First black woman to join the United States Coast Guard (United States Coast Guard), Olivia J. Hooker (1915 – 2018) became a psychologist and teacher. A survivor of the Tusla massacre, she will seek justice throughout her life.
The Tulsa Massacre
Olivia J. Hooker was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma on February 12, 1915; she is one of the five children of Anita J. Hooker, a former teacher, and Samuel D., a businessman. His family settled in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the neighborhood of Greenwood, which is home to many businesses and services run and owned by African Americans.
Olivia was only six years old when the Tulsa massacre broke out. In May 1921, Dick Rowlan, a black shoe shiner, was accused of assaulting Sarah Page, a young white girl, and taken into custody. The rumor that he is going to be lynched spreads through the town, and a crowd of black men offer their services to the sheriff to protect him. The sheriff refuses. In response, a white crowd armed themselves and assembled in front of the police station. The origin of the first shot is unclear; it could have been accidental, or intended as a warning. He triggers a firefight.
A dozen people died during this first confrontation. As the group of black men retreat towards the Greenwood neighborhood, the white rioters follow them. They loot weapons and ammunition stores, shoot at random in the crowd, set fire to businesses and homes, sow terror and chaos. The massacre continued until the next day, leaving 36 dead according to the official count of 1921 and between 100 and 300 according to the final report of 2001. 800 people were admitted to the hospital, and the fires threw 8,000 black residents to the street. 6,000 black residents of Greenwood will be arrested and detained.
During the massacre, members of the Ku Klux Klan ransack Olivia's house, as she and her siblings hide under a table to escape them. After the riots, like many survivors, Olivia's family left Tulsa and moved to Columbus, Ohio. The events deeply mark Olivia, who will take time to get back to sleep.
First African American in the Coast Guard
In Columbus, Olivia Hooker begins studies. She graduated from Ohio State University with a degree in arts in 1937. There she joined the Delta Sigma Theta sorority, dedicated to black female students and in which she campaigned for African American women to be admitted into the Navy .
During World War II, Olivia applies for the WAVES – Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service ("Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service"), the women's branch of the US Navy. Her candidacy is rejected, for the sole reason that she is black. Olivia then decides to join the female branch of the United States Coast Guard (“United States Coast Guard”); in February 1945, she was the first black woman to serve as a coast guard in the United States.
After weeks of training, Olivia is sent to Boston where she performs administrative tasks and obtains the rank of Yeoman Second Class . After the war, in June 1946, the female branch of the United States Coast Guard Women’s Reserve is dissolved and Olivia returns to civilian life with a rank of petty officer 2nd class (2nd class petty officer) and an award for good conduct.
Psychologist and teacher
With her savings, Olivia Hooker resumed her studies and in 1947 obtained a master's degree from Teachers College at Columbia University. After graduating, she worked for a while in a women's prison in Albion, with women considered to have intellectual disabilities. Convinced that they are capable of more than they are granted, Olivia reevaluates the boarders and helps them pursue an education and obtain a job. A success she attributes to having approached them “with an open mind”.
After this experience, Olivia undertakes a doctorate in psychology at the University of Rochester and begins research on the learning abilities of children with Down's syndrome. , Olivia was not discouraged and obtained her doctorate in 1961. In 1963, she joined Fordham University in New York, where she became an associate professor until 1985.
Olivia co-founds the American Psychological Association Division 33, dedicated to Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (intellectual and developmental disabilities). She is retiring at the age of 87.
Olivia and the Tulsa Riot
Considered one of the worst episodes of racial violence in the United States, the Tulsa riot has long remained a blind spot in memory. Durably marked by the massacre, Olivia Hooker has been involved all her life for its recognition and for justice. She campaigned in particular for reparations for riot survivors and helped found the Tulsa Race Riot Commission , investigating the events nearly 75 years later.
In 2003, Olivia filed a lawsuit with other survivors but did not obtain compensation. In 2008, she participated in the creation and distribution of the documentary Before They Die pursuing his goal of obtaining justice.
When she died in November 2018, at the age of 103, Olivia Hooker was the last survivor of the Tulsa Massacre.