Tuesday, February 9, 2021

AUXILIARIST DR. OLIVIA HOOKER - A BIOGRAPHY

In 2015, I had the honor of meeting an incredible woman. She was amazing, as many Coast Guard Auxiliarists are, but there was more to this woman than I had ever imagined at the time! Many Auxiliarists have an astonishing talent or commitment that just makes them stand out from those around them. Dr. Hooker however, unbeknownst to me at the time, was probably one of the most amazing women I will ever meet, not just in her Auxiliary career but in her entire life.
I had been invited to a friend's Flotilla meeting in Yonkers, NY. When I walked into the meeting room I saw several of my friends that patrolled the Hudson with me and walked over to talk to them. An older woman called us over and as my friends introduced me she asked me questions about my background and career as if any of that was amazing compared to her. She said I was a ground breaker because I had just been elected the Flotilla Commander of an Aviation Unit.  She was welcoming in the way that truly kind people are……she included me in the group and made me feel that I was a member of their Flotilla's family. 
This kind, engaging, and inclusive woman was Dr. Olivia Hooker, one of the first African American women to join the U.S. Coast Guard. Initially Dr. Hooker applied to the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) of the U.S. Navy, but was rejected due to her ethnicity. She disputed the rejection due to a technicality and was later accepted. She had, however, already decided to join the United States Coast Guard.
Olivia Hooker (front) with Aileen Anita Cooks (behind) on the USS Commodore (nicknamed USS Neversail) during boot training, Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn.
 She enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard in February of 1945. On March 9, 1945, she arrived in Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, New York for six weeks of basic training. She was one of the first five enlisted African-American females to enter the SPARS program. Through the training, Hooker became a member of the Coast Guard Women's Reserve (SPARS). She was required to attend classes and pass exams like all other enlisted members. After basic training, Hooker specialized in the yeoman rate and remained at boot camp for an additional nine weeks before heading to Boston where she performed administrative duties and earned the rank of Yeoman Second Class in the Coast Guard Women's Reserve. In June 1946, the SPAR program was disbanded and Hooker earned the rank of petty officer 2nd class and of course a Good Conduct Award. Hooker was now the first African American woman on Active Duty.
However, before her ground breaking enlistment, Dr. Hooker's life began with many challenges, thankfully, we will never know.  Olivia Hooker was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, to Samuel and Anita Hooker, she was one of five children. On May 31, 1921, her family was living in the Greenwood District of Tulsa. At the time the Greenwood District was known as Black Wall Street because of the high concentration of Black-owned businesses in the District.  A group of white men carrying torches entered the Hooker's home and destroyed the families' belongings. Her sister's piano and her father's record player were destroyed. Olivia and her siblings crouched under a table, hidden only by a tablecloth, until the men were gone. "It was a horrifying thing for a little girl who's only six years old," she told Radio Diaries in 2018, "trying to remember to keep quiet, so they wouldn't know we were there."1 The attack was part of the now famous Tulsa race riots of May 31–June 1, 1921, in which members of the Ku Klux Klan and other racist residents of Tulsa destroyed the Greenwood District. They killed as many as 300 people and left more than 10,000 people homeless.
In 1997, survivors of the massacre including Dr. Hooker founded the Tulsa Race Riot Commission. The Commission was designated to investigate the massacre and its aftermath, as well as seek reparations.  In 2003, Hooker was one of the plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit filed against the state of Oklahoma and the city of Tulsa. More than 100 survivors and about 300 descendants of people who had lost property or lives of loved ones in the attacks, sought compensation because of the local governments' involvement in the massacre; the US Supreme Court dismissed the case in 2005 without comment.
The family moved to Topeka, Kansas, after the riots, and then onto Columbus, Ohio, where Hooker earned her bachelor of arts in 1937 from The Ohio State University (OSU) and then taught third grade. While at OSU, she also joined the Delta Sigma Theta sorority, where she advocated for African-American women to be admitted to the U.S. Navy. In 1947, she received her master's from the Teachers College of Columbia University, and in 1961 she received her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Rochester. Dr Hooker's dissertation was on the learning abilities of children with Down syndrome.
Dr. Hooker retired from practice at the age of 87 and because of course she would never truly retire from her passions she joined the Coast Guard Auxiliary at the age 95.  Dr. Hooker served as an auxiliarist in Yonkers, New York until her passing. On November 21, 2018, Olivia passed of natural causes at her home in White Plains, New York  at the age of 103.
Some of the impressive honors Dr. Hooker received in addition to her fame among Auxiliarists were the American Psychological Association Presidential Citation in 2011.  She was inducted into the New York State Senate Veterans' Hall of Fame in 2012. On February 9, 2015, Kirsten Gillibrand spoke in Congress to "pay tribute" to Hooker. 
Some of Dr. Hookers U.S. Coast Guard honors are the "Olivia Hooker Dining Facility" or the "Galley" on the Staten Island Coast Guard facility named in her honor as well as a training facility at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C. President Barack Obama recognized Hooker's Coast Guard service and legacy while in attendance at the 134th Commencement of the United States Coast Guard Academy on May 20, 2015. In addition, October of 2019, it was announced that the fast response cutter USCGC Olivia Hooker would be named in her honor. This will be the sixty-first Sentinel-class cutter which is due to be delivered to the Coast Guard after 2023.
Dr. Hooker blazed a path not just for African American women but all Americans. She was diverse in her thinking, training, and actions and inclusive in her daily life and attitude. I am honored to have had the opportunity to sit and converse with her on that one occasion. Whether you spent 20 minutes or 20 years with Dr. Hooker her energy and love for everyone shone through and made you feel as if you had known her your entire life.
 
  1. "Remembering Olivia Hooker". Radio Diaries. May 30, 2019. Retrieved October 21, 2019.
  2.  "Coast Guard Names Training Facility After 1st Black Woman In Service". News One. March 16, 2015. Retrieved March 19, 2015.
  3. ^ MacKay, Jenna (October 19, 2017). "Profile: Olivia Hooker". Psychology's Feminist Voices. Archived from the original on October 19, 2017. Retrieved March 16, 2018.
  4. ^ Gay, Mara (February 28, 2015). "Olivia J. Hooker: Coast Guard Pioneer, Fordham Professor and Activist". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved March 16, 2018.(subscription required)
  5. ^ Jump up to:a b Brown, DeNeen L. (November 22, 2018). "Olivia Hooker, one of the last survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, dies at 103". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 21, 2019.
  7. ^ "Black History Month: Survivor Recalls 1921 Tulsa Race Riot". CBS News. February 12, 2015. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  9. ^ Jump up to:a b "Meet The Last Surviving Witness To The Tulsa Race Riot Of 1921". National Public Radio. May 31, 2018. Retrieved June 2, 2018.
  10.  Gay, Mara (February 27, 2015). "Olivia J. Hooker: Coast Guard Pioneer, Fordham Professor and Activist". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved April 30, 2015.
  11. ^ Jump up to:a b Stewart-Cousins, Sen. Andrea (2012). "Dr. Olivia J. Hooker - New York State Senate". New York State Senate. Retrieved March 18,2015.
  12. ^ Jump up to:a b Miller, Anna (November 2012). "Living history: Pioneering psychologist and civil rights activist Olivia Hooker reflects on her legacy". American Psychological Association. Archived from the original on November 22, 2012. Retrieved April 30, 2015.
  13. ^ Young, LT Stephanie (October 29, 2013). "Olivia Hooker: A SPAR's Story". U.S. Coast Guard. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  14. ^ Jump up to:a b c MacKay, Jenna (2013). Profile of Olivia Hooker. In A. Rutherford (Ed.), Psychology's Feminist Voices Multimedia Internet Archive. Retrieved on March 18, 2015 from this link.
  15. ^ Jump up to:a b c Young, LT Stephanie (October 29, 2013). "Olivia Hooker: A SPAR's Story". Retrieved April 30, 2015.
  16. ^ Jump up to:a b "Congressional Record, Volume 161 Issue 21 (Monday, February 9, 2015)". Gpo.gov. February 9, 2015. Retrieved March 19, 2015.
  17. ^ Jump up to:a b Cautin, Robin L (April 2012). "The indomitable Dr. Olivia Hooker". The General Psychologist. American Psychological Association. Retrieved April 30, 2015.
  18. ^ Gay, Mara (February 27, 2015). "Olivia J. Hooker: Coast Guard Pioneer, Fordham Professor and Activist". WSJ. Retrieved March 20,2015.
  19. ^ "US Coast Guard Honors TC Alum and Centenarian Olivia Hooker". Teachers' College Media Center, Columbia University. April 9, 2015. Retrieved April 30, 2015.
  20. ^ "Dr. Olivia Hooker Turns 100 | Juniper Hill Civic Association". Juniperhillny.com. February 7, 2015. Retrieved March 19, 2015.
  21. ^ "Coast Guard Names Training Facility After 1st Black Woman In Service". The Chicago Defender. March 16, 2015. Archived from the original on March 9, 2016. Retrieved April 25, 2015.
  22. ^ "Remarks by the President at the United States Coast Guard Academy Commencement". whitehouse.gov. May 20, 2015. Retrieved February 12, 2017.
  23. ^ Godlewski, Nina (November 11, 2018). "Veterans Day Google Doodle Honors Veterans and their stories through videos". Newsweek. Retrieved November 22, 2018.
  24. ^ "Last survivor of Tulsa Race Massacre dies". KJRH. November 21, 2018. Retrieved November 22, 2018.
  25. ^ Anthanio-Williams, Shameen. (October 4, 2016). Tulsa girl. Drumond, Sergio. ISBN 9781537610443. OCLC 981768226.
  26. ^ "Coast Guard releases names of next 10 Fast Response Cutters". Coast Guard News. October 23, 2019. Retrieved November 11, 2019.
 By: Bridget Reilley - DVC-DE Atlantic East; USCG Auxiliary, National Diversity & Inclusion Team
Submitted by: COMO David G. Porter ANACO-DV; USCG Auxiliary, National Diversity & Inclusion Team

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