Jean M. Bright 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/386
What's in the full collection?: 2012 oral history transcript; Papers, photographs and artifacts and textiles document Jean M. Bright's Red Cross service in New Guinea, Japan, and the Philippines during World War II. Papers include five postcards from New Guinea; a postcard of the S.S. Lurline, the passenger troop ship that Bright sailed on; a 1945 Christmas card from the Philippines, and a 1944 immunization register. Postcards contain brief messages about an all-African American church in New Guinea and about the cabin Bright shared with five other African American Red Cross workers on the Lurline; Photographs depict a Red Cross club building; Bright in her Red Cross uniform; the city of Manila and locals in the Philippines; Tokyo in late 1945 and after the war; and the Kamakura Buddha in Japan. Artifacts and textiles include Bright's Red Cross overseas cap and skirt as well as souvenirs from her service in Japan and the Philippines; including Japanese and Filipino shoes and a Filipino salacot. Collection also includes photocopies, clippings, letters, and other materials about Bright's non-military life.
Full biography: Jean M. Bright (1915-2013) served with the American Red Cross in New Guinea and Japan from 1944 to 1946. Jean Marie Bright was born on 25 September 1915, the daughter of farmers John and Lollie Bright of Rutherford County, North Carolina. She graduated from the Allen Home High School in Asheville, North Carolina, in 1933, and then attended North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, from which she graduated in 1939. In the late 1930s and early 1940s Bright moved between various cities in North Carolina and New York for teaching various jobs. In summer 1942 she moved to Washington, D.C., to work as a clerk-typist in the adjutant general's office at the Pentagon. The following year she returned to Greensboro and served as director of recreation for the Windsor Community Center in Greensboro. Bright joined the American Red Cross in September 1944. After training in Washington, and at Camp Pickett, Virginia, she was sent to Camp Pendleton in California for embarkation to the Pacific in December 1944. Bright worked in recreational clubs in Finchaven, New Guinea, for almost a year, and then in Tokyo, Japan, until May 1946. Following her discharge, Bright worked at several jobs, including as a clerical worker at Macy's in Washington, at the Harvard Coop in Massachusetts, and as a substitute teacher in Louisburg, North Carolina. She received a maste's degree in English from Columbia University in 1953 and returned to Greensboro, where she taught at North Carolina A&T State University until 1978. In 1979, she set up a summer camp for low-income children in Rutherford County, North Carolina.
Topics: Women's History
Military
Branch of service: Red Cross
Conflict: World War II era (1940-1946)
Subject headings: World War, 1939-1945
American Red Cross
Contributing Institution: Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries

: American Red Cross Military Welfare Service Patch, circa 1940s

: Oral history interview with Jean Bright; Documents Jean Marie Bright's early life and education in Greensboro, North Carolina; work and social experiences in New York City and Washington, D.C.; service with the American Red Cross from 1944 to 1946; and teaching in North Carolina before and after World War II. Bright discusses attending a private high school for black students in 1929 and her experiences teaching in a one-teacher school after graduating high school. She also talks about the effects of segregation in her pursuits of higher education and employment and moving between North Carolina and the northern states between 1936 and 1943 as work and study opportunities arose. " Bright provides detailed information about her experiences of segregation as a Red Cross worker, and of her encounters with other black servicemen and women. She discusses her work in the recreational unit, serving beverages and doughnuts and engaging in conversation with the troops. Bright recounts personal experiences in New Guinea, the Philippines and Japan with local residents and army personnel. Other topics of interest include Bright's refusal to open a segregated service club in Japan at the expense of receiving a promotion, and gaining knowledge of the end of the war two weeks before V-E Day. " Other subjects include Bright's experience aboard an ocean liner en route to the South Pacific; attending and teaching at North Carolina A and T State University; the civil rights movement in Greensboro, North Carolina; and her family history. Race relations and the effects of segregation are discussed in depth.

: Portrait of Jean M. Bright; Portrait of Jean M. Bright, circa 1945, in her ANC Military Welfare winter uniform with the Military Welfare overseas cap and black leather handbag.

: Portrait of Jean Marie Bright; Portrait of Jean Marie Bright against a backdrop of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., probably taken in Fall of 1944. Bright wears the American Red Cross Military Welfare winter uniform with the Military Welfare overseas cap.

: Red Cross club, Finchaven, New Guinea; A Red Cross club in the Pacific Theatre, probably New Guinea, identified in the sign as Club Simbang, circa 1945.

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Women Veterans Historical Project

Jean M. Bright Collection

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