Double Victory (10 page)

Mary made it her job to make sure white America did not overlook black America. Her parents and some of her siblings had been slaves. Mary grew up in South Carolina and attended schools there. When she graduated from college she enrolled in a Bible college planning to become a missionary in Africa. She was surprised and disappointed when her application was denied—the mission did not accept black applicants. She turned to teaching and eventually started her own school in Florida. The school, which started as an elementary school for black girls, expanded into a high school and college. It became Bethune-Cookman College. Mary Bethune believed that education was a key to racial equality.

Mary became president of a black women's group, the National Association of Colored Women (NACW). When Mary became dissatisfied with the organization, she started her own group, the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW). Through this organization black women had a voice in Washington.

During the war years, the NCNW sponsored Hold Your Job clinics. These weeklong events were held across the country in areas where large numbers of black women worked in war jobs. It was assumed that black women would probably be fired when white soldiers returned from the war. The Hold Your Job clinics were designed to help black women make themselves valuable to their employers so that when the men returned—it was hoped—the black women might keep their jobs. At the clinics women learned to be “particular about their dress” at work. They were offered courses on “behavior and attitude on the job and in public places.” The women were encouraged to take any training available and to join labor unions.

Mary McLeod Bethune was the force behind the admission of black women into the newly formed Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) in 1941. When Congress voted to establish the WAAC, the plan called for an all-white organization. Mary Bethune convinced officials to admit black women, and she helped recruit black women for the first class of officer candidates.

Mary McLeod Bethune (left) inspected the Women's Army Corps (WAC) training center in Fort Des Moines, Iowa, where she shared a meal with WAC captain Dovey Johnson (right).
National Park Service; Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site; National Archives for Black Women's History. Official US Army photo from Office of War Information

Mary became the leader of a group of black leaders who were known as the Black Cabinet in the Roosevelt administration. The official name of the group was the Federal Council on Negro Affairs. It was made up of influential black men and women who studied black issues and problems and made recommendations to government officials. Because of Mary's reputation, she was able to get officials to take action on some of the causes the
Black Cabinet championed. Mary became known as one of the most influential women in the Roosevelt administration.

“Nice Little Girls Teach”

“I was brought up in a family where politics was a daily evening mealtime discussion. But my parents were always keen to admonish, ‘nice little girls are not interested in politics and labor unions, they teach.'”

Fortunately, Thomasina “Tommie” Walker Johnson disobeyed her parents. She grew up to become the “first full-time Negro lobbyist in America”—a job that required her to be interested in politics
and
labor unions.

At first, however, Thomasina
did
take her parents' advice—she became a teacher. But when she encountered racism while she was looking for work in Boston, Massachusetts, she got angry and decided she would do something about discrimination in America. This led her to a job as a lobbyist in the US Congress.

The National Non-Partisan Council on Public Affairs was a division of a national black women's sorority called Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA). The AKA was started in 1908 and had taken on numerous causes to improve the lives of black people—providing healthcare clinics, education assistance, and community betterment projects. One of the women who had started the sorority, Norma E. Boyd, decided to form a division of the sorority that would lobby for black causes in Congress. That's when Thomasina became the first full-time lobbyist representing black interests in Washington, DC.

Walking the halls of Congress dressed in a pastel business suit with a sprig of pink roses pinned to her jacket, Thomasina could “drive a hard bargain where it counts most for Negro
people.” She led the fight for antidiscrimination in many bills that were brought to votes in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. One was the National Nurse Training Act, which provided for the training of black nurses, and the admittance of black nurse trainees at over 30 hospitals that had not allowed black nurses. Another was an antidiscrimination clause in the bill to draft nurses in wartime.

One of the toughest fights came in the struggle to have black women accepted by the US Navy. When the navy finally agreed to admit black women in May 1945, the plan was riddled with discriminatory provisions. Thomasina helped lead the opposition against the navy's original plan to ban black women from being officers. She also opposed the segregated training schools. Thomasina's fight to eliminate these injustices led the navy to form a committee of black women leaders to iron out a solution. In the end, when black women were admitted to the navy, they were allowed as officers as well as enlistees, and they served in integrated units.

Fighting for Nurses in the Military

Does a wounded or dying soldier care about the skin color of the nurse caring for him? In the 1940s some people felt he would. Most nurses were female in those days. And white nurses cared for white soldiers. Black nurses cared for black soldiers.

When the major general of the US Army told Mabel Staupers he would allow black nurses to serve only black soldiers it was discouraging. But things had been worse before the United States went to war. Although a very small number of black nurses had been allowed to serve during World War I, they were not allowed to remain in the corps after the war. Because Mabel and many others protested that policy, the Army Nurse Corps
changed its policy—allowing black nurses in segregated units under a quota system beginning in 1941. The US Navy, however, refused to allow black women in their nurse corps.

Mabel was determined to bring about change for black nurses. And she believed this was a good time to do it. With the nation's leaders talking about the need for thousands of nurses to care for wounded and dying soldiers, it made sense that a quota system for black nurses should be abandoned. But Mabel had a tough fight ahead of her.

The policy of the US Army in regard to black nurses was very clear in 1941: “Negro nurses and other Negro professional personnel would only be called to service in hospitals and wards devoted exclusively to the treatment of Negro soldiers.”

Mabel Staupers met with army officials to persuade them to lift the limits on the number of black nurses accepted in the army. The army wouldn't budge. Officials said the army would not “place white soldiers in the position where they would have to accept service from Negro professionals.”

Mabel was a resolute and determined activist to prove that black nurses could provide care equal to that of their white counterparts. She was the leader of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN), a group that fought for the rights of black nurses. It was similar to the American Association of Nurses (ANA), another group that fought for the rights of nurses—but that organization was only open to white women.

Mabel led the NACGN for years, and she didn't give in when it came to fighting for equality for black nurses. She wanted a few simple things. She wanted black nurses and white nurses to be able to attend nursing schools together. She wanted black and white nurses to work together in hospitals. She wanted the armed forces to be integrated. And, although nurses in the armed forces might not be safe from the enemy in a war zone,
Mabel wanted to know her nurses would be safe with their fellow Americans. Because of the racism and discrimination that existed in the nursing profession and the armed forces, Mabel knew none of those things would be simple to attain. But what better time to fight for these basic civil rights? The nation was at war and needed every medical professional available.

Many hospitals around the country operated nursing schools where women could learn how to become skilled nurses. Few accepted black women, and some accepted only a few black applicants each year, so black hospitals established nursing schools where black nurses could get an education.

Norma Green was a black army nurse stationed at the Tuskegee Veterans Administration Hospital at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama in October 1942. She had volunteered for service overseas and was preparing to ship out. In preparation for her departure, Norma took a bus to Montgomery, Alabama, to do some shopping. But, when she tried to board a bus for her return trip, she said, the driver tried to stop her. There were only whites on the bus. When Norma refused to leave the bus, a policeman was summoned. Norma said he threw her into a patrol wagon and four other officers beat her, blackening her eyes and breaking her nose. The officers stole her money and planted a bottle of whiskey in her bag after dousing her with most of the contents. She was taken to the police station, where she was booked for disorderly conduct. When the police learned that Norma was an army nurse, they released her.

When Mabel Staupers learned of Norma's experience, she sent a letter to the secretary of war. She demanded that all nurses be provided protection. She wrote, “It becomes increasingly difficult for the association [the NACGN] to urge young women to enroll in the Army Nurses Corps unless guarantees are assured.”

Early in 1943, Mabel spoke at a conference in Chicago called Negro Nurses in the War. The event was attended by nurses from around the country. A statement was issued by the black nurses: “We believe Negro nurses should be integrated into army hospitals in those sections of the country where these nurses are now accepted by white physicians and staff. We further believe that the morale of the Negro nurse and her whole attitude toward the war program would be strengthened by this action.”

As the war wore on, the need for nurses to care for the wounded soldiers in the United States and on the battlefront increased. The military said there was a shortage of qualified nurses and that it needed 10,000 more. So Congress decided to draft nurses for duty—similar to the way it drafted men for the armed forces.

This idea made black nurses furious. Why
draft
nurses when there were hundreds of black nurses who were willing and qualified to
enlist
for work in military hospitals? They were ready to go, but the military insisted on keeping the number of black nurses low. In fact, there were fewer than 200 black nurses in the military in 1943 compared to about 20,000 white nurses. And the military still insisted that black nurses care only for black soldiers.

Jane Edna Hunter, the head of the Ohio State Federation of Colored Women's Clubs, joined with Mabel Staupers to oppose the draft. “Allow all black nurses to enlist, and the draft won't be necessary,” they said. “If nurses are needed so desperately, why isn't the Army using colored nurses?”

Another question asked by activists was “Why are black nurses treated with less respect than prisoners of war?” This question came after it was learned that black nurses who worked in a US military camp for German prisoners of war in
Florence, Arizona, were forced to eat in a segregated dining room. The order for this had come from the army major who oversaw the camp. The first day the order was to take effect the nurses decided to ignore it and sat where they had always sat—with the white personnel. The major called the chief nurse and told her that the segregated arrangement had been implemented because he had ordered it. He reminded the nurses that they were in the army and had sworn to obey orders from their superior officers.

The NAACP sent a letter to the US War Department explaining how the nurses felt: “They feel especially humiliated and degraded because, even though in the uniform of the United States Army, they were set apart under the very noses of German war prisoners who serve as cooks and waiters in the hospital officers' mess.”

It seemed especially unfair that while the country was engaged in a world war to preserve democracy, black citizens faced discrimination at a US government military installation. Enemy prisoners of war were granted freedoms that some Americans—including black nurses—could not enjoy—just because they were black.

Success!

After fighting for the rights of black nurses in the military for years, Mabel Staupers finally saw results. In January 1945 the Army Nurse Corps lifted its quota on black women. A few months later the US Navy accepted black nurses into its nurse corps. These were encouraging moves for black women. But by the time these changes were made, the war was almost over.

In March 1945, Phyllis Mae Dailey from New York City became the first black woman admitted to the navy. She was 25
years old and had applied several times to the Navy Nurse Corps. She had always received the reply that the navy did not accept Negroes. But Phyllis was determined, and she kept trying. “I knew the barriers were going to be broken down eventually,” Phyllis said. She was a member of the NACGN and believed the activism of Mabel Staupers led to her acceptance. “I think the NACGN has been largely instrumental in opening the doors of the navy to us,” she said. By the middle of May, Helen Turner and Eula Loucille Stimley were also sworn in as navy nurses. The doors had been opened, and there were more women ready to pass through them.