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“ August 15, 1944 - African American U.S. Army Nurses arrive in Greenock, Scotland
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From the US Army Center of Military History
“ The Army Nurse Corps accepted only a small number of black nurses during World...

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August 15, 1944 - African American U.S. Army Nurses arrive in Greenock, Scotland

From the US Army Center of Military History

The Army Nurse Corps accepted only a small number of black nurses during World War II. When the war ended in September 1945 just 479 black nurses were serving in a corps of 50,000 because a quota system imposed by the segregated Army during the last two years of the war held down the number of black enrollments…. Army authorities argued that assignments available to black nurses were limited because they were only allowed to care for black troops in black wards or hospitals. But unfavorable public reaction and political pressure forced the Army to drop its quota system in 1944. Subsequently, about 2,000 black students enrolled in the Cadet Nurse Corps program, and nursing schools for blacks benefited from increased federal funding.

The US Army Center of Military History mentions a unit of sixty-three nurses went to the 168th Station Hospital in England to care for German prisoners of war in June 1944, while other served in the Pacific and North Africa.  These women might be part of the group sent to care for prisoners of war two months earlier.   

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