BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : THE UNITED STATES COAST GUARD HAS HAD A HISTORY OF ETHNIC DIVERSITY THAT RIVALS MOST ANY OTHER FEDERAL AGENCY :

  BLACK            SOCIAL         HISTORY                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             The United States Coast Guard has had
a history of ethnic diversity that rivals
most any other federal agency. African
Americans have served in the United
States Coast Guard over its entire 220-
year history, but their participation in the
service has been largely overlooked. So it
is only fitting that we should document
some of their contributions by starting
at the Coast Guard Academy, which
pioneered the role of African American
officers in America’s sea services.
The first African American officers
in the service completed their training
at the Academy; however, rather than
enter as cadets, these men came through
the Reserve Officer Training Course,
forerunner of today’s Officer Candidate
School (OCS). The first of these unique
individuals was Joseph Charles Jenkins,
who was born in Detroit in 1914. Jenkins
began working for the Michigan State
Highway Department at a young age,
which encouraged him to earn a civil
engineering degree at the University of
Michigan. He graduated in 1937 and, for
the next five years, he continued to work
for Michigan’s highway department
while undertaking graduate studies
at Michigan State and University of
Michigan, and completing a business
administration degree through an
extension program. Before joining
the Coast Guard in 1942, he served
as a highway design engineer for the
highway department and oversaw the
construction of the Detroit Crosstown
Superhighway and the Willow Run
Industrial Expressway.
On 15 June 1942, at the ripe age of
twenty-eight, Jenkins enlisted in the
service as a boatswain’s mate first class
and was promoted to chief within a
month. During this time, he served as a
recruiter for African American enlistees
Pioneers of Ethnic Diversity in the
American Sea Services
Trained at the Academy, they broke barriers while serving their country
by William H. Thiesen, Ph.D., Atlantic Area Historian, USCG
in the Detroit area. By October, he
applied for the service’s Reserve Officer
Training Course with recommendations
from Michigan senator Prentiss Brown;
State Highway Commissioner Donald
Kelly; Lewis Downing, dean of Howard
University’s School of Engineering and
Architecture; and H.O. Nielsen, his
supervisor at the Detroit’s Coast Guard
recruiting office. In his recommendation
letter, Nielsen wrote that Jenkins
“displays keen judgment and leadership
in handling the public and in other
problems . . . [and] appears to be ideally
suited for officer material and is so
recommended.”
Jenkins was accepted and completed
the Academy-based program and
received his commission as an ensign
on 14 April 1943, becoming the first
“recognized” African American naval