[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 30 (Thursday, March 4, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E306-E307]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  SALUTING AFRICAN AMERICAN SERVICEWOMEN OF THE KOREAN WAR ERA ON THE 
OCCASION OF THE 369TH HISTORICAL SOCIETY'S ANNUAL WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH 
                           AWARDS CELEBRATION

                                  _____
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 4, 2010

  Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, I rise today to salute and honor African 
American servicewomen who served their Nation with distinction and 
great courage as the 369th Historical Society pays tribute to women in 
the military in celebration of their Annual Women's History Month 
Awards Dinner Dance taking place at the elegant Eastwood Manor in the 
Bronx, New York.
  This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Korean War, in which I 
served in the United States Army. In recognition of the 369th 
Historical Society's salute to women in the military this month, I 
would also like to pay special tribute to all of the no longer 
forgotten heroes, African American Servicewomen who served our Nation 
valiantly during the Korean War Era, and during a time when the 
military was ordered to desegregate.
  On July 28, 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 
9981 mandating equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in 
the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national 
origin, initiating an end to segregation in the Armed Forces and in the 
military. African American servicewomen, because of their small 
numbers, were often the first and, sometimes, the only to train, 
command, work and live in desegregated settings.
  Women like Army Nurse Captain Eleanor Yorke, Private Sarah Keys, 
Dovey Johnson Roundtree, Mary Teague Smith, Helen Gentry, Freddie Mae 
Hopson, Annie Graham and Ann Lamb not only served in the Army, Navy, 
Air Force and Marines, but they were major factors and contributors in 
bringing down and wiping out Jim Crow in the United States military.
  In 1952, Army Nurse Captain Eleanor Yorke was the only female 
passenger among 4,200 men sailing on military transport from the Far 
East to San Francisco. Captain Yorke had spent more than two years in 
Japan and eight more months in Korea treating war wounded. On the 13-
day trip home, her fellow passengers treated Captain Yorke like a 
queen. Besides being the only woman aboard military transport, Captain 
Yorke was one of only about 600 women, only a few of whom were African 
American, stationed in Korea during the entire three years of the 
Korean War.
  ``It was a terrible eight months, but I was too busy to be scared. We 
received the wounded 20 to 45 minutes after they were hit, treated them 
on the spot and than shipped them to the rear depending on how badly 
they were wounded. They came by helicopter and ambulance. The 
helicopters flew continuously from dawn to dusk and the ambulances 
rolled on constantly. It got pretty rough at times, working under 
artillery bombardment, and many times, I was rocked to sleep in my army 
cot from the reverberations.'' Captain Eleanor Yorke, Army Nurse Corps, 
speaking to a reporter from the Baltimore Afro American in May 1952.
  Also in 1952, two African American military women challenged 
segregation law to end Jim Crow policies on interstate transportation. 
Private Sarah Keys was on leave, travelling in uniform on a bus from 
New Jersey home to North Carolina. When the bus reached Roanoke Rapids, 
North Carolina after midnight, there was a change of drivers. The new 
bus driver requested that Private Keys, seated toward the front of the 
bus, exchange seats with a white Marine, also in uniform, seated near 
the back of the bus. Keys refused. She was arrested, detained overnight 
in jail, and fined $25.00. Convicted of disorderly conduct, Keys began 
a legal battle against discrimination and prejudice.
  Dovey Johnson Roundtree, a former WAC officer and then an attorney in 
Washington, DC, agreed to take the Keys case. In 1942, Roundtree had 
volunteered for the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) at the advice 
of her mentor, Mary McLeod Bethune. Bethune had worked for years to 
desegregate the military, both men's and women's services, and actively 
recruited qualified African American candidates. Roundtree became one 
of 36 African American women to graduate in the Army's first class of 
commissioned officers. After World War II, she attended Howard 
University Law School on the GI Bill, becoming one of the school's 
first female law students.
  Dovey Johnson Roundtree and her partner Julius Robertson initially 
filed suit for Keys in

[[Page E307]]

the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in October 1952, 
but the court decided the suit was out of their jurisdiction and 
refused to hear the case. Roundtree then filed suit with the Interstate 
Commerce Commission (ICC). The suit, Keys v. North Carolina Coach 
Company, stated that Keys had experienced unjust discrimination, undue 
and unreasonable prejudice, and false arrest and imprisonment on the 
basis of race and color. In 1955, an eleven-man ICC commission agreed 
with Keys and Roundtree and reversed the separate-but-equal Jim Crow 
policy in force on all interstate transportation since 1877. A few 
months later in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to give up her 
seat on a city bus, and a 381-day boycott ensued. The Supreme Court 
subsequently ruled that state and local segregation laws for public 
transportation were unconstitutional.
  In Fort Lewis, Washington, Mary Teague Smith, the Detachment 
Commander of a predominately African American WAC Unit noticed that 
women in her unit were promoted more slowly than white women in other 
units. Commander Smith complaints went up the chain of command without 
results, and by 1952, she was reassigned to Japan. Desegregation 
efforts usually meant placing African Americans into white military 
units. White women assigned to the detachment complained because they 
were in the minority; the Secretary of the Army informed a 
congressional committee on the armed services of intentions to reassign 
personnel so that African American women would comprise only 20 percent 
of the unit. The detachment at Fort Lewis, Washington was an exception. 
It remained predominantly black throughout the Korean War.
  Helen Gentry remembered the transition of the Air Force from 
segregation to desegregation.
  ``I experienced the termination of the Air Force segregated by race 
when our base unit was integrated in 1949-50. As an Intelligence 
Specialist I was assigned to a Fighter Wing headquarters at McChord Air 
Force Base, Washington. My top secret clearance attuned me to world 
wide events long before public revelation, events such as our extensive 
spy plane flights over the Soviet Union.''
  In 1949, the first flight of African American Women in the Air Force 
(WAFs) graduated from an eleven-week basic training course at Lackland 
Air Force Base, Texas. These 17 women from 11 states were a small group 
compared to the 330 trainee strength of white flights, but on 
graduation day, they came in third in the first ``All Basic Training 
Parade,'' competing against over 10,000 men. In 1949, the Air Force 
officially mandated desegregation and the service disbanded Jim Crow 
units.
  In the United States Navy, African American servicewoman served in 
desegregated units. Freddie Mae Hopson enlisted in the Navy in early 
1952. In 1953, she received an assignment to Hawaii as the assistant to 
the Foreign Liaison Office of the Port Control Office at Navy 
Headquarters where she once served as hostess for a USO dance for 
soldiers returning from Korea. ``There were 3000 men and 1000 females . 
. . the band would play three songs . . . 1000 men would be allowed 
into the hall and at the end of the third song, they would be sent out 
one door and the next 1000 would be let in the front door . . . That 
was indeed an experience.'' Stated Freddie Mae Hopson.
  African American women were not allowed in the U.S. Navy until 1944 
after months of debate to define the service's racial policies. Once 
they were allowed to join, women in the Navy served in desegregated 
assignments, but the numbers were minute. In early 1948, the Navy could 
claim only one African-American woman officer and only six African-
American women among an enlisted force of 1,700. New York's first 
African American Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., charged that the 
status of black women in the Navy proved that the service was 
practicing ``not merely discrimination, segregation and Jim Crowism, 
but total exclusion.'' The Navy worked to improve its public image and 
during the Korean War, announced the achievements of African American 
women through black newspapers.
  In the Marines, African American women had never served in the 
Marines until Annie Graham and Ann Lamb volunteered in 1949. Annie 
Grimes became the third to enlist in 1950 and the first black woman 
officer to retire after a full 20-year career. Segregation shaped many 
of their experiences. Off-base they were not welcome in public places 
with their fellow Marines and on-base, white beauticians would not 
cross the color line to provide standard personal services.
  The American cultural climate of the time relegated most women to 
non-professional, low-paying jobs and promoted a feminine ideal of 
domesticity and maternalism. The armed forces reflected this attitude, 
offering women ``pink collar'' jobs with little room for advancement. 
As the Korean War began, the effects of decades of protest, and 
political and legal activism had made few inroads into racial 
segregation. The inequities of the ``separate-but-equal'' doctrine of 
the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision still shaped public 
policy, race relations and white attitudes in most of America.
  Madam Speaker, African American women who volunteered in the military 
during this period broke through barriers to gender and race in order 
to serve their country and test new policies.
  The 369th Historical Society is an all volunteer non-profit 
organization, chartered by the New York State Board of Regents. 
Established in 1960 to collect, preserve and maintain artifacts, books, 
papers, photographs, film and articles on the history of the 369th 
Regiment, its allies and affiliates, and of African American soldiers 
who served in the Military Service of the United States. The 369th 
Historical Society Museum is housed in the 369th Regimental Armory, 
home of the famous Harlem Hellfighters. The Museum's holdings consist 
of an extensive collection of photographs and artifacts of the 369th 
Soldiers from WWI to the present.
  As we remember and celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Korean War, 
let me thank the President of the 369th Historical Society, Major 
General Nathaniel James, Ret. and all of the officers and staff for 
your annual tribute to women in the military and for preserving the 
history and contributions of African American servicemen and 
servicewomen whom served our nation with distinction, courage and 
honor.

                          ____________________