WWII Liberty and Victory ships named for African Americans


Lincoln Cushing. Originally published in the Kaiser Permanente "History of Total Health" blog 4/13/2015, republished 8/24/2026




One of our patriotic messages during World War II was that our society was better than that promoted by the Axis forces. And part of that messaging was about how we were more tolerant and inclusive than Hitler’s “master Aryan race.”

To Americans of color, all of them keenly aware of our segregated military, our “relocation camps” for Japanese Americans, or the whites-only Boilermakers union in the shipyards, this was a challenging sell. But winning the war demanded huge changes in attitude from everyone.

Before the war ended, 18 Liberty ships built for the Maritime Commission were named and launched for outstanding African Americans. Towards the end of the war four were named for black Merchant Mariners who perished under fire.  In addition, four Victory ships were named for historically black colleges. Six of these 22 ships were built in Kaiser shipyards. Ships thus named were a tremendous source of pride in the African American community.

Names for individual ships were selected by the Maritime Commission’s Ship Naming Committee.

The SS John Hope [#272] was launched January 30, 1944. It was Kaiser Richmond shipyard #2’s 272nd Liberty ship and the 8th ship named after an outstanding African American. Hope, born in Atlanta, was an African-American educator and political activist, the first African-descended president of both Morehouse College in 1906 and of Atlanta University in 1929, where he worked to develop graduate programs. Both were historically black colleges.

Presiding at the launch were Walter Gordon, Elizabeth Gordon, and daughter Betty Gordon.

Walter Arthur Gordon (1894-1976) was the first African American to receive a doctorate of law from U.C. Berkeley's Boalt Hall law school. He had an extremely long and varied career where he served as a police officer, lawyer, assistant football coach, member of the California Adult Authority, governor of the United States Virgin Islands, and a federal district judge.

The launch proceedings were published in the May 1944 issue of The Sphinx magazine, the second-oldest continuously published black journal in the United States. The issue states:

Mr. Thomas Pruitt, a baritone and burner on graveyard shift at the Richmond yards, sang two songs: “Water Boy” and “Without a song.”

Mrs. Hope was unable to attend, but sent a message that was read aloud:

"You can imagine how happy it would make me to see that great ship slide down the ways. We hope that it will help hasten the day when liberty, justice, and peace will reign over the entire world. I know that this would be John Hope's wish. He was a member of nature's nobility. This ship would not be worthy of his name, if it were not willing to give its all for humanity."

These pictures of that launching, never previously published, are from the extensive and remarkable collection taken by African American photographer Emmanuel Francis Joseph.

 


Liberty ships

  1. SS Booker T. Washington, educator and founder of Tuskegee Institute (#648, September 29, 1942, California Shipbuilding Corp., Terminal Island, CA) [It was aboard this ship that West Indies-born Captain Hugh Mulzac became the first African American merchant marine naval officer to command an integrated crew during World War II]
  2. SS George Washington Carver, scientist (#542, May 7, 1943, Kaiser Richmond shipyard #1)
  3. SS Frederick Douglass, abolitionist leader and editor (#988, May 22, 1943 Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyards, Baltimore, MD)
  4. SS John Merrick, insurance executive (#1990, July 11, 1943, North Carolina Shipbuilding Company, Wilmington, NC)
  5. SS Robert L. Vann, founder and publisher of the Pittsburgh Courier (#2189, October 10, 1943, South Portland Shipbuilding Corporation, South Portland, Maine)
  6. SS Paul Laurence Dunbar, poet (#1897, October 19, 1943, California Shipbuilding Corp., Terminal Island, CA)
  7. SS James Weldon Johnson, poet, author and diplomat (#2546, December 12, 1943, California Shipbuilding Corp., Terminal Island, CA)
  8. SS John Hope, educator (#2742, January 30, 1944, Kaiser Richmond shipyard #2)
  9. SS John H. Murphy, founder and publisher of The Afro-American (#2614, March 29, 1944, Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyards, Baltimore, MD)
  10. SS Toussaint L'Ouverture, Haitian independence leader (#2780, April 4, 1944, Kaiser Richmond Shipyard #2)
  11. SS Robert S. Abbott, founder and publisher of the Chicago Defender (#2785, , April 13, 1944, Kaiser Richmond shipyard #2)
  12. SS Harriet Tubman, abolitionist and leader of the Underground Railroad (#3032, June 3, 1944, South Portland Shipbuilding Corporation, South Portland, Maine)
  13. SS Bert Williams, comedian and vaudeville performer (#3079, June 4, 1944, Todd New England Shipbuilding Corp., South Portland, Maine)
  14. SS Edward A. Savoy, confidential messenger for 22 secretaries of State (#2660, July 19, 1944, Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyards, Baltimore, MD)
  15. SS James Kyron Walker, Second cook, lost on the Gulfamerica, torpedoed and sunk (#2982, December 15, 1944, Todd Houston Shipbuilding Corporation, Houston, TX)
  16. SS Robert J. Banks, Second Cook on the Gulfamerica, torpedoed and sunk (#2392, December 20, 1944, J.A. Jones Construction Company, Brunswick, Georgia)
  17. SS William Cox, Fireman who died when the David Atwater was sunk by enemy fire (#2394, December 30, 1944, J.A. Jones Construction Company, Brunswick, Georgia)
  18. SS George A. Lawson, Messman aboard the tug Menominee, torpedoed and sunk (#3097, February 1, 1945, New England Shipbuilding Co., Bath, Maine)

Victory ships

  1. SS Fisk Victory, Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee (#749, May 14, 1945, Kaiser Richmond shipyard #2)
  2. SS Howard Victory, Howard University, Washington. D. C. (#822, May 19, 1945, Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyards, Baltimore, MD)
  3. SS Tuskegee Victory, Tuskegee Institute, Alabama (#682, June 5, 1945, Kaiser Oregon Shipbuilding Corp., Portland, OR) [Renamed USNS Dutton November 1, 1958]
  4. SS Lane Victory, Lane College, Jackson, Tennessee (#794, June 27, 1945, California Shipbuilding Corp., Terminal Island, CA)

Photographs courtesy Careth Reid / E.F. Joseph Collection. All rights reserved.

Images:
-Kaiser Richmond shipyard magazine, launching of the SS George Washington Carver, featuring Lena Horne
-Mr. Thomas Pruitt singing
-Mr. Walter Gordon, Elizabeth Gordon, and daughter Betty Gordon

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