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A BRIEF HISTORY OF BLACK WOMEN IN THE MILITARY
American women have participated in the defense of this nation in both war and peacetime. Their contributions, however, have gone largely unrecognized and unrewarded.
In commemoration of Black History Month, the Women In Military Service Memorial Foundation calls attention to the important contributions made by black women in military service. While all women in the armed forces share a history of discrimination based on gender, black women have faced a double burden of race and gender in their pursuit of opportunity for service in the United States Armed Forces. Initially barred from official status in the military, black women, through persistent efforts in demanding their right to serve, have seen their roles tremendously expanded, as well as their presence in today's military.
Early Patriots
No documented records have been discovered of black women's military service in the American Revolution, however, they may well have served along side black men in the fight for freedom. During the Civil War, black women performed many duties including nursing, domestic chores in medical settings, laundry, and cooking for the soldiers. Indeed, as the Union Army marched through the South and large numbers of freed black men enlisted, their wives or female family members often obtained employment with the unit. Five black nurses served under the direction of Catholic nuns aboard the famous Navy hospital ship Red Rover. Four of their names -- Alice Kennedy, Sarah Kinno, Ellen Campbell and Betsy Young -- have been documented.(1) Other black nurses are in the record books of many Union hospitals. As many as 181 black nurses -- both female and male -- served in convalescent and U.S. government hospitals in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina during the war.(2) The Union Army paid many black women to raise cotton on plantations for the northern government to sell.
Susie King Taylor, Civil War nurse, cook, and laundress was raised a slave on an island off the coast of Savannah, Georgia. In April of 1861, Major General David Hunter assaulted Fort Pulaski and freed all the slaves in the area, including Mrs. King. When Union officers raised the First South Carolina Volunteers -- an all-black unit -- Mrs. King signed on as a laundress and...