A Civil Rights History for National Blood Donor Month

 

Fifty-five years ago, on December 31, 1969, President Richard Nixon proclaimed the first National Blood Donor Month in January 1970 to honor voluntary blood donors and to encourage people to give blood. January 20th is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday established in 1983. The holiday has transformed a decade later to include a National Day of Service honoring Dr. King’s activism and service that paved the way for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Both of these January commemorations are connected in significant and perhaps unexpected ways, especially if one goes back to the era of World War II.

World War II was the first war in which the banking and transporting of blood products to battlefields and military hospitals saved countless lives, thanks to Dr. Richard Drew, an African-American doctor who was born in Washington DC in 1904. In 1928, Drew began medical school at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, where he studied with a visiting professor from Great Britain, Dr. John Beattie, an expert in blood transfusion medicine at a time when there was growing interest in blood banking. The Nobel Prize in physiology in 1930 was awarded for the discovery of blood group antigens (blood typing), which made compatible blood transfusions possible. But in 1933, when Richard Drew received his Doctor of Medicine and Master of Surgery degrees from McGill, the logistics of blood donation were still largely impracticable, since whole blood had a shelf life of only one week.

In 1938, as a Rockefeller Fellow at Columbia University’s Presbyterian Hospital in NYC, Dr. Drew studied the storage and distribution of donated blood, and developed new and practical methods to separate blood plasma so that it had a shelf life of two months. Though the plasma couldn’t carry oxygen as effectively as whole blood, it was invaluable to victims of trauma. After completing his dissertation, “Banked Blood: A Study in Blood Preservation,” Richard Drew was tapped by the US government in 1940 to be the medical director of the Blood for Britain campaign. This campaign began when Great Britain was suffering the effects of heavy bombing from the German Luftwaffe. The United States knew it was only a matter of time before America entered the war and could benefit from having the infrastructure and know-how in place to ship blood products overseas.

The following year, when the Blood for Britain campaign finished, the US Red Cross recruited Dr. Drew to start a pilot program for blood collection and distribution that included community donation centers like store fronts, factory floors and “bloodmobiles,” which became one of Dr. Drew’s defining innovations. But not long after his appointment, Dr. Richard Drew felt compelled to resign from the Red Cross. At the behest of the racially segregated US military, in 1942, the organization implemented a policy to identify and segregate all collected blood units by race, to ensure that a white patient would never receive blood from a black donor. Upon his resignation, Dr. Drew boiled his objections down to three reasons: 1) an official department of the government should not willfully humiliate its citizens 2) there was no scientific basis for the practice, and 3) US soldiers needed the blood. He returned to his home city of Washington, DC to be chief surgeon at Freedmen’s Hospital.

While continuing to research and advocate for change, Dr. Drew became a sought-after speaker. One of his very first speaking engagements in May of 1942, was in Shreveport, Louisiana, when he spoke at the annual conference of the Louisiana Medical, Dental, and Pharmaceutical Association. Later known as the Louisiana Medical Association, this organization was Louisiana’s African-American medical professional association.

1942 was also the year when the Shreveport Memorial Blood Bank (now LifeShare Blood Center) opened to serve northwest Louisiana as one of the country’s first community blood banks, using their own blood banking machine, a dried plasma system. Blood collected there was intended for homefront use by local hospitals, and was banked in case of a regional emergency. The Red Cross continued its collection for wartime use at its collection centers in major cities. By the time of the Korean War, however, this wartime collection for military use had expanded to Northwest Louisiana, anchored by a blood center in the science building at Centenary college in Shreveport.

A blood mobile unit operated from the blood donation center at Centenary, and Bossier City was proud to be the recipient of this mobile unit’s very first trip when it stationed itself at Bossier High School on January 11th, 1952. The visit was coordinated by V.V Whittington, president of the Bossier Bank and Trust Company. By then the Red Cross had ended its policy to require segregated blood donations, having done so by 1950. Following the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Louisiana was the last state to overturn blood segregation requirements in 1972.

If you have local World War II, medical history or other family photos or stories to share (we will also scan and return originals if that is your preference), please visit or contact us at the History Center. We are located at 7204 Hutchison Drive (formerly called 850 City Hall Drive) just across Beckett Street from the old Central Library and History Center in Bossier City, LA. All Bossier Parish Libraries locations will be closed Wednesday, 1/1/2025. Normal operating hours for Bossier Central Library and History Center are M-Th 9-8, Fri 9-6, and Sat 9-5. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org

For other local history facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on TikTok, and check out our blog http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/.

Images: 

• Charles R. Drew, MD postage stamp, 1985, courtesy of the National Postal Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
• “American Blood for British Air Raid Victims,” 8 January 1941. Courtesy of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center Howard University, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center. Charles R. Drew Papers. https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/101584649X42.
• Blood Drive sponsorship, The Planters Press, 1 February, 1945.

Article by: Pam Carlisle 

Hooked on Sinkers: Doughnuts in Wartime

 Friday, June 3, 2022, is National Donut Day, not to be confused with November 5, 2023, National Doughnut Day.  Both are occasions to treat yourself or some friends to doughnuts (and technically both spellings of the confection are correct, too), but only the day in June has a historical story behind it, one that teaches us to never underestimate the power of doughnuts during wartime, especially WWII.

Barksdale during WWII was an excellent example of the wartime popularity of doughnuts. A story in the “Barksdale’s Bark” newspaper from February 3, 1945, ran the headline “Dunkers Devour 300 Dozen Donuts, 4,000 Cups of Java at PX Every Day.”  PX stands for Post Exchange, when Barksdale was an Army Air Field prior to the creation of the U.S. Air Force and “dunkers,” of course, refers to the time-honored tradition of dunking doughnuts in coffee. According to the article, “Among GI’s who are confirmed dunkers, 300 dozen a day vanish with a slurp, often by 10:30 am…” Sundays are when the most donuts are consumed there, at almost double the amount. The Cafeteria Manager, John Kennedy, was quoted saying, “We never have any left. Some guys take as many as 8 at a time.”

In fact, the PX previously made the doughnuts themselves but from the early 1940s they couldn’t keep up with the demand so a Shreveport bakery supplied them. A tongue-in-cheek welcome to new GIs in the July 8, 1944, issue of “Barksdale’s Bark” urged, “If it’s doughnuts and a cup of red-eye (coffee) your little heart desires, a short two-hour wait should do the trick. Even if you’re not hungry, get in line anyway. By the time you get through it you will be.”

Doughnuts, however, were doing more than just filling the hungry stomachs of GIs on breaks. Every American post had an American Red Cross (ARC) Doughnut Dugout. Returning flight crews were greeted with fresh coffee and doughnuts. These provisions got a noteworthy mention in the February 26, 1944, “Barksdale’s Bark” article about services the ARC was providing both stateside and to the soldiers overseas. “A special service that made a big hit with fliers was the coffee and donuts which awaited the crews as they returned from their combat missions.” The Bark noted in a January 1945 article about Division Rest Camps for the U.S. 1^st Army that every 30 days, a soldier is sent to the rest camp for two days. He can “sleep, visit the nearby town, eat all the doughnuts he can take, see as many movies as he likes.”

Doughnuts were provided behind the front lines by women Red Cross volunteers who drove Clubmobiles, vehicles equipped with facilities for coffee and doughnut-making, a phonograph and gum, newspapers, and a few other comfort items from home. The women who served on these vehicles were required to be college graduates, at least 25 years old, and possessing excellent interpersonal skills. They came to be known by the name “Doughnut Dollies.”

To provide this same sense of normalcy and support to soldiers serving during WWII, the Salvation Army also provided coffee and doughnuts and other relief services. In 1938, the Salvation Army in Chicago proclaimed the first Friday in June as National Doughnut Day to raise funds and honor these "Doughnut Lassies," who originally served treats and provided assistance to soldiers on the front lines during World War I.

Syndicated columnist Raymond Clapper, in a column that ran in the “Shreveport Journal” on July 19, 1943, wrote about his visit to troops in the Allied Command Post, North Africa during the height of the Sicilian campaign, when the fighter bombers were “practically seeing the whites of the enemy’s eyes in low strafing attacks on military trucks, railroad yards, radio stations and other targets.” He watched the bombers landing in a converted goat pasture, the pilots “wringing wet” with sweat and throwing off their life jackets. Then the Lt. Col. said, “Let’s check in and get over to those Red Cross doughnuts.” Clapper observed, “The biggest thing in their lives at the moment is an American Red Cross girl under an olive tree serving coffee and doughnuts. Only after a second cup of coffee and the third doughnut do you begin to hear about what (tragedy) happened over Sicily a few moments ago.”

Photo: "Wm. L. Shirer, Coffee & Sinker." The woman has an American Red Cross pin at her collar. She is likely a member of the Red Cross "Canteen Corps".

William L. Shirer (left with glasses) was an American journalist and war correspondent. 7 January 1943

Does your family have any stories, clippings or photos of Doughnut Dollies or Doughnut Lassies? Do you know what bakery in Shreveport provided those daily 300 dozen doughnuts to Barksdale during wartime? (We don’t know, and are curious.) We would love to see the items or hear your story and copy or record them, with permission, to add to the History Center’s research collection. Also, please come to the History Center to see our exhibit on the American Red Cross at 2206 Beckett St, Bossier City, LA. We are open M-Th 10-8, Fri 10-6, and Sat 10-5. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org
 
For other fun facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on TikTok, and check out our blog http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/.

Article by: Pam Carlisle

The Gray Ladies of the American Red Cross

March is Women’s History Month. Currently at the History Center we have a display about the American Red Cross, including photos and memorabilia from our collection. The volunteers depicted are all Bossier Parish women.

The American Red Cross (ARC) was founded by a woman, Clara Barton, in 1881. Ms. Barton’s American Red Cross nurses went to foreign war fronts or worked domestically as public health and blood drive nurses. Non-nursing roles to assist soldiers in maintaining sound body and mind were soon found and filled by the Red Cross, too. The Red Cross Hospital and Recreation Corps began in 1918 during WWI at the Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C. Soldiers gave the volunteers the affectionate nickname, “the gray ladies,” due to their gray uniform dresses. The name stuck, although the service did not become officially known as the Gray Lady Service until after World War II.

The "Gray Ladies" for many years provided services of a non-medical nature to sick, injured, and disabled patients, including thousands of wounded American servicemen. During World War I, World War II and the Korean War, the Gray Ladies wrote letters and read to wounded soldiers, helped them get involved in crafts and other activities to alleviate the isolation and boredom of a hospital stay. They also fulfilled this need in veteran and some civilian hospitals.

The first hospital in the Shreveport area to have a Gray Ladies service was the Pines Road Sanitarium in 1938. Soon the Veteran’s hospital at Fort Humbug (later called the Overton Brooks V.A. Medical Center) gained a large cadre of Gray Ladies and the base hospital at Barksdale Air Force Base also had Gray Ladies within its Barksdale ARC chapter. In fact, it relied heavily on Red Cross volunteers.

At a party for Barksdale Red Cross volunteers to honor retiring and newly-arriving field directors in 1958, Barksdale’s volunteer services chairman, Mrs. D. P. Wood, requested that potential volunteers contact the base Red Cross office ASAP. She made her case by passing along a statement from Col. W.D. Preston, commander of the base hospital, that “there is a great need for many more who can work as volunteer registered nurses, nurses’ aides, Gray Ladies or staff aides, to help expedite a competent medical program for dependents and service personnel.” The Well Baby Clinic, for example, “is completely staffed by volunteers and more are needed to keep this important service going as it should.”

A Gray Lady went through several hours of training and a probationary period to “earn her cap” in a special candlelit ceremony at the base chapel with military and Red Cross dignitaries in attendance. Her cap would be presented by the base’s own Gray Lady chairman or co-chairman. An example of one of the women in these professional-level, volunteer positions was Mrs. Mildred Buckingham, an officer’s wife who was chairman of the Gray Ladies of the Barksdale Chapter of the American Red Cross. The Barksdale Observer reported in 1959 that, much to the chagrin of her teen and preteen children, Mrs. Buckingham kept her home telephone line tied up with the work of coordinating the schedules, duties and needs of the Gray Ladies of Barksdale. Like many of the women in base volunteer leadership positions, she had volunteered many hours herself, as a PTA officer, in welcoming other Air Force families through base Family Services, and of course, serving as a Gray Lady herself.

The Gray Ladies program ended in the 1960s when Red Cross programs became more streamlined. If you have any information, stories or photos about the Gray Ladies at Barksdale or other Bossier Parish Red Cross volunteers, we would love to see them or to copy them, with permission, to add to the History Center’s research collection. Please come to the History Center to see our exhibit on the American Red Cross at 2206 Beckett St, Bossier City, LA. We are open M-Th 10-8, Fri 10-6, and Sat 10-5. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org

Photo: Mrs. Mildred Buckingham, Chairmanof the Gray Ladies of the Barksdale Chapter of the American Red Cross, 1959

For other fun facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on TikTok, 

Article by: Pam Carlisle

Bossier Librarian Organizes Victory Book Campaign

Anytime there is war, organizations like the American Red Cross jump into action to support the troops. Shortly after America entered World War II, the Red Cross, the United States Organization for National Defense, and the American Library Association joined together to address the need for books for our rapidly growing military.

Immediately after the national book campaign announcement, the Bossier Parish Libraries council called a meeting with representatives from each town in the parish, where they made plans to back the campaign. A call to action appeared in The Planters Press, asking all Bossierites to donate to the cause. All books were welcomed, with used books being cleaned and repaired as needed.

According to the announcement, “These books will be sent to army camps in this area. Many of our boys who are in camp or who will be later, have had to discontinue their studies of various types, some of them would continue their work if the necessary text books were available, and of course books for recreation hours are always needed. The Victory Book Campaign slogan is ‘Give the Book You Are Now Reading.’”

Collection containers were placed in the schools throughout the parish. Each branch of the Bossier Parish Libraries accepted donations, and the bookmobile collected donations at each stop. And, in Bossier City, containers were also placed at City Hall, Barksdale Drug, the Planters Press, Bossier State Bank, the Bossier Tribune, and the Post Office.

Portrait of Mary Elisabeth Williams by A. Menosco.
Bossier Parish Library Collection: 2000.093.001.

Parish Librarian Elisabeth Williams appointed committee members to oversee various aspects of the campaign. Mrs. S.E. Norris led working with Bossier City Schools. Mrs. Nelson covered Haughton. Publicity in Bossier City was assigned to Mrs. Morris and Mrs. Dupuy. The containers for Bossier City were placed by Rev. A.P. Smith and Roy E. Horton. And A.R. Teague oversaw radio publicity.

The types of books needed also appeared in the announcement. The list included topics like applied psychology, current affairs, business, accounting, up-to-date technical books, mechanical drawing, photography, music, poetry, sports, geography, biography, history, novels, writing, math, mysteries, and westerns. All books donated were stamped, “Gift of the people of the United States through the Victory Book Campaign.”

The books were distributed across the nation to Army camps, Naval stations, Coast Guard stations, Merchant Marine libraries, and United States Organization centers. Five-million books were collected within the first five months of the campaign. The campaign ran from the beginning of 1942 through 1943, with approximately seventeen million books passing through the campaign clearinghouse in New York.

For the past eighty-one years, the Bossier Parish Library has proudly provided access to materials, programs, and technologies that enrich, educate, and inspire the residents of this great parish. To learn more about the Bossier Parish Library’s history, visit the BPL History Center at 2206 Beckett Street, Bossier City. Follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on Tiktok, and check out our blog, http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/.

By: Amy Robertson

WWI and Local American Red Cross Societies

Book, "The Red Cross" by Clara Barton, 1898.
Mae Helverson Collection: 2015.010.001

This Friday marks the 140th anniversary of the American Red Cross, which was founded by Clara Barton and "a circle of her acquaintances." When World War I broke out in the summer of 1914, it experienced phenomenal growth as "the number of local chapters jumped from 107 in 1914 to 3,864 in 1918 and membership grew from 17,000 to over 20 million adult and 11 million Junior Red Cross members." Bossier Parish being the patriotic and charitable community that it is, established three Red Cross Societies during the spring of 1917.

It all began when a movement was started in April that year by the Shreveport Lion's Club during a luncheon at the Hotel Youree to establish a chapter of the National Red Cross in Shreveport. Immediately following this organization, Red Cross Societies began organizing throughout Bossier Parish. These societies served as auxiliaries to the Shreveport chapter. The first two societies were formed in Benton and Plain Dealing that May, then in Bossier City in July.

That June, the American Red Cross announced its first War Fund drive to raise 100 million dollars and reached this goal in one week. But that did not slow down the efforts of the local Red Cross Societies from increasing memberships and asking for donations. Including Drs. D. J. McAnn of Atkins and S. E. Prince of Curtis, who traveled together through the parish collecting subscriptions for the benefit of wounded soldiers and sailors, provided through the American Red Cross Society.

American Red Cross Poster, c 1918.
By Artist Wladyslaw T. Benda
Retrieved from Library of Congress,
<www.loc.gov/item/2002708897/>.

When fall came and the threat of winter just around the corner, an urgent request was made to the Red Cross headquarters by Maj. Grayson Murphy, head of the American Red Cross in France. The request was for the immediate shipment of one million five hundred thousand each of warm knitted woolen sweaters, mufflers, wristlets, and socks. The Shreveport chapter was tasked with supplying five thousand of each article listed. To meet this quota, they needed the cooperation of every woman in the six parishes under its jurisdiction. Naturally, the women of Bossier bought wool and got busy knitting.

The Caddo-Bossier Red Cross chapter published a statement at the end of 1918, giving an account of its total receipts and disbursements from the time of organization, in spring of 1917, through the end of Oct. 1918. The various receipts totaled to $115,186.73 and the disbursements totaled $80,323.47, that’s equivalent to $1,408,996 today. They also reported 13,410 knitted garments, 29,778 hospital garments, 14,544 refugee garments, and 155,783 surgical dressings made by local women and distributed to the soldiers and sailors.

For 104 years, the local chapter of the American Red Cross has been in operation. They "alleviated human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors. Its members offer aid and resources to others to prevent, prepare for and respond to emergencies through immediate assistance, education, outreach and training. Today, in addition to domestic disaster relief, the American Red Cross offers educational programs that promote health and safety, support and comfort for military members and their families, and provide international relief and development programs."

By: Amy Robertson

It's Not About Glitz and Glitter...

From our photo collection, in honor of the season and the 100-year anniversary of WWI: 

0000.014.036 Pearl Rials collection

World War I era Christmas tree, decorated with American Red Cross bags. Note on back of the photo says “D.A. Rials, Christmas tree, just make believe 1917, decorated with scraps of paper—no gifts”. 
From the History Center family to your family, may we all remember what is truly of value in this holiday season.