African Americans in the Women’s Army Nurse Corps WWII

Since its establishment in 1901, the Army Nurse Corps has been an all-white institution. However, when the U.S. Army began a rapid expansion program in 1940 that required an increase in personnel, the War Department firmly maintained its policy of racial segregation. This policy continued during World War II despite protests from Negro leaders and soldiers. Army officials justified their stance by asserting that the Army was a servant of the state rather than an agent of social change. Army officials believed that the most effective system of race relations would be modeled after the constitutional ruling of separate but equal. As a result, facilities for Negro and white soldiers in the Army would remain separate, although not always equally equipped. By 1940, the Army Nurse Corps was still exclusively white. Between 1940 and 1941, Negro organizations pressured Congress and the White House to change the recruiting policy.