February 18, 2004
_____ W B lack H istory M onth W
s p e c ia l
Page A5
coverage .
African-American Women War Heroes
Many earned
status as nurses
and help deliver it to the Union there were not enough qualified
Army.
male nurses to handle the injuries
The espionage was often sent from the war.
inside o f eggshells or sewn in
The first class o f 32 black nurs
Editor's note: The following is side of fabric material for women ’ s ing school graduates were re
part o f a continuing Black His clothing. Bowser never tipped cruited and trained at Freedm an’s
tory Month series on African her hand. She bravely kept her H ospital in W ashington, D.C.
Americans serving in the U.S. secret throughout her time with Their service in the war and other
military.
Davis, who along with his friends. parts o f the country were so im
by R on W eber
pressive that bills were sent
T he P ortland O bserver
to C ongress, allow ing for a
W h ile m an y A fric a n -
perm anent nursing corps in
American women filled sup
the army.
port roles vital to the U.S.
As world unrest signaled
m ilitary in tim es o f war, oth
the upcom ing W orld W ar I,
ers wanted to fight on the
The Red Cross began a full
front lines.
drive for women nurses. In
For example, brave women
1909, The National A sso
such as H arriet T ubm an
ciation o f Colored Graduate
served as a nurse, scout and
Nurses was founded.
spy for the Union Army dur
But when A m erica de
ing the Civil War.
clared war against Germany
Tubm an’s incredible jo u r
in 1917, the Red Cross and
Harriet Tubman d e m o n stra te d bravery
ney up the Com bahee River
A
rm y re je c te d A fric a n -
a s a Union Army nurse, sc o u t and sp y
in South Carolina, saw her as
A
m erica w om en nurses.
during th e Civil War.
the first woman o f any race
Shocked and disappointed,
to lead U.S. m ilitary troops on a thought o f her only as a harm less thousands o f w ould-be-nurses
mission. Tubman guided soldiers mentally ill woman.
were left on the sidelines.
up the river where they destroyed
Like H arriet Tubm an and oth
In D ecem ber 1918, the Army
Confederate w arehouses full of ers, black women took positions Nurse Corps, upon accepting a
am m unitionandothervital South as nurses or com m on m ilitary la mere 18 black women nurses, sent
ern m ilitary supplies.
borers in the Civil War. Although them throughout the country to
On the way backdown the river, Tubman is certainly the most fa
battle an international epidem ic
sh e c a lle d to sla v e s on the mous black nurse during that era.
of influenza. The ‘‘experiment with
riverbanks, freeing them from
black nurses,” as it was called,
their plantations and cruel m as
was a huge success. The women
ters. When the boats became too
were
noted as highly com petent
Mary Eliza
full, hundreds more grabbed hold
professionals.
M ahoney
o f the sides. W itnesses said the
W orld W ar II would see a ma
w as the
people, all hanging on to each
jo
r
shift in the role o f African-
first black
other in the water, looked like a
American
women.
wom an
necklace o f people.
President
R oosevelt signed
trained a s
One o f the bravest stories of
Public
Law
#554
which allowed
a n u rse in
an A frican-A m erican women in
the
creation
o
f
the W om en’s
th e U.S.
the Civil W ar was that o f Mary
Army
A
uxiliary
Corps
o f which
Army.
Elizabeth Bowser.
10 percent w ould be A frican
Bowser was able to obtain a
American. The Navy did not al
position as a maid in a C onfeder
low any black women into the
ate home and play up her lack of the first black woman to actually
W AVES until 1945, near the end
education, appearing somewhat go through formal training to be o f the war.
retard ed . W ith the ab ility to come a nurse was Miss Mary Eliza
A very interesting fact involv
memorize large amounts o f infor M ahoney.
ing black women in the Army
mation at one time, Bow ser lis
M ahoney graduated from the Corps was their sporadic place
tened to high level confederate New England Hospital for Women
ment in a few locations through
talks and read m ilitary papers on and Children in 1879.
out the continental United States
Jefferson D avis’s desk. At night
At the time, most m ilitary doc where their presence was gener
she would repeat the inform ation tors preferred male nurses. H ow
ally not accepted. But the dis
to a well known Union sym pa ever, during the Spanish-A m eri
crim ination w asn’t prevalent in
thizer who would write it down can war, it was clearly evident
Europe where A frican-A m erican
women were requested through
out the European Theater o f O p
eration. More than 800 o f the
women were sent to Europe un
der the com m and o f M ajor C har
ity Adam s, a highly successful
black woman officer.
Though isolated in some Euro
pean areas and feeling the preju
dice o f white m ilitary personnel,
the women were well received by
black soldiers and Europeans.
Under ongoing pressure from
continued
yf
on page A6
African-American n u rse s in th e U.S. Army during World War II
were well received in Europe.
atch a (¡ame o f high
C
school hoops o r call
the plays yourself at
the chess board. Attend a
A SS I ST K I) L I V I N G
will) the
ro
0 acmi ton
nearby concert o r make your
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(503) 546-9292
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