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.
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