S05 E22: Olivia J. Hooker – The Story of the 1st African American Woman in the U.S. Coast Guard

U.S. psychologist and professor, Olivia Juliette Hooker, was one of the last known survivors of the Tulsa race massacre in 1921.

Ms. Hooker was also the first African-American woman to enter the U.S. Coast Guard in 1945. She became a SPAR (Semper Paratus Always Ready) in the United States Coast Guard Women’s Reserve, during World War II, earning the rank of Yeoman Second Class.

She served in the Coast Guard until her unit was disbanded in mid-1946; she would go on to become a psychologist intern at a women’s correctional facility and a clinical professor at Fordham University.

Books by Brian Sheffey