Margaret E. Bailey

Add links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Col

Margaret E. Bailey
National Defense Medal

Margaret E. Bailey (December 25, 1915 – August 28, 2014) was a United States Army Nurse Corps colonel. She served in the Corps for 27 years, from July 1944 to July 1971, nine of which she served in France, Germany, and Japan. During her career, Bailey advanced from a second lieutenant to colonel, the highest achievable military rank in the Nurse Corps. She set several landmarks for black nurses in US military, becoming the first black lieutenant colonel in 1964, the first black chief nurse in a mixed, non-segregated unit in 1966, and the first black full colonel in 1967.

During World War II, Bailey treated

Nixon administration
, working to increase the number of minorities in the Nurse Corps. For many years, she made speeches supporting equal participation in United States Army across the United States.

Early life

Bailey grew up in one of the most segregated areas of the South.[1] She was born in Selma, Alabama, on December 25, 1915. Her father, Adam Bailey, died when she was eight years old, and her mother, Hattie Bailey, moved the family to Mobile, Alabama. There, Bailey graduated from W.H. Council Elementary School, then from Emerson Junior High School, and in 1933, from Dunbar High School.[5][6] As a child, Bailey walked past a local hospital on her way to school, and tidy look of medical personnel prompted her ambition to become a nurse.[1] During the Great Depression, Bailey worked on school nights and Saturdays to help her family.[6] After graduating from Dunbar High School, she worked for two years to save enough money to further her education. In 1935, she was accepted to the Fraternal Hospital School of Nursing in Montgomery, Alabama.[7][8]

Civilian nursing career (1938 – 1944)

Seaview Hospital c.1940

In 1938, Bailey graduated from the nursing school and found a job at Mercy Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, then the only primary care facility for the local Black community.[9][8]

This was career success, as opportunities for black women in

Staten Island, New York.[9][1]

At the time, this hospital was the nation's largest facility, specializing in the treatment of tuberculosis, and the most expensive municipal medical establishment in the United States. Unlike Mercy Hospital in Florida, Seaview Hospital was non-segregated, and already had a history of promoting black nurses to supervising positions.[10][11]

Bailey worked at Seaview Hospital for almost five years, until she decided to enlist in US military in the summer of 1944.[12]

Military career (1944 – 1971)

Bailey joined the United States Army Nurse Corps in June 1944, at the start of Normandy landings.[4][12] She was motivated by the raging world war, and believed that wounded Americans would need her help.[1] At the time, the US military was segregated, and the Army Nurse Corps was reluctant to admit black nurses at all until 1941, when the first blacks were accepted under pressure from the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses and Eleanor Roosevelt personally. Still, at the end of 1943, only 183 black nurses served in a Corps of 52,000 nurses, and they routinely faced discrimination.[13][14]

Bailey was assigned to "all-Negro unit" in the Corps.[9] Ironically, the start of Bailey's military career brought her not to the European theater, but to Arizona where she completed basic training at Fort Huachuca and received her entry rank of second lieutenant. Then she was assigned to Station Hospital in Florence, Arizona, to care for German prisoners of war.[12][15]

In subsequent years, Bailey served as both medical and surgical nurse at numerous domestic and international facilities, including in France, Germany, and Japan.

San Francisco State College to receive her bachelor's degree in nursing from the San Francisco State College in 1959.[17][9]

On July 15, 1964, after 20 years of service, Bailey was promoted to lieutenant colonel, becoming the first black nurse to achieve such rank.[18][19] In May 1965 (as the Army's segregation policy ended[15]), she was transferred to the 130th General Hospital in Chinon, France, her first assignment in a mixed-race unit. In 1966, she became the chief nurse of the unit and the first black nurse to lead a non-segregated unit.[8][4]

In February 1969, Bailey received the

Army Commendation Medal from the hands of General John H. Cushman.[20] Later that year, she was transferred to Washington D.C. as a Health Manpower Training Specialist with the Department of Labor.[18] In January 1970, Bailey became the first black person to attain the rank of colonel, the highest military rank possible within the United States Army Nurse Corps.[19][21][22]

Bailey retired in July, 1971, after 27 years of service, nine of which she served outside the United States.[4] She was regarded as an "exemplary professional officer."[22] Upon her retirement, she was awarded the Legion of Merit, the second highest non-combat award.[23][24] During her service, she reached the highest rank possible within her Corps, witnessed the end of the Army's policy of segregation, and visited 27 countries. In the final years of her military career, Bailey devoted more and more time to recruiting black women to the Nurse Corps.[25][19][26]

Political career and social activism

In the early years of her Army career, especially during her stations abroad, Bailey frequently encountered people who had never worked with or even seen a black woman before. She enjoyed taking extra steps to educate these people about black culture, believing these actions to be important steps towards integration.[28] In her later years, Bailey enthusiastically supported recruiting more black women into the Army. While stationed in Aurora, Colorado, she was in contact with local women's rights organizations and was in charge of the official military Nightingale program (named after Florence Nightingale and publicly advocated for minority recruitment to the Nurse Corps.[12]

Bailey was in the "vanguard of the integration movement."[22] As the policy of segregation in the Army ended in 1965, she called it "difficult yet rewarding milestone".[15] Yet, at that time only 6.6% of the Nurse Corps were black, so Bailey continued her efforts to increase black participation.[19]

After her retirement from the Army, on July 1, 1972, Bailey accepted the position of Consultant to the

Nixon administration promote Bailey and 155 other black public servants to government positions.[30]

In the last years of her military service and throughout her retirement, Bailey regularly made speeches in black communities to promote integration and military service.

Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church.[31] On occasion, Bailey partnered with Clara Adams-Ender to advocate for more black participation in the Army.[32] Baily was a speaker at the National Black Nurses Association's summit in 1998 and took part in international conferences in South Africa and Botswana.[33]

In 1999, Bailey completed and published her autobiography The Challenge.[8] She was also an active member of Chi Eta Phi, a professional organization of registered nurses and nursing students.[34]

Awards

Bailey received multiple awards and commendations both for her Army service and her activism. Her Army medals included the

Army Commendation Medal,[8] and Legion of Merit, the second highest non-combat military award.[23][24]

In 1967 and 1969, she was named the Woman of the Year by several women's organizations.[8]

Death

Bailey died on August 28, 2014, in Washington, D.C. She was buried on Arlington National Cemetery.[2][3]

Bibliography

  • Bailey, Margaret E. (1999), The Challenge – Autobiography of Margaret E. Bailey, First Black Nurse Promoted to Colonel in the Army Nurse Corps,
    OCLC 45242626

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Townsend 2005, p. 228.
  2. ^ a b c Washington Post; Sep 7, 2014.
  3. ^ a b McGuire Services; Aug 28, 2014.
  4. ^ a b c d Military Medicine; Sep 1, 1972.
  5. ^ a b Thompson 1997.
  6. ^ a b Rywell 1974, v.1; p.178.
  7. ^ Rywell 1974, v.1; pp. 178–179.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i The Sentinel; Feb 25, 2000.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Rywell 1974, v.1; p.179.
  10. ^ Nonko 2016.
  11. ^ Staupers 1942.
  12. ^ a b c d e f Greene 1974, p. 226.
  13. ^ Gregory 2001.
  14. ^ Jones 2009.
  15. ^ a b c d Word 1998.
  16. ^ Townsend 2005, pp. 228–229.
  17. ^ a b c Carnegie 1986, p. 172.
  18. ^ a b Feller & Moore 1996, p. 38.
  19. ^ a b c d Nowak 2005.
  20. ^ Boston Globe; Feb 5, 1969.
  21. ^ Knight 2014.
  22. ^ a b c Sarnecky 2010, p. 34.
  23. ^ a b c Carnegie 1986, p. 171.
  24. ^ a b Jackson 2000, p. 168.
  25. ^ Sarnecky 2010, pp. 34, 36.
  26. ^ a b Townsend 2005, pp. 228–230.
  27. ^ a b King 1968.
  28. ^ Townsend 2005, p. 229.
  29. ^ Feller & Moore 1996, p. 44.
  30. ^ Montclair Times; May 14, 1970.
  31. ^ The Sentinel; Feb 28, 2000.
  32. ^ Sarnecky 2010, p. 36.
  33. ^ Brown 2014.
  34. ^ New Pittsburgh Courier; Dec 22, 1973.

Literature cited

External links

This article is based on the text donated by the Wenard Institute under CC-BY-4.0 license.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Margaret_E._Bailey&oldid=1219151085"