This Survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre Became the First Black Woman in the U.S. Coast Guard
Who: Dr. Olivia Hooker, first Black woman in the U.S. Coast Guard, civil rights activist, and one of the last known survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre; February 12, 1915–November 21, 2018
Why She Dazzles: Olivia overcame race and gender barriers and faced adversity to help others throughout her entire life. Her father owned a business in the wealthiest Black neighborhood in the country, known as Black Wall Street, and it was ruined when mobs of white men destroyed the business district and the community. As the New York Times wrote in 2011, the Tulsa massacre “may be the deadliest occurrence of racial violence in United States history.” Olivia and her siblings hid under a table as rioters entered their home and stole their belongings. Fortunately, they weren’t injured, but more than a thousand homes were destroyed and hundreds of people died.
A survivor, Olivia went to college and fought for the right for Black women to serve in the Navy. Her application was rejected multiple times. Olivia persevered and became the first Black woman to serve active duty in the U.S. Coast Guard in 1945. After WWII, she returned to civilian life and became a psychologist and prominent professor who researched and focused on helping people, particularly children, with developmental disabilities. As the only woman, the only Black student, and the oldest in her class, Olivia pioneered the way for women, particularly Black women, to pursue psychology. She became a mentor to students of color through the decades she taught at Fordham University.
Why You Need to Know Her Today: The 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre is in 2021. Olivia raised awareness about the massacre and was a member of the Tulsa Race Riot Commission, which has sought reparations for the thousands affected by the violence and their survivors and worked to ensure they are not forgotten. One of her lifelong goals was achieved a week after her death: acknowledgement that it was not a riot, it was a massacre. The commission changed its name to the Tulsa Race Massacre Commission.
Olivia spoke about how she was traumatized from the horrific event. “It took years for me to get over the shock of seeing people be so horrible to people who had done them no wrong,” she says. Despite her experience, she shared her parents’ advice to her and her siblings in a podcast interview: “Our parents told us, ‘Don’t spend your time agonizing over the past.’ They encouraged us to look forward and think about how you could make things better. I think things can get better. But maybe it won’t be in a hurry.”
What She Would Say—Because She Said It Then: “Love all, trust few, and do right.”
Where She May Like to Instagram: The Coast Guard’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., where they dedicated a wing and a training center in Olivia’s honor. President Obama praised her when he spoke at the United States Coast Guard Academy’s commencement ceremony in 2015, with her sitting in the front row. She was 100 years old. President Obama called her service and life an inspiration and shared her belief that, “It’s not about you, or me. It’s about what we can give to this world.” The quote is permanently displayed on the walls of the training center.
What the Ladies Rocked Then: The U.S. Coast Guard Women's Reserve, also known as SPARS, enlisted women beginning in 1942 although the Coast Guard authorized its recruiting officers to accept Black women for enlistment in the fall of 1944. SPARS received seabags with form-fitting, navy blue uniforms and "transformed a young woman of the 1940s from Miss Smith with casual posture, wearing a fashionable bob and the latest women's clothing styles, into Seaman Smith with her shoulders back, sporting neatly trimmed hair and enormous pride in her uniform." Earrings were not worn with their uniforms.
How You Can Rock It Now: Today's standard Coast Guard uniform, regardless of season or location, is Service Dress Blue or Tropical Blue uniform. Women may only wear small ball studs, natural white pearls, white diamond, plain gold, or sterling silver. They may not wear decorative earrings or colored pearls.
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