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[Inspiring Music]
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(Janie L. Mines)
It was interesting, I actually had scholarships to every Ivy League school that I applied to.
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I had an ROTC scholarship to Berkeley. For me, it just seemed like a personal calling.
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When the academy contacted me and said that I was going to be the only black woman who would be admitted,
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I felt that it was something that I needed to do.
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I think that it was mutually exacerbating for every one who was there.
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The academy wasn't ready for it like we said. It just happened quickly, and it needed to be done. And they
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considered themselves to be a combat school, and we were not allowed to serve in combat.
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So, we were seen as taking up spots from good combat officers that they needed,
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because we couldn't do the job, and, also, there was a general belief that as women, and also from
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some as minorities, that we would not be able to lead at that time what was predominantly a white, male Navy.
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So with that belief in mind, and with the general, one of the general, purposes of the naval academy,
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at that time...mentally, morally, physically, you had to be able to become a professional naval officer.
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And that
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part of their process was to weed those out who they perceived who would not cut the mustard
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in being able to lead the Navy of the future.
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So a lot of times, people talk to me about this, and I think it's an oversimplification, when you think of it,
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just in terms of race and gender. It was because, in their hearts, they believe in that I was
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told all I could is get good white men killed.
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And they believed that, and they felt that it was their duty to stop me from doing that.
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So when I was trying to pass that last test, I was injured while I was at the academy, trying to pass that last test;
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there were men who were cheering for me. I never experienced that before.
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So, you know, I grew; the academy grew. That's why I said it was, you know, a mutual frustration for everybody.
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But we kind of grew together, and we got past it.