A historic leadership change
Capt. Janet Days becomes first Black woman to lead Naval Station Norfolk
What a monumental day it was when Capt. Janet Days took command of Naval Station Norfolk. She became the 51st Navy officer to hold that post — and the first Black woman to do so.
It was fitting that the change of command ceremony was held during Black History Month. It would have been almost as apt if it had happened in March, Women’s History Month. Both women and people of color have faced many obstacles in their efforts to be treated equitably in the Navy and other branches of the military. Any Black woman reaching such a high position has undoubtedly had to overcome a double load of prejudices.
If you wonder how historic it is to see a Black woman installed as the commander of the world’s largest naval base, and how far we have come in a relatively short time, consider:
It was just a little more than a century ago that the first woman officially enlisted in the U.S. Navy. In 1917, with our involvement in World War I looming large, the Navy allowed Loretta Walsh to enlist. The hope was that seeing a woman volunteer to serve might inspire more young men to join. She became a chief petty officer.
It took another major war — World War II — for the Navy to get its first female line officer. LCDR Mildred H. McAfee became the director of the WAVES.
The Navy didn’t get its first woman flag
officer until Rear Adm. Alene B. Duerk in 1972.
Women weren’t allowed to attend the
U.S. Naval Academy until 1976; the first graduated in 1980.
Women weren’t allowed to serve on combat ships until 1993. The first women officers were allowed on submarines in 2010; the first enlisted women boarded subs in 2016. The first woman became an executive officer on a sub this past November.
The Navy had no black officers until 1944. After years of keeping the races in separate units, the Navy desegregated in 1946.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt opened
the Navy to black women in 1948.
The first Black graduate of Annapolis was in 1949. A man, of course. The first Black woman graduated in 1980.
The first woman to command Naval Station Norfolk was Vice Adm. Mary Jackson, from 2010-2012. Days hailed her as having blazed the trail.
There’s no question that Days is well qualified for her new job. She moved up after more than a year as executive officer, the second in command. Having served on several ships, she knows the importance and workings of a Navy base. She’s had command of a destroyer, the USS McFaul.
She’s been the executive officer of Surface Warfare Schools Command in Newport, Rhode Island.
As an added bonus: She’s a local product of sorts, having graduated summa cum laude from Old Dominion University in Norfolk.
She’s also well aware that she will be a role model and inspiration for women of all ethnic backgrounds. The message she wants them to take away from her experience, she said, is that “the opportunities you get are all based on hard work.” Young women can also see in her life evidence that, yes, they can overcome lingering prejudices against women, in the Navy and elsewhere. Black sailors, too, can take heart in seeing that the path to success really is open to them. Their future is largely in their own hands.
Sometimes it seems as though in the United States, women and people of color take several steps forward only to be pushed back again. They make progress and then see new obstacles put in their way — or old ones revived — by politicians and other people still driven by old prejudices.
Having Capt. Days make history as the first Black woman commander of Naval Station Norfolk is encouraging evidence that we really have come a long way.
Women and Black people — and Black women — can succeed through hard work and determination.
There’s no going back. Thank goodness.