Vol. 65, No. 1 spring 2020 76


4. Cutter Sea Cloud earned greater fame as the fi rst offi cially desegregated Federal ship, with African Americans serving not only as ordinary petty offi cers but also as offi cers and non-commissioned offi cers. (Courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard)


Beginning in 1920, the cutter boasted an entirely black enlisted force while Kankakee’s crew was composed of white offi cers and men. With the exception of offi cers and non-commissioned offi cers (NCOs), Yocona’s enlisted crew was entirely African American, including petty offi cers in every rating.


By enlisting an all-black force of petty offi cers, Yocona’s offi cers had set a precedent for desegregating the nation’s sea service vessels. While Yocona may be considered the fi rst desegregated Federal ship in American history, the Service never publicly recognized the cutter as such. More than likely, the Coast Guard recruited the best-qualifi ed watermen near its homeport of Vicksburg. T e fact that the Coast Guard operated a cutter with an integrated crew nearly a hundred years ago is history making in itself. However, the fact that Yocona was home- ported in a state that boasted the nation’s worst record of discrimination and violence toward blacks makes this achievement all the more remarkable.


Desegregation of United States Navy ships came over


twenty years later. In the spring of 1944, the Navy desegregated its fi rst ship using Yocona’s system of black enlisted men with white offi cers and NCOs. On the other hand, the Coast Guard’s wartime desegregated cutters, such as USS Sea Cloud, assigned African American men to every level of command, including offi cers and NCOs. And, the Coast Guard’s desegregated cutters began operation a year earlier than the Navy’s fi rst integrated warships, such as destroyer escort USS Mason, which has been made famous through recent books and movies.


T rough 1925, the Coast Guard stationed cutter Yocona at Vicksburg to provide assistance during the seasonal fl oods that


historically plagued the


Mississippi. It proved a pioneering cutter in three ways. In a service known to adopt new kinds of ship hulls and propulsion, this was the Coast Guard’s fi rst stern paddlewheeler. Yocona was also the fi rst Coast Guard cutter stationed on the nation’s rivers. More importantly, Yocona proved the fi rst Federal vessel in peacetime manned by a racially integrated crew. Ironically, this desegregated river cutter’s homeport was located in the heart of the Deep South.


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