In 1941 the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the construction agent for the War Department, maintained construction battalions that were deemed less valuable than units in other Army branches. Coupling this practice with the racial beliefs dominant in the Jim Crow South, it … Read MoreThe 97th Engineering Regiment (1941-1948)
Elvi Gray-Jackson is the second African American woman elected to the Alaska state senate and the first African American to become Chair of the Senate in the state. Born in Newark, New Jersey on April 8, 1953, Gray-Jackson graduated from Barringer High School before attending … Read MoreElvi Gray-Jackson (1953- )
With a small cadre of white officers and Black NCOs, the segregated 93rd Engineer Battalion (600 men) was activated on February 10, 1941 and quartered in an undesirable mud-filled rear corner of Camp Livingston, Louisiana. Most of the enlisted men were from Mississippi and Louisiana. … Read MoreThe 93rd Engineer Regiment (1941-1945)
In their latest book on the Black soldiers who helped build the Alcan Highway during World War II, authors Christine and Dennis McClure encountered a story of injustice in the frigid north. See a description of their new book, A Different Race, to get a … Read MoreInjustice in Alaska Territory: The World War II Court-martial of Ten Black Soldiers Who Helped Build the ALCAN Highway
On July 28, 1866, the Thirty-Ninth Congress passed the Act to increase and fix the Military Peace Establishment of the United States; thus the federal government created six all-Colored Army Regiments. The units identified as the 9th and 10th Colored Cavalry Regiments and the 38th, … Read MoreFormation of the Buffalo Soldiers, 1866
Zula Swanson, an enterprising business owner and real estate developer, became one of the largest landowners in the state of Alaska. Swanson was born in Jackson Gap, Alabama in 1891. Little is known of her early life except that she worked on a cotton plantation, … Read MoreZula Swanson (1891-1973)
Bettye Jean Davis (née Ivory), a social worker and politician, became the first African American woman elected to the Alaska State House of Representatives and the first African American elected to the Alaska State Senate. Davis was born in Homer, Louisiana on May 17, 1938. … Read MoreBettye Davis (1938-2018)
Willard L. Bowman was a union organizer, politician, and civil rights activist in Anchorage, Alaska. From 1963 to 1970, he served as the first director of the state’s Human Rights Commission. In 1970 he was one of the first African Americans elected to the Alaska … Read MoreWillard L. Bowman (1919-1975)
Joshua J. Wright II was a dentist and politician in Anchorage, Alaska. In 1970 he was one of the first African Americans to be elected to the State House of Representatives. Wright was born in Georgetown, South Carolina, on August 6, 1929. His parents were … Read MoreJoshua J. Wright II (1929-2017)
Beatrice Coleman was a pioneering civil rights activist in Fairbanks, Alaska. In 1946 she challenged Jim Crow segregation in the city by calling for the enforcement of a recently-enacted anti-discrimination law. In 1952 Coleman was one of the founding members of the Fairbanks chapter of … Read MoreBeatrice Coleman (1908-1982)
