The Long Blue Line: Olivia Hooker - Minority Trailblazer and Community Leader

“She is to be admired for her initiative and courage. Solely on the basis of qualifications, Miss Hooker is one of the outstanding young women ever accepted for the SPARs and it is a pleasure to recommend her.” -Lt. Margaret Tighe (SPAR Recruiter, 1945)

At 98 years old, Olivia Hooker recalled her experiences as one of the first African-American female members in the Coast Guard SPAR program during World War II.

Although she was nearly 30 years old when President Roosevelt ordered the female military corps WAVES and SPARS opened to all minorities, her friend Coast Guardsman Alex Haley (author, Roots) encouraged her to join.

Upon her enlistment, Lt. Margaret Tighe, a recruiter at the Columbus recruiting station, wrote, “It was not easy for Miss Hooker to take the step of enlistment. She is the first Negro woman to be accepted by the SPARs, and is in full realization of this fact. She feels a sincere desire to serve and further feels that she is opening a field for the young women of her own race.”

By mid 1946, the SPARS were disbanded giving Ms. Hooker other ways in which to excel. Using her GI Bill benefits, she earned a masters degree in psychology from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Rochester. By the early 1960’s, Hooker began a career as a psychologist and a professor of psychology at New York’s Fordham University.

She retired in 2002 at the age of 87 after a long career in education and mental health care.

Now, at the age of 101, Hooker remains an important member of the long blue line and an example of the Coast Guard’s core values of honor, respect and devotion to duty.