Major Marcelite Jordan Harris
Maj. Gen. Marcelite Jordan Harris retired in 1997 as the highest-ranking female officer in the U.S. Air Force and the highest ranking African American woman in the Department of Defense.
Tag Archives: African Descent
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Colonel Ruth Lucas
During World War II, Ruth Lucas enlisted in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) and became one of the few Black women to attend what is now the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia. She transferred from the Army to the Air Force in 1947, where she stayed for the remainder of her military career.
Namahoyke Curtis
Namahyoke Curtis, known as Namah, was a prominent African American nurse in late-19th-century Washington, D.C. During the Spanish-American War (1898), the Surgeon General assigned her to recruit other Black women to serve as U.S. Army contract nurses.
Annette Gordon-Reed
No historian has done more to recover the stories of enslaved African-Americans than Annette Gordon-Reed, whose 2008 book The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in History, as well as wide acclaim.
Dr Allie G Harshaw
Allie Harshaw served with the renowned Tuskegee Airmen and the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the only Black Women’s Army Corps (WAC) unit to serve overseas during World War II.
Brigadier General Hazel W Johnson-Brown
The first African American woman to attain a general officer rank in American military history, Brig. Gen. Johnson-Brown was appointed in 1979 as chief of the Army Nurse Corps with the rank of brigadier general.
Kitty Payne
Catherine “Kitty” Payne was an enslaved woman in the U.S. in the 1800s
Koko Taylor
Singer often called the “Queen of the Blues”
Vernice Ferguson
When Vernice Ferguson became the first African American to lead the Veterans Administration (VA) Nursing Service in 1980, she inherited the largest nursing service in the nation, overseeing 60,000 professionals.
Dr Sara Delaney
Long-time advocate for books and reading, she served 34 years in Veterans’ Affairs, including as Tuskegee librarian