Oklahoman Broke Barriers & Made History

Photo: United States Coast Guard

Olivia Juliette Hooker was born February 12th, 1915 in Muskogee, Oklahoma. She and her family later moved the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, an area then known as Black Wall Street. On May 31st, 1921, Hooker and her family survived their home being stormed by a group of white men carrying torches during the Tulsa Race Massacre, hiding under a tablecloth with her siblings beneath their kitchen table. Hooker’s family moved to Topeka, Kansas following the destruction of Greenwood before later moving to Columbus, Ohio, where Hooker earned her Bachelors of Arts at The Ohio State University and began her career as a Primary School educator.

After being rejected by the WAVES due to race, Hooker (who is credited as the first) joined four others as the first African-American women to enlist in the United States Coast Guard. The women enlisted in the Coast Guard Women's Reserve (SPARS) in February, 1945 and Hooker served until June 1946 when the SPARS were disbanded, completing service as a Yeoman Second Class.

Hooker then returned to college, earning both a Masters degree from Teachers College of Columbia University in 1947 and later a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Rochester in 1961, where she was one of two black female students. She joined the staff at Fordham University (Bronx, New York) in 1963 as one of the school’s senior clinical lecturers as well as serving in the role of American Psychological Association Honors psychology professor, remaining with the university until her retirement in 1985 as Associate Professor.

In her later life, Hooker was awarded the American Psychological Association’s Presidential Citation in 2011 and had a training center at Coast Guard Headquarters named in her honor in 2015. Dr. Hooker died of natural causes on November 21st, 2018 in White Plains, New York. Following her death, the United States Coast Guard announced that the 61st Sentinel-class fast response cutter would be named in her honor.