Aileen Cole

Aileen Cole

U.S. Army

Quick Facts

Significance:

African American Nurse during World War One

Place of Birth:

Piqua, Ohio

Date of Birth:

1893

Place of Death:

Tacoma, Washington

Date of Death:

1997

Aileen Bertha Cole was born in Piqua, Ohio in 1893. Little is known about her early life. Her mother passed away when she was thirteen years old. She originally attended Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, but dropped out because of the lack of money. Freedman’s College became her second chance at a degree. She entered the Freedman’s Hospital Training School in Washington DC in 1914. Cole had to prove she was ready for medical training by completing three months of probationary work before becoming a full-time student. In the article ‘Ready to Serve’ written by Cole she said, “Freshman students were given more nursing responsibilities and assigned to either night or day shifts of 12 hours each. How we dreaded night duty, which did not excuse us from day class lectures.” In 1917, Cole passed her state board exams, just as the United States entered World War I. She was willing and determined to join the Army nurses who were looking for new recruits. Yet, she and other nurses from Freedman were put on a reserve list because of their race. The next best thing was to join the American Red Cross.

The 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic changed many peoples view of Black nurses by acknowledging their help was severely needed. The experience also proved that Black nurses were top tier nurses. The Spanish Flu caused over 50 million deaths, 675,000 of which were in the United States. Red Cross nurses were spread throughout communities to help those afflicted with the Spanish Flu. Mining towns and transportation hubs were the top priority for the Red Cross to make sure the soldiers had fuel and transportation during World War I. While helping in Charleston, South Carolina, Cole wrote in her diary, “Staff too tired from the struggle with wholesale deaths to think about rules of segregation.” Once the number of sick patients went down, Cole and others received new assignments. Many nurses hoped to go overseas, but that was not to be. Cole and her friend Sue Rollings were assigned to Bretz, West Virginia. Bretz was a coal mining town that was a major fuel supply for US Forces.

Two Black nurses traveling alone was cause for questioning and curious gazes. Railroad crews asked what they were doing and why they were headed to Bretz, Cole responded, “’Red Cross Nurses,’ [which] proved to be a magic password to courtesy, respect, and friendliness.” Cole and Rollings reported to Bretz and immediately started with house calls and organizing a field hospital. Only hours later Cole received a new assignment to Cascade, West Virginia over the ridge from Bretz. Braving the fall chill, she hopped into the local physician’s car, and they headed to Cascade. They delivered aspirin, medicinal whiskey, and cough syrup to many patients in the area. Cole wrote, that “In the clearing was the company office, the company boarding house, and the commissary. I was to lodge at the boarding house. The only other woman around was the cook.” The Preston County Coal and Coke Company made up most of the town infrastructure. Cole later stated in her article, “By November 11, a field hospital for six of the sickest miners was a reality, set up in a room over the commissary. The only casualty so far in Cascade was an infant. That was the day the war ended, but we did not know it until the morning work train arrived the next morning. I was glad the war was over, but sorry Negro nurses were not called to serve”

The Spanish Flu did what the war could not and forced the US Army to drop its ban of Black nurses. On November 13, Cole received a letter from Clara D. Noyes, Red Cross director of field nursing. The letter stated, “The Surgeon General has called for a limited number of Negro nurses, enrolled in the Red Cross to be available for service December 1, 1918. Your name has been selected.” Her dream of serving as an Army nurse was within reach. She turned down a full-time job with the Preston County Coal and Coke Company, where she could have decided her own salary, to take the job with the Army. Cole made history as one of eighteen Black nurses called into service. She and nine others were sent to Camp Sherman in Chillicothe, Ohio. It was a hive of flu infected soldiers and prisoners of war (POW). Dr. L.C. Allen, a Georgia physician observed that the Spanish Flu, “germs are the most democratic creatures in the world; they know no distinction of ‘race, color, or previous conditions of servitude.’”

They were assigned to “separate but equal” living quarters and had a maid who helped cook and clean for the busy nurses. The men in their care were African American soldiers and the POWs. The ‘Daily Scioto Gazette,’ wrote that Camp Sherman “had the highest death rate of any [Army] camp in the country.” The nurses helped those stricken with flu and injuries sustained overseas. By early 1919, over 50,000 soldiers that were severely injured, gassed, and disabled were brought back state-side and taken in by the Camp Sherman hospitals.

On August 16, 1919, Cole’s nursing unit was discharged. Cole recalled, “The story of the Negro nurse in World War I is not spectacular. We arrived after the Armistice was signed, which alone was anticlimactic. We had no opportunity for ‘service above and beyond the call of duty.’ But each one of us, in course of our professional relationships, did contribute quietly and with dignity to the idea that justice demands professional equality for all qualified nurses.” Through hard work and determination, she became one of the first African American nurses for the United States Army during World War I.

Cole moved to New York City, New York after her service and became the superintendent of the Booker T. Washington Sanitarium. Later, she worked as a public health nurse for thirty-four years. In 1928, she married George Stewart, and they had one daughter. In 1956 she moved to Seattle to be closer to her grown daughter. She worked at the Seattle Swedish Hospital. At 68 years old, she returned to school at the University of Washington and earned her Bachelor of Science in Public Health. She volunteered as a Red Cross home health teacher and in youth programs until she died. She died in Tacoma, Washington in 1997.