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: 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