{"id":4244,"date":"2017-11-06T09:00:58","date_gmt":"2017-11-06T17:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsincerity.us\/?p=4244"},"modified":"2023-05-22T06:01:31","modified_gmt":"2023-05-22T06:01:31","slug":"first-african-american-women-join-us-navy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/first-african-american-women-join-us-navy\/","title":{"rendered":"First African-American Women to Join US Navy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Before the Civil Rights and Feminist movements of the 1960s were more than a sparkle in anyone&#8217;s eye,&nbsp;Harriet Pickens and Frances Wills joined the US Navy.<\/p>\n<p>Until that moment, Black women were not legally allowed to serve in the Navy.&nbsp;Women, in general, weren&#8217;t technically able to enlist until 1942, when the US Navy established the WAVES program \u2013 Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service \u2013 which allowed temporary assistance during Wolrd War II. In 1944, WAVES began allowing African American women to enlist. Pickens and Wills were the first to join.<\/p>\n<p>The women in service ended up being critical to the war effort \u2013 85,000 of the traffic controllers, cryptologists, hospital corpsmen, draftsmen, lawyers, translators and meteorologists were women. After the war was over, these women stuck around.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4246\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4246\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4246\" src=\"https:\/\/newsincerity.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/harriet3.jpg\" alt=\"Pickens and Wills in US Navy uniform\" width=\"600\" height=\"476\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4246\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pickens and Wills in uniform. Photo source unknown.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Before World War II began, Wills was working as a social worker and Pickens as a public health administrator. They were highly educated and despite joining WAVES late quickly rose to the top of their class. Pickens and Wills were in charge of &#8220;recruiting new members, in caring for wounded soldiers, and in participating in physical training,&#8221; wrote archivist Tina L. Ligon. Pickens went on to lead physical training sessions while Wills taught naval history and&nbsp;carried out classification tests.<\/p>\n<p>Later, Wills wrote a memoir \u2013&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Navy-Blue-Other-Colors-Adventure\/dp\/1425731880\/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Navy Blue and Other Colors <\/a><\/em>\u2013 detailing her experiences leading up to and during her service in the navy. As you can imagine, it wasn&#8217;t easy.<\/p>\n<p>Black women from the &#8216;greatest generation&#8217; made up only about 1% of the women who served, but their courage served as an&nbsp;inspiration to the activists leading up to and during the Civil Rights movement.<\/p>\n<p>Pickens and Wills remind us that while following your heart requires guts, it can both be both empowering and powerful.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4245\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4245\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4245\" src=\"https:\/\/newsincerity.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/harrietpickens.jpg\" alt=\"Swearing in as apprentice seamen in 1944\" width=\"600\" height=\"750\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4245\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Swearing in as apprentice seamen in 1944. Photo source unknown.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4252\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4252\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4252\" src=\"https:\/\/newsincerity.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/harriet.jpg\" alt=\"Pickens and Wills\" width=\"600\" height=\"751\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4252\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pickens and Wills. Photo source unknown.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Before the Civil Rights and Feminist movements of the 1960s were more than a sparkle in anyone&#8217;s eye, Harriet Pickens and Frances Wills joined the US Navy. Until that moment, Black women were not legally allowed to serve in the Navy. Women, in general, weren&#8217;t technically able to enlist until 1942, when the US Navy established the WAVES program \u2013 Women Accepted\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1291,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[847,848,849,850,851,176,852,853],"class_list":["post-4244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-resilience","category-sonder","tag-civil-rights-movement","tag-frances-wills","tag-greatest-generation","tag-harriet-pickens","tag-navy-wwii","tag-racism","tag-us-navy","tag-world-war-ii"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>First African-American Women to Join US Navy - New Sincerity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Until that moment, Black women were not legally allowed to serve in the Navy. Women, in general, weren\u2019t technically able to enlist until 1942, when the US Navy established the WAVES program \u2013 Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service \u2013 which allowed temporary assistance during Wolrd War II.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/first-african-american-women-join-us-navy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"First African-American Women to Join US Navy - New Sincerity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Until that moment, Black women were not legally allowed to serve in the Navy. Women, in general, weren\u2019t technically able to enlist until 1942, when the US Navy established the WAVES program \u2013 Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service \u2013 which allowed temporary assistance during Wolrd War II.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/first-african-american-women-join-us-navy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"New Sincerity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-11-06T17:00:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-22T06:01:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/7798833.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"695\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"872\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/first-african-american-women-join-us-navy\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/first-african-american-women-join-us-navy\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Michael\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/#\/schema\/person\/3a9708e76c62dfc591fddf96d6439c1f\"},\"headline\":\"First African-American Women to Join US Navy\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-11-06T17:00:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-22T06:01:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/first-african-american-women-join-us-navy\/\"},\"wordCount\":351,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"civil rights movement\",\"frances wills\",\"greatest generation\",\"harriet pickens\",\"navy wwii\",\"Racism\",\"us navy\",\"world war II\"],\"articleSection\":[\"American Resilience\",\"Sonder\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/first-african-american-women-join-us-navy\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/first-african-american-women-join-us-navy\/\",\"name\":\"First African-American Women to Join US Navy - New Sincerity\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-11-06T17:00:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-22T06:01:31+00:00\",\"description\":\"Until that moment, Black women were not legally allowed to serve in the Navy. Women, in general, weren\u2019t technically able to enlist until 1942, when the US Navy established the WAVES program \u2013 Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service \u2013 which allowed temporary assistance during Wolrd War II.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/first-african-american-women-join-us-navy\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/first-african-american-women-join-us-navy\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/first-african-american-women-join-us-navy\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"First African-American Women to Join US Navy\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/\",\"name\":\"New Sincerity\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/#organization\",\"name\":\"New Sincerity\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/logo-white-pink-ds-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/logo-white-pink-ds-logo.png\",\"width\":454,\"height\":40,\"caption\":\"New Sincerity\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/#\/schema\/person\/3a9708e76c62dfc591fddf96d6439c1f\",\"name\":\"Michael\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ee36be45103dd08f1b38c2c3b6a7ccaf542996f328c2754bad8c9e1c84c1c73d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ee36be45103dd08f1b38c2c3b6a7ccaf542996f328c2754bad8c9e1c84c1c73d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Michael\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"First African-American Women to Join US Navy - New Sincerity","description":"Until that moment, Black women were not legally allowed to serve in the Navy. Women, in general, weren\u2019t technically able to enlist until 1942, when the US Navy established the WAVES program \u2013 Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service \u2013 which allowed temporary assistance during Wolrd War II.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/first-african-american-women-join-us-navy\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"First African-American Women to Join US Navy - New Sincerity","og_description":"Until that moment, Black women were not legally allowed to serve in the Navy. Women, in general, weren\u2019t technically able to enlist until 1942, when the US Navy established the WAVES program \u2013 Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service \u2013 which allowed temporary assistance during Wolrd War II.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/first-african-american-women-join-us-navy\/","og_site_name":"New Sincerity","article_published_time":"2017-11-06T17:00:58+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-05-22T06:01:31+00:00","og_image":[{"width":695,"height":872,"url":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/7798833.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Michael","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Michael","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/first-african-american-women-join-us-navy\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/first-african-american-women-join-us-navy\/"},"author":{"name":"Michael","@id":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/#\/schema\/person\/3a9708e76c62dfc591fddf96d6439c1f"},"headline":"First African-American Women to Join US Navy","datePublished":"2017-11-06T17:00:58+00:00","dateModified":"2023-05-22T06:01:31+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/first-african-american-women-join-us-navy\/"},"wordCount":351,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/#organization"},"keywords":["civil rights movement","frances wills","greatest generation","harriet pickens","navy wwii","Racism","us navy","world war II"],"articleSection":["American Resilience","Sonder"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/first-african-american-women-join-us-navy\/","url":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/first-african-american-women-join-us-navy\/","name":"First African-American Women to Join US Navy - New Sincerity","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-11-06T17:00:58+00:00","dateModified":"2023-05-22T06:01:31+00:00","description":"Until that moment, Black women were not legally allowed to serve in the Navy. Women, in general, weren\u2019t technically able to enlist until 1942, when the US Navy established the WAVES program \u2013 Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service \u2013 which allowed temporary assistance during Wolrd War II.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/first-african-american-women-join-us-navy\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/first-african-american-women-join-us-navy\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/first-african-american-women-join-us-navy\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"First African-American Women to Join US Navy"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/","name":"New Sincerity","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/#organization","name":"New Sincerity","url":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/logo-white-pink-ds-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/logo-white-pink-ds-logo.png","width":454,"height":40,"caption":"New Sincerity"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/#\/schema\/person\/3a9708e76c62dfc591fddf96d6439c1f","name":"Michael","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ee36be45103dd08f1b38c2c3b6a7ccaf542996f328c2754bad8c9e1c84c1c73d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ee36be45103dd08f1b38c2c3b6a7ccaf542996f328c2754bad8c9e1c84c1c73d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Michael"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity"],"url":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4244"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7366,"href":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4244\/revisions\/7366"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kilde.org\/new-sincerity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}