12 Men
Blue Crystal Eagle
My Heart is fragile
Agile in her Musing –
Full of Adhesions
Doubt, Fears and Reasons
To withdraw
I learned to love on a Battleground
Where volatile Mines
Were set down to trip
Me into Conformity
I lost small Pieces of my Mind
In hell-bent Skirmishes out of the
Blue
Always poised to defend myself –
I danced with the Devil on the front
Lines
Resistance sent me Underground
But the Devil claimed his Due –
I laid down my Soul in Surrender
To a Power I hardly knew
I lost that Battle but won the War
Therein lay my Victory –
When I died to Death my Life was born
My Story began telling me.
©Kleomichele Leeds
Olivia Hooker
Olivia J. Hooker (born February 12, 1915) is the first African-American woman to have entered the U.S. Coast Guard, which she did in February 1945. She is a retired psychologist and professor. She became a SPAR (Semper Paratus Always Ready), a member of the United States Coast Guard Women's Reserve, during World War II. She earned the Yeoman, Second Class rank during her service. She served in the Coast Guard until her unit disbanded in mid-1946. Later she went on to be a psychologist and a professor at Fordham University.
Early life and education
Hooker was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma on February 12, 1915. Ku Klux Klan members ransacked her home during the Tulsa Massacre of Black Wall Street of 1921 while she hid under a table with her three siblings. Later Hooker was a founder of the Tulsa Race Riot Commission in hopes of demanding reparations for the riot's survivors. In 2003, she was among survivors of the riot to file an unsuccessful federal lawsuit seeking reparations.
After the riots, Hooker's family moved to Columbus, Ohio where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in 1937 from Ohio State University. While at OSU, she joined the Delta Sigma Theta sorority where she advocated for African-American women to be admitted to the U.S. Navy. She received her Masters ten years later in 1947 from the Teachers College of Columbia University. In 1961, she received her PhD in psychology from the University of Rochester.
Career
U.S. Coast Guard
Hooker applied to the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) of the U.S. Navy, but was rejected due to her ethnicity. She disputed the rejection due to a technicality and Hooker was accepted. However, she had already decided to join the Coast Guard. She entered the U.S. Coast Guard in February 1945. On March 9, 1945, Hooker went to basic training for six weeks in Manhattan Beach, NY where Coast Guard Women's Reserve (SPARS) had to attend class and pass exams. She was one of only five African-American females to first enlist in the SPAR program. After basic training, Hooker specialized in the yeoman rate and remained at boot camp for an additional nine weeks before heading to Boston. Here, she performed administrative duties and earned the rank of Yeoman Second Class in the Coast Guard Women's Reserve. In June 1946, the SPAR program was disbanded and Hooker earned the rank of petty officer 2nd class and a Good Conduct Award.
Psychology
After receiving her Masters, Hooker moved upstate to work in the mental hygiene department of a women's correctional facility in Albion. Many women in this facility were considered to have severe learning disabilities by staff. Hooker believed they were more capable than given credit and re-evaluated them and helped the women to pursue better education and jobs. She credited this success by "approaching them with an open mind."
In 1963, she joined Fordham University as a senior clinical lecturer; eventually she served an associate professor until 1985.
She was one of the founders of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Division 33, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. She served as an early director of the Kennedy Child Study Center in New York City.
Later life
Hooker retired at age 87. She joined the Coast Guard Auxiliary at age 95. She is currently serving as a volunteer in the Coast Guard Auxiliary in Yonkers, NY.
Awards
American Psychological Association (APA) Presidential Citation (2011)
Good Conduct Medal Coast Guard
New York State Senate Veterans' Hall of Fame (2012)
Legacy
On Monday, February 9, 2015, Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand spoke in Congress about Hooker to "pay tribute" to her.
Also in 2015 the Olivia Hooker Dining Facility on the Staten Island coast guard facility was named in her honor. A training facility at the Coast Guard headquarters in Washington, D.C. was also named after her that same year. On May 20, 2015, President Barack Obama recognized the Coast Guard service and legacy of Olivia Hooker while in attendance at the 134th Commencement of the United States Coast Guard Academy.*
MEN
Kin 155: Blue Crystal Eagle
I dedicate in order to create
Universalizing mind
I seal the output of vision
With the crystal tone of cooperation
I am guided by the power of accomplishment
I am a galactic activation portal
Enter me.
The Law of Time is an ever-evolving system of symbolic correspondences which, when practiced telepathically, rearrange the mind.*
*Star Traveler's 13 Moon Almanac of Synchronicity, Galactic Research Institute, Law of Time Press, Ashland, Oregon, 2017-2018.
The Sacred Tzolk'in
Sahasrara Chakra (Dali Plasma)
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