Despite racism and being passed over for promotions, he was promoted to Colonel in 1930.

Davis's accomplishments led him to be promoted to brigadier general and commanded the 4th Cavalry Brigade, 2nd Cavalry Division.  He retired in 1948 and passed away in November 1970.

Celebrating Black History Month: James W. Mitchell, African-American chemist

James W. Mitchell, born November 16, 1943 in Durham, North Carolina, is a analytical chemist and materials engineer.  He has made significant contributions to trace element analysis.  He earned his BS in chemistry from North Carolina A&T State University in 1965. He received his PhD in analytical chemistry from Iowa State University in 1970.

He attained the position of Head of the Analytical Chemistry Research Department in 1975 at AT&T Bell Laboratories and became one of the founders for the Association of Black Laboratory Employees. He was the first black director and vice-president of research at AT&T.

Mitchell co-wrote a book Contamination Control in Trace Analysis and published over 60 scientific papers and patented several processes.  

He received the Percy L. Julian Research Award and the Pharmacia Industrial Analytical Chemistry Award. In 1993 he was named Black Engineer of the Year by US Black Engineer.  In 1999, he received the Lifetime Achievement in Industry Award from the National Society of Black Engineers.