Original caption: βarriving in Australia, the first Negro nurses to reach these shores try bicycle riding near their quarters in Camp Columbia, Wacol, Brisbane.β 2nd Lts: L-R: Beulah Baldwin, Alberta Smith, and Joan Hamilton. 11/29/1943. NARA IDΒ 178140880.
βFirst Negro WAVES to enter the Hospital Corps School at Nat'l Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, MD.β L-R Ruth C. Isaacs, Katherine Horton and Inez Patterson. 3/2/1945. NARA IDΒ 520634.
BLACK (military) NURSES ROCK!
By Miriam Kleiman, Public Affairs
For National Nurses Day we highlight Black nurses who served with courage and distinction in WWII. βIn the European Theaterβ¦ are the first units of Negro nurses and WACS to go overseasβ¦ They are described by their Commanding Officer as being the equals of any nurses in the areaβ¦ββTruman Gibson, Jr, chief adviser on racial affairs to Secretary of War Henry Stimson
Statement by Truman Gibson, Jr., Aide on Negro Affairs to Secretary of War Stimson, 4/9/1945. NARA IDΒ 40019813Β (full doc below). Gibson was the 1st Black awarded the Presidential Medal of Merit, for advocating for black soldiers during WWII.
Capt. Della H. Raney, Army Nurse Corps, head of nursing at hospital at Camp Beale, CA, βhas the distinction of being the first Negro nurse to report to duty in the present warβ¦β NARA IDΒ 535942.
βAmerican Negro nurses, commissioned second lieutenants in the U.S. Army Nurses Corps, limber up their muscles in an early-morning workout during an advanced training course at a camp in Australia. The nurses will be assigned to Allied hospitals in the southwest Pacific theater.β 2/1944. NARA IDΒ 535782.
Commissioning ceremony: Phyllis Dailey, 2nd from right, became the 1st Black nurse in the Navy Nursing Corps 3/8/1945.Β NAID 520618.
See also:
We honor WW2βs #InvisibleWarriors! Black Women in WWII
Pictorial History of Black Women in the US Navy during World War II and Beyond, by Dr. Tina Ligon, Rediscovering Black History.
The Closed Door of Justice: African American Nurses and the Fight for Naval Service,Β by Alicia Henneberry, The Text Message.
Black Female WWII Unit Gets (Congressional)Β GOLD! WWIIβs 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion
Their War Too: US Women in the Military During WWII,Β The Text Message
Pictures of African Americans During World War II
African American Women in the Military During WWII
African American Activities in Industry, Government, and the Armed Forces, 1941-1945).
African Americans and the War Industry by Alexis Hill, The Unwritten RecordΒ blog
I too, am Rosie by Dr. Tina Ligon, Rediscovering Black History
Womenβs History MonthΒ andΒ African American HistoryΒ National Archives NewsΒ special topics pages.
Mary McLeod Bethune to Return to Capitol Hill
