Tulsa Race Riot Survivor and the First African American Woman to Join the Coast Guard

 Tulsa Race Riot Survivor and the First African American Woman to Join the Coast Guard

Olivia Hooker February 12, 1915 – November 21, 2018) was an American psychologist and professor. She was one of the last known survivors of the Tulsa race riots of 1921, and the first African-American woman to enter the U.S. Coast Guard in February 1945.
Olivia Hooker was a 6-year-old in Tulsa, Okla., when a race riot destroyed her community as well as her own home.
In less than 24 hours, mobs of white men destroyed more than 1,000 homes and businesses in the Greenwood District, an affluent African American neighborhood of Tulsa. It's estimated as many as 300 people were killed.

As they wrecked her own home, she and her three siblings quietly hid under a dining room table, careful not to make a sound.

The Tulsa Race Riot is considered one of the worst race riots in American history. Living through it inspired Hooker to fight for civil rights.

▪️ Fight to Join the Military

While at Ohio State University, she and her sorority sisters championed to get the Navy to open its doors to African American women. Hooker applied to the women's branch of the U.S. Navy, also known as the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES), but she was rejected. The Navy began allowing women of color to join in 1944. Even though the ban was lifted, the composition of Navy was slow to change.

She decided to join the Coast Guard a few months after the military branch officially let in African American women. She became a SPAR (Semper Paratus Always Ready), a member of the United States Coast Guard Women's Reserve, during World War II, earning the rank of Yeoman, Second Class during her service.

After World War II ended, she returned to civilian life and went on to earn her doctorate in psychology in 1961. She also helped to found the Tulsa Race Riot Commission, working to ensure that victims of racism and violence are not forgotten.

In 2015, former President Barack Obama recognized Hooker's Coast Guard service and legacy at the 134th Commencement of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Medieval Torture for the unfaithful,

10 REASONS NOT TO DATE AN OLDER WOMAN.

Why Onitsha Has No Omu

The way Geologists determine the difference between Clay/Mud.

HOW THE APOSTLES DIED.

the Chippewa Flowage.

As a WOMAN, once you PLACE your VALUE on MONEY

The Vasa, a heavily armed Swedish warship

THE RISE OF ISLAMISM AND 'ARABISM' IN AFRICA

People called Mary McLeod Bethune "The First Lady of The Struggle.