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Article

David, Charles Walter, Jr.  

Glenn Allen Knoblock

Article

Publication History:

Published in print:
15 March 2013
Published online:
31 May 2013

World War II coastguardsman and medal winner, was born and raised in New York, possibly in the borough of Manhattan. Nothing is known of David's early life.

While it is uncertain whether Charles David Jr. joined the coast guard prior to the war, or after the attack on Pearl Harbor, his rating at the time of his death suggests that he voluntarily enlisted late in 1941 or early 1942. By late 1942 David had joined the crew of the coast guard cutter Comanche a 165 foot long vessel that carried a crew of about six officers and sixty enlisted men As an African American David was assigned the only rating that blacks were allowed to hold at the time that of steward s mate with promotion available to steward It was the job of the stewards and stewards mates to serve the ship s officers help to prepare ...

Article

DeYampert, Warren Traveous  

Glenn Allen Knoblock

Article

Publication History:

Published in print:
15 March 2013
Published online:
31 May 2013

World War II coastguardsman and medal award winner, is a man about whom little personal information is known. A native of Attalla, Alabama, he entered the coast guard at Baltimore, Maryland, on 12 July 1941. Like all African Americans who joined the coast guard at this time DeYampert was assigned the rating of mess attendant (a designation changed during the early war years to steward's mate and steward), which meant that his job was to serve a ship's officers their meals and to take care of their quarters and other personal chores. Demeaning as such work might be, the steward's rating was at the time DeYampert's only available option. By the end of World War II things would change, but only to a small degree; of the just over five thousand African Americans who served in the coast guard during the war years, 63 percent served as stewards.

DeYampert ...

Article

Healy, Michael  

James M. O'Toole

Article

Publication History:

Published in print:
15 March 2013
Published online:
31 May 2013

Coast Guard officer and Alaska pioneer, was born Michael Augustine Healy in Jones County, Georgia, to Michael Morris Healy, an immigrant from Ireland, and Eliza Clark, a mixed-race slave owned by Michael Morris Healy. Michael was the sixth of nine surviving children born to his parents, who, though never legally married, maintained a common-law relationship for more than twenty years, neither one of them ever marrying anyone else. Michael Morris Healy was barred by Georgia law from emancipating either his wife or his children, but he treated them as family members rather than as slaves, even as he owned fifty other slaves. He was a successful cotton planter and amassed the resources to send his children north before the Civil War, which he did as each approached school age, beginning in 1844 The children exhibited a wide range of complexion but most of them including young ...

Article

Jenkins, Joseph Charles  

Sarah Ingram

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
30 September 2015

a US Coast Guard officer and civil engineer, was born in Detroit, Michigan, on 8 August 1914, where he maintained residency throughout his life. Although details regarding Jenkins's childhood and high school career remain unclear, he attended the University of Michigan where he was one of few African American students and the only African American in the university's engineering department. Upon graduating in 1937, Jenkins earned a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering; during his time at the school, he was initiated into Alpha Phi Alpha, America's first African American fraternity, and Sigma Rho Tau, an honor society for public speaking. Jenkins was also a member of the National Technical Association, a professional organization of scientists and engineers that strives to ensure that minorities, women, and youth have the necessary skills for a technical workforce.

Along with graduating, in 1937 Jenkins helped to organize what ...

Article

Sanders, Frank Cook  

Glenn Allen Knoblock

Article

Publication History:

Published in print:
15 March 2013
Published online:
31 May 2013

Coast Guard veteran and agent in the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, was born in Charleston, South Carolina, the son of Thomas, an auto mechanic, and Zerline (Cook) Sanders, a schoolteacher. Following World War II, Sanders and two friends joined the military. He joined the Naval Reserve in 1947 as a seaman, and in 1948 joined the Coast Guard While he did not want to be a steward he was told that there were no vacancies in the service for seamen so instead he had no choice but to enlist in the rating traditionally held by blacks in both the Navy and Coast Guard that of steward Sanders later recalled that I bought that idea and naively accepted the assurance that a rate change could be made in boot camp This of course proved not to be true and Sanders completed his training ...

Article

Smith, Merle J., Jr.  

Tasnim Rahman

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
31 May 2014

the first African American Coast Guard Academy graduate, was born in Maryland to Merle J. Smith Sr., a United States army officer, and Jacqueline Thomas Smith. He was the first son born in the family, followed by a brother, Thomas. Growing up, Smith sought to emulate the courage and attitude of his father, a colonel in the United States Army who served the nation for twenty-six years, from 1944 to 1970, with assignments in Germany, Korea, Japan, and the United States. Colonel Merle J. Smith Sr. also served the Reserve Officer Training Corps programs at Howard University and Morgan State University, and joined the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. After the colonel retired from military service, he became executive assistant to the vice president for health affairs at Howard University, a position he held until his death in December 1986 In Merle Smith Jr ...

Article

Tunnell, Emlen  

John M. Carroll

Article

Publication History:

Published in print:
15 March 2013
Published online:
31 May 2013

football player and coach, was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, the son of Elzie Tunnell and Catherine Adams. Raised by his mother, a housekeeper, he was a star athlete in basketball and football at Radnor (Pennsylvania) High School. Upon graduating from high school in 1942, he attended the University of Toledo. In 1943 Tunnell played on the Toledo basketball team that advanced to the finals of the National Invitation Tournament in New York City before losing to St. John's University. During his single varsity football season at Toledo, Tunnell suffered a broken neck. After a period of recovery he joined the U.S. Coast Guard in 1944. In 1946 following his release from the service he enrolled at the University of Iowa Playing in both offensive and defensive backfields Tunnell had a successful season with the Hawkeyes but was forced to sit out his senior year ...