She Made History 78 Years Ago Today: The Untold Legacy of Phyllis Mae Dailey, the First Black Navy Nurse

Seventy-eight years ago today, Phyllis Mae Dailey shattered one of the U.S. military’s most stubborn racial barriers and quietly rewrote American history. At a time when Black women in the armed forces were overlooked, excluded, and often erased from public memory, Dailey’s groundbreaking service paved the way for generations of Black nurses who serve proudly in the Navy today.

While Black women now make up a steadily growing presence in the U.S. armed forces—a shift documented in recent military reports (Department of Defense)—the landscape was drastically different during World War II. Segregation policies, discriminatory recruitment systems, and deep-rooted bias created enormous hurdles for Black Americans seeking to serve. Stories like the WWII Black Women’s Army Corps and the long fight for recognition have only resurfaced in recent decades, thanks to historians, educators, and institutions like the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC).

Among these pioneers stands Dailey—an extraordinary woman whose name too often goes unmentioned.

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Her Path to Nursing and Military Service

According to VA News, Phyllis Mae Dailey graduated from New York’s Lincoln School of Nursing, one of the nation’s premier institutions for Black nurses at the time. She later attended Teachers College at Columbia University, where she pursued a public health degree. Her dream was to enlist and serve her country during World War II.

But the Army and the Air Force rejected her applications because of her race—an experience widely reported among Black nurses during the era (NMAAHC; Smithsonian Magazine).

Instead of giving up, Dailey turned to the Navy Nurse Corps, which had never admitted a Black woman. That changed on March 8, 1945, when she was officially sworn in, becoming the first African-American Navy nurse in World War II. The decision marked a pivotal shift inside a branch of the military that had long resisted racial integration.

Dailey understood that her service wasn’t just personal—it was political. It was a symbolic and practical victory for every Black applicant who had been denied the chance to serve.

“I want to be just another nurse accepted into the service, and I’ll do a good job. That’s what’s expected of me. You can’t keep us back any longer; the new world is coming,” Dailey told reporters, as cited by AAREG.

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A Movement Backed by Influential Allies

Dailey’s induction didn’t happen in isolation. She was a member of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN), a powerful group fighting for equal opportunity in military service.

The NACGN had two major allies:

• Eleanor Roosevelt, former First Lady and one of the most outspoken advocates for equal participation of Black nurses during WWII

• Mabel Keaton Staupers, executive secretary of the NACGN and a formidable strategist for integration

Together, Roosevelt and Staupers argued that the continued exclusion of Black nurses—even after formal bans were lifted in 1944—was both unethical and harmful to the war effort. Roosevelt leveraged her influence to pressure multiple women’s military units, including:

• WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service)

• SPARS (the women’s reserve of the Coast Guard)

• The Marine Corps Women’s Reserve

Her efforts helped force long-overdue change, as reported by BlackDoctor.org and other historic archives.

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The Doors She Opened

Dailey’s historic enlistment became a catalyst. After she broke through the barrier:

• Edith Mazie Devoe

• Helen Fredericka Turner

• Eula Lucille Stimley

all joined the Navy Nurse Corps, following Dailey’s example. When World War II came to an end in August 1945, those four women stood together as the only active-duty Black nurses in the entire Navy Nurse Corps—a powerful symbol of both progress and the long road still ahead (U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command).

Meanwhile, other military branches were beginning to integrate as well:

• SPARS opened its ranks in October 1944

• WAVES followed in December 1944

Still, the Navy Nurse Corps remained the last holdout, ending race-based exclusion only in January 1945, mere weeks before Dailey’s swearing-in.

Even then, Dailey understood what her service meant for the future. Reflecting on the moment, she said:

“[I] knew the barriers were going to be broken down eventually and felt the more applicants, the better the chances would be for each person.”

Her prediction proved true.

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Her Legacy Today

Thanks to pioneers like Dailey, today’s Navy Nurse Corps looks vastly different from the one she entered. African Americans now make up about 30 percent of the nearly 3,000 men and women serving in the Corps—a powerful testament to how far the institution has come (U.S. Navy).

Dailey passed away in 1977, but her courage continues to inspire generations of nurses, service members, and Black women determined to serve their country with pride and excellence.

We honor Phyllis Mae Dailey today—and every day—for her bravery, her persistence, and the barriers she broke.
Thank you for your service.