Richardson, Jessie Oral History

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Jessie Ada Richardson was born in Aug 1923 in New Orleans, LA. She was very poor as a child. Her mother did laundry at home and her father was a waiter on the railroad line. Her Father was away a lot, but he wrote them letters every day. Her Mother died when she was 5 years old of a ruptured appendix. She had gone to the hospital, but they did have enough space for “Coloreds” and she was denied a bed. Jessie graduated from high school from MacDonald No 35 in 1941. She was working, selling government bonds in Chicago when she heard on the radio in 1944 that they were going to allow African American women to enlist, she went down to enlist in the Navy WAVE program the next Monday morning. She went to Hunter College in New York. She believes she was the first African American in WAVE and remembers the press taking pictures of her and being in newsreels. (The interviewer shares that there were actually two women ahead of her by date.) She remembers being assigned to her first apartment and being grouped with white women that treated her really well. When she was fitted for her uniform, she did it at Sacks Fifth Avenue and they took pictures while she was being fitted. The training was for 6 weeks, but it took another 6 weeks for the Navy to get them assigned. They sent all 9 African American women that went through the training to San Diego, CA. She started with clerical work, but she taught herself Morse code and was assigned to the radio room. She recalls being in the room and crying when they decoded the message about the A-bomb and she learned how many people had died. She remembers that when she was out, people would take pictures of her and were very proud of her. She received almost 300 letters from people. When she was at jazz concerts, sometimes the musicians would see her in uniform and ask her on stage. She stayed in the radio room until she was discharged in 1946. While in the service, the Doctor found an issue with her heart and she believes this led to her discharge. After the service, she had trouble finding a job despite her experience, because she was African American. She eventually found a job with the city of Detroit and later moved to Los Angeles.