[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
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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
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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.
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