Military

Major General Harris (ret., 1943-2018) was the first Black woman to reach the rank of Major General in the U.S. Air Force. When she retired in 1997, she was the highest-ranking woman officer in the Air Force and the highest-ranking Black woman in the entire U.S. military. Prior to her retirement, she served as director of maintenance and deputy chief of staff for logistics at the U.S. Air Force Headquarters in Washington, D.C. She managed a workforce of over 125,000 personnel and oversaw a $260 billion Global Reach Global Power aerospace weapons system inventory. She also developed maintenance policy and determined an annual budget of more than $20 billion to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Office of Management and Budget and Congress.

 In 2020 Swegle, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, became both the U.S. Navy's second Black woman naval aviator to earn her wings of gold when she became the U.S. Navy's first Black woman tactical jet pilot.

Lieutenant General Nadja West (ret.) was the 44th Surgeon General of the United States Army.

Cagle (1959) is a Physician, U.S. Air Force Colonel (ret.), NASA astronaut, and educator.

Admiral Howard (ret.) was the first black woman to command a U.S. Navy ship. She was the first woman to be promoted to the rank of Four-Star Admiral in the U.S. Navy and the first African American and woman to serve as the Vice Chief of Naval Operations (2014).

Extraordinary

Ng (1956) was the first Black woman to earn her wings in the United States Armed Forces (1979).

Sarah Louise Keys Evans' refusal to give up her bus seat led to a landmark Interstate Commerce Commission ruling that banned segregation in interstate travel. In 1952, Evans, a Women's Army Corps member on leave from Fort Dix dressed in full military uniform, boarded a Carolina Trailways bus in Trenton, New Jersey heading home to Washington, N.C. Around midnight in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, a new driver took over. The new driver went down the aisle to check tickets and ordered her to give up her seat to a white Marine, despite the 1946 Morgan v. Virginia Supreme Court ruling that banned segregation in interstate travel. When Evans refused, the new driver had all of the passengers except Evans depart the bus and move to a different bus.

Brenda "Raven" Robinson (1956) is the Navy's first black woman to earn her wings of gold (June 6, 1980).

Katz Drug Store

In 1942, Earley (1918-2002) became the first Black woman to be commissioned as an officer in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC). After initially serving as a staff training officer, station control officer, and company commander at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, she was promoted to major in September 1943, coinciding with the transition from WAAC to WAC (Women's Auxillary Corps). In 1945, During World War II she commanded the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion (The Six Triple 8) and led the only all-Black, all-female battalion to serve overseas. The 6888th was responsible for sorting and delivering mail to nearly seven million soldiers in the European Theater of Operations. She ultimately achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel, the highest rank available to women in the WAC at that time.

YMCA, WWI