History of Black Women in the Military

American women have participated in both war and peacetime. Yet their contributions have gone unrecognized and unrewarded. While women in the U.S Armed Forces share a history of discrimination based on gender, Black women have faced both race and gender discrimination. Throughout the Civil War, Black women's services included nursing or domestic chores in medical settings, launderings and cooking for soldiers. The Union Army paid Black women to raise cotton on plantations for the Northern government to sell.

During World War I, trained Black nurses enrolled in the American Red Cross hoping to gain entry into the Army or Navy Nurse Corps. Since public pressure increased to enlist Black women, shortly after the Armistice, eighteen Black American Red Cross nurses were offered Army Nurse Corps assignments. Ager the war, the Army Medical Corps, questioned opening the Corps to colored nurses because of the arrangements needed in various regions of the U.S, and the difficulty, if not impossibility, of arranging proper quarters and messing facilities for them: consequently, making their employment impractical in time of peace. In 1941, the Army opened it's Nurse Corps to Blacks, but established a ceiling of fifty six. President Truman created the Fair Employment Practices Commision Act to eradicate racial discrmination in the defense program. By 1943, an amendment of the Nurse Training Bill to bar racial bias was passed, and 2000 Blacks were enrolled in the Cadet Nurse Corps. Hence, in 1944, the quota for Black Army Nurses was eliminated. When the Navy dropped it's color ban in 1945, Phylllis Daley became the first black commisioned Navy officer. Black women also enlisted in the Women's Auxillary Corps, (WAAC), which was later converted to the Women's Army Corps, (WAC), the Navy Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services, (WAVES), and the Coast Guard Semper Paratus, (SPARS). Though the Army was integrated, Black military women serve in segregated units, participated in segregated training, lived in separate quarters, ate at separate tables in the mess halls and used segregated recreations facilities. Black military female officers received their cadet training in integrated units, but lived under segregated conditions. Training schools were integrated in 1943. Blacks were barred from becoming WAVES until 1944 due to the efforts of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune and Director Mildred McAfee along with the Secretary of the Navy Forestall. The first two Black WAVE officers were Ida Pickens and Frances Wills. Of the 80,000 WAVES in the war, a total of 72 Black women served under integrated conditions, and there were only a few Black enlisted women in the Coast Guard. 

Following World War II, racial and gender discrimination, as well as segregation persisted in the military. Entry quotas and segregation deterred many for reentry. By 1948, only four black officers and 121 enlisted women remained in the WACs. President Truman signed an order in 1948 which eliminated segregation. Continuing on the path of full integration, affirmative action and changing racial policies opened new doors to Black women. During the Korean and Vietnam Wars, Black women took their place in the war zone. In 1989, Charity Adams Earley, Commander, 6888th Postal Directory Battalion, summarized Black women in the Armed Forces as follows:

The future of women in the military seems assured. What may be lost in time is the story of how it happened. The barriers of se and race were and sometimes still are, very difficult to overcome, the second even more than the first. Women in the service were often subject to ridicule and disrespect, even as they performed satisfactorily.  Each year the number of people who shared the stress of these accomplishments' lessens. In another generation, young Black women join the military and will have scant records of their predecessors who fought on the two fronts of discrimination: segregation and reluctant acceptance by males."

Black military women have made significant progress in serving this nation and today. Black women represent 15% of the Armed Forces, active and reserves.