Henrietta Stevenson Ingram Collection

Details

Who's responsible?: Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries (Repository)
How much has been digitized?: Only a part of this collection has been digitized.
Where can I find more information?: https://uncg.as.atlas-sys.com/repositories/2/resources/860
What's in the full collection?: February 1999 oral history transcript; photograph of Douglas Army Air Base, March 1944.
Full biography: Henrietta Stevenson Ingram (1925-2015), of Statesville, North Carolina, served as a mimeograph operator and nurse's aide in an African American unit of the Women's Army Corps (WAC) from 1943 to 1944, and as a medical lab technician following World War II. Henrietta Stevenson Ingram (b. 1925) was born in Statesville, North Carolina. Both of her parents passed away by the time she was thirteen. Ingram attended Morningside High School and then worked at the Betty Lou Shop in Salisbury, North Carolina. In early 1943, Ingram enlisted in the WAC and was inducted in Charlotte. Ingram attended basic training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, and was then assigned to Douglas Army Air Base, Arizona, with other African American WACs. She first worked as a mimeograph operator in the print shop. Ingram later served as a nurse's aide in the base clinic. In December 1943, Ingram left the army due to her marriage and pregnancy. Her husband remained in the navy, and was stationed in New York following World War II. In March 1951, Ingram began work as a nurse's aide at Ewing Hospital in New York City, while attending laboratory and x-ray technician classes on the GI Bill. Following completion of that program, she was given a job at Bird S. Coler Hospital doing blood bank and serology work. In 1959 she went to the Veterans Administration (VA) Hospital in the Bronx as the supervising technician in serology. In 1962, she began work at the Military Sea Transportation Service, Brooklyn Army Terminal, and took night courses. In 1970 Ingram took charge of the lab at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn, New York, and continued going to school at night until she completed her bachelor's degree at York College in Jamaica, New York. She remained at Fort Hamilton for fourteen years, until her retirement around 1984, and then moved back to North Carolina to reside in Greensboro.
Topics: Women's History
Military
Branch of service: Army -- WAC
Army -- AAF
Conflict: World War II era (1940-1946)
Subject headings: World War, 1939-1945
United States. Army--Women
Contributing Institution: Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries

: Oral history interview with Henrietta Stevenson Ingram; Primarily documents Henrietta Stevenson Ingram's military service with the Women's Army Corps (WAC) from 1943 to 1944; her career in allied medical professions after the war; and her experiences with racism during both time periods. Ingram discusses her decision to enlist in the WAC in 1943, including the role of being orphaned at thirteen and her use of a dead older sister's birth certificate to get around age requirements. She describes basic training at a segregated facility in Des Moines, Iowa, especially drilling in the cold and kitchen patrol duty. Ingram also discusses in detail her assignment to the print shop at Douglas as a typesetter and mimeograph operator, and her great disappointment at being reassigned due to the supervisor's disapproval of women in the military. She recounts another example of gender discrimination for a WAC who broke fraternization rules with her fiancÃƒÂ©. Ingram also describes her social life at Douglas, including visits to nearby Fort Huachuca." Notable are Ingram's examples of racism in the army, including assignment of black WACs to maid-like duties and her use as a practice subject for white doctors during surgery. Ingram describes her resistance to assignment as a maid and her efforts to integrate the base service club and movie theater, which resulted in a personal visit from Eleanor Roosevelt to investigate the situation. She also describes public attitude toward blacks and women in the military during World War II; post-war experiences with racism in public accommodations and church membership; and the role of African American veterans in the civil rights movement of the 1960s." Ingram also details her post-military career as a nurse's aid, laboratory technician, and serology lab supervisor, and the role of the GI Bill-funded education in that career.