Double Victory (11 page)

Phyllis Mae Dailey (second from right) was the first black nurse commissioned in the US Navy in March 1945.
National Archives AFRO/AM in WW II List #158

Civilian Nurses Face Discrimination

The US military openly discriminated against black nurses; even when they were finally accepted, they were forced to live and work in segregated situations—black nurses cared only for black soldiers. Black and white nurses were housed separately. Discrimination existed in civilian hospitals too. Tuberculosis is a highly contagious disease that was quite common in the 1940s. Nurses who worked in tuberculosis wards risked contracting the disease. Though many public hospitals refused to hire black nurses at all, some public hospitals hired them only for their tuberculosis wards.

The practice of discrimination in the hiring of nurses came to a head in Philadelphia in 1942 when a group of black citizens decided to speak out against the continued racism they experienced. One of the city's tax-supported hospitals had a shortage of nurses. But the hospital continually refused to hire qualified black applicants according to the citizens who were bringing a lawsuit against the city. The group claimed that the hospital administrator and the director of nursing were intentionally overlooking black nurses for positions at the hospital. They said that in the five years the administrator had been at the hospital not one black woman had been admitted to the nurse training school. And the group accused the director of nursing of discrimination. The group said that after black nurse applicants passed the state test for nursing, the director required them to take additional tests. One black nurse applicant said she took three or four tests in addition to her state exam. When she passed all the tests, the director of nurses told her to come back after she lost 16 pounds. Then she was told she needed to lose an additional 30 pounds. It seemed that the administrator was looking for excuses to avoid hiring black nurses. The
Afro
American
, a black newspaper, reported the following year that the city's hospitals still had not hired any black nurses.

The city hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, was desperate for nurses in 1943. They were so desperate they were looking for creative ways to train and hire nurses. The hospital board came up with an innovative plan to solve their problem. There were thousands of Japanese American women detained in government internment camps in other parts of the country. Why not bring them to Baltimore and put them to work in the hospital? The hospital would train them as nurses and give them a place to live. It seemed like an ideal plan.

It seemed like a very
unfair
plan to black citizens in Baltimore. Why import women from other parts of the country when there were black women living in Baltimore who could be trained as nurses? After all, there were only a handful of black nurses currently working for the hospital—all in the tuberculosis ward. There were many more black women who
wanted
to enter nurse training programs but were prevented from doing so because of the hospital's policy of discrimination against black applicants.

Black leaders explained that they were not opposed to the plan because it called for bringing in Japanese American women—they were opposed to the idea of bringing
any
women to Baltimore to be nurses when there were plenty of local women who could fill the positions. They organized a letter-writing campaign to the city's mayor protesting the plan. The letter writers urged the mayor to use his influence with hospital officials to open the programs to black women. The hospital did abandon its plan to train Japanese American women from the internment camps, but continued to refuse to accept black women into the nurse training program. They explained that
there were no housing facilities available for black women. “But there are housing facilities available for the Japanese American women?” the black leaders asked. Then the hospital administrators explained that patients in the hospital would be more accepting of Japanese American women from the internment camps than of black nurses.

Once again, it appeared that a public hospital—supported by black taxpayers—was discriminating against black nurses. It seemed hospital administrators were inventing flimsy excuses to justify discrimination.

Too Many Questions

Crystal Bird Fauset, Mary McLeod Bethune, Thomasina Walker Johnson, and Mabel Staupers were well-known activists to most black Americans in the war years. Inda DeVerne Lee, on the other hand, was not a name most would recognize. But this black woman made an impression with American servicemen serving in India in 1945 when she protested discrimination on a day that was revered by all Americans as a day to celebrate freedom.

DeVerne Lee was a woman who liked to try on a pair of shoes before buying them. She liked to slip a pretty dress over her head and check out her image in the dressing room mirror before deciding it was the perfect outfit for a special occasion. But DeVerne was a black woman. In some states she couldn't try on a pair of shoes or a dress in a department store. She could purchase the items—but trying them on first wasn't allowed.

DeVerne was always questioning the rules that people of her race were expected to obey in the 1940s. All that questioning didn't go over well in the community where she was a teacher. After a while, her superintendent suggested she find somewhere
else to teach. DeVerne did move from that community and that teaching position, but she never stopped questioning.

After leaving her teaching job, DeVerne joined the Red Cross and volunteered to go overseas in 1945. She ended up in Calcutta, India, working as a staff assistant at the Cosmos, the Red Cross club for black soldiers. Both black and white soldiers came to Calcutta for rest and relaxation. There were three Red Cross clubs—two for white soldiers and one for black soldiers.

The heat in Calcutta (today known as Kolkata) could be unbearable, so the US Army built a beautiful new pool for soldiers and Red Cross workers. Black soldiers and Red Cross workers, however, could enjoy the pool just two days a week and every third Sunday. All other days were reserved for white soldiers and white Red Cross workers.

Shortly after the pool was built, the army decided to hold a big grand opening celebration on July 4. It would be a joint celebration for the pool opening and American Independence Day. That is, a celebration on July
4th
for white soldiers and white Red Cross workers but on July
3rd
for the black soldiers and black Red Cross workers!

The black troops and workers, led by DeVerne, decided to boycott the July 3rd celebration. In other words, the army threw a big party, but no one came. It was an embarrassment to the army and the Red Cross party planners.

Some of the black soldiers were punished for their participation in the boycott. To show their displeasure with the discrimination, DeVerne and some of her coworkers at the Red Cross—Geraldine Smith, Eloise Ligon, Mary Robinson, Bertha Shaw, Willie Lee Johnson, and Alice Johnson—sent a letter to the Red Cross headquarters. They wrote, “July 4th is a day long honored and respected by Negroes as well as other Americans for its significance to democracy and the principles upon which our
government was founded. Such a day's celebration involving Americans anywhere on the face of the globe becomes an insult to whatever minority group is excluded from participation.”

Because of the incident, DeVerne and the other black Red Cross volunteers requested their return to the United States. But it was wartime, and transportation was dependent on the military. Since the women couldn't be sent home immediately, the Red Cross assigned them to other positions until their travel could be arranged. DeVerne was given a position that separated her from the other black women and the black soldiers. The women were on the first ship back to the United States as soon as the war ended a few months later.

The Activists That Never Were

Many black women were actively working to bring about change for black Americans. Activism took many forms—women's clubs, letter-writing campaigns, and political activities. Many black people saw social activism as one way to draw attention to—and eliminate—racism and discrimination. But in the 1940s many white Americans saw this kind of activity as dangerous because it threatened a way of life that they viewed as normal—a way of life that allowed and encouraged discrimination. Those Americans looked for opportunities to portray black activism as a frightening element in American society.

In 1943 a rumor began to circulate among white women who employed black domestics. According to the rumor mill, there was a secret network of black women activists trying to undermine the long tradition of black women working as maids for white women. The current system depended upon the false idea that black women were inferior to their white mistresses, but the (completely fictitious) network was supposedly populated by
black maids who preached social equality and formed clubs to further their cause. And, according to the story, they were instigated by America's First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt. That's why they were known as Eleanor Clubs.

No one knows exactly how the legend started, but by early 1944 many white women who employed black maids believed the rumors—causing alarm among those individuals who saw this as a threat to their way of life. Here's how the network supposedly worked: Black maids formed Eleanor Clubs and pledged loyalty to the First Lady. The maids who joined promised to resign from any job where members of the household spoke unfavorably about Mrs. Roosevelt, whom club members referred to as the Great White Angel or the Great White Mother. The clubs' goal was for all black maids to leave their jobs with white families by Christmas 1943 or January 1944. White women would have to do their own work in the kitchen. The maids' mottos were “Out of the kitchen by Christmas!” and “A white woman in every kitchen by Christmas!”

The rumors were so outrageous that it was surprising anyone believed them. But many did. One story that ran the circuit was that a black maid left during the middle of a meal she was serving because one of the guests had said something she didn't like about Mrs. Roosevelt. And she had been instructed by the Eleanor Club to leave if ever the First Lady was insulted.

Another rumor was that a white woman in South Carolina walked into her dining room one day and saw three places set at the table. She asked her maid if her husband was bringing a guest for lunch. The maid said no. When the woman asked why the extra place was set, the maid replied, “In the Eleanor Club we always sit with the people we work for.”

Another widely circulated rumor described a white Florida woman who drove to the house of her maid when the maid
didn't show up for work. She arrived at the house and blasted her car horn. The maid didn't come out. When she went to the door, she saw the maid lying down. The white woman asked if she was sick, and the maid said she wasn't. When asked why she hadn't come to work, the maid reportedly said because she had been to an Eleanor Club meeting where they had been told to demand higher wages, and the club leader had told the women not to respond to car horns from white women.

Eleanor Roosevelt was a strong supporter of civil rights for black citizens. Many Americans criticized her because of her support of some civil rights causes and her friendships with black women. Her actions at a time when racial discrimination was acceptable made her a target for people who believed in the separation of the races.

Also, many black maids were leaving domestic service to work in war industries, where the salaries were better and they would receive Social Security benefits. This was an unsettling idea to white women who benefited from the current system, which required black women to work as servants for low wages. It meant white households might have to pay more for maid service, and they might have to provide better working conditions. But the most troubling aspect to them was that it meant black women were making demands—believing they were equal to whites. The Eleanor Clubs seemed like a possible reason for the exodus of black maids from the kitchens of America. And the First Lady's habit of speaking out against discrimination and associating with black people appeared to explain black women's bold demands.

The rumors became so widespread that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) took them seriously and conducted an investigation to determine if the clubs existed. It released a statement in January 1943 reporting that their agents had failed
to verify the existence of the Eleanor Clubs. They were activist groups that never existed—except in the minds of people who were eager to encourage racist beliefs that black women were to be feared and that activism of any sort by black Americans should be squelched.

The women who fought for black Americans to join the military, work in war plants, and participate in July 4th celebrations had no interest in secret clubs like the fabled Eleanor Clubs. Activists like E. Pauline Myers, Pauli Murray, Layle Lane, Mabel Staupers, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Thomasina Walker Johnson wanted to call
attention
to discrimination. Like many American women during World War II, they wanted to do their part for their country. But for these black women, who believed racism hurt the war effort as much as any enemy bomb, supporting the war effort meant fighting discrimination both at home and abroad.