Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1992. / Vita. Abstract. Also available via the Internet.

The purpose of this inquiry is to investigate the depth and breadth of involvement of the American Red Cross as an adult education agent from 1940 to 1947. Adult education was broadly defined as any process to improve adults' skill, knowledge, or sensitivity by formal or informal means in a variety of settings and using various materials to enhance learning. The terms training and education were used synonymously. Two major research questions focused the study: (1) What is the historical background of the Red Cross and its relationship to adult education? Supporting questions addressed the Red Cross response to government requests and to national crises, and initiation by the Red Cross of adult education programs and activities. (2) How did the American Red Cross act as an adult education agent from 1940 to 1947? Supporting questions focused on the sanction for adult education; administrative structures; the development, delivery, and unique characteristics of Red Cross programs and activities; and volunteer recruitment. Results indicated that the American Red Cross, early in its history, fostered adult education and promoted programs and activities that filled a gap or addressed a specific need. This effort continued during and after World War II, with services to the Armed Forces and in response to needs of civilians. Programs and activities were developed or modified to prepare citizens for civilian defense, to help women who were left as heads of households, and to assist millions of volunteers helping in the war effort. Members of the Armed Forces were taught survival skills in combat in and around water, convalescent swimming, and first aid. Staff learned to help members of the Armed Forces maintain morale through recreation and recuperation activities and to provide social services to the Armed Forces, veterans, and their families. Over 14 million people received certificates for specific courses taken under the auspices of the Red Cross during the period between fiscal years 1940 and 1947. During fiscal years 1941 to 1945, over 687 million man-hours of service were donated by volunteers. The professions of medical and psychiatric social work grew from job functions established by the Red Cross in military hospitals, and the Red Cross was responsible for giving the recreation profession a major boost. Other programs such as the nurse's aide, water safety, and the Town and Country Nursing program, the latter the forerunner of public health nursing, were established by the American Red Cross. The Red Cross was reported to be the first organization to teach first aid. Overall, the American Red Cross touched the lives of millions of U.S. citizens and people around the world with its adult education programs, which stemmed from its mission to help others in need. / Ed. D.

On the eve of World War II, the American Red Cross (ARC) excluded African-American blood donors. The instructions from the Army and the Navy implied that the armed forces did not want the allegedly "inferior" blood of Blacks in the veins of "superior" White soldiers. The ARC's exclusionary policy, as mandated by defense officials in the War Department, continued the tradition of relegating African-Americans to second-class citizenship.Black newspaper editors and individual protest leaders on the national and local levels pressured the armed forces to change its blood donor policy. On January 29, 1942, the ARC started to accept blood donations from Blacks but followed a national policy of segregation. The ARC labeled and stored African-American blood donations apart from those of Whites and maintained Jim Crow blood banks throughout the war even though medical experts found no factual basis to differentiate blood by race.This paper examines how Black newspapers and individuals such as Asa Philip Randolph, Walter Francis White, William Henry Hastie, Mabel Keaton Staupers, and the Black community of Indianapolis responded to the ARC's initial policy of exclusion and then segregating AfricanAmerican blood donations. The paper attempts to modify the popular interpretation that the war constituted a watershed for African-Americans. My research indicates that while many Black leaders and protest organizations on the national and local levels challenged the ARC's blood donor policies, African-Americans did not win a fundamental change in military policy. Thus, while the fight against blood donor discrimination was a manifestation of the wartime "Double V" campaign it also represented its limitations.The paper draws on secondary sources, African-American newspapers, and the manuscript collections of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses, Claude A. Barnett, William Henry Hastie, Asa Philip Randolph, and the Indianapolis Area Chapter of the ARC as well as the papers of African-American physicians in Indianapolis, Walter H. Maddux and Harvey N. Middleton of the Flanner House and the Morgan Health Center. / Department of History

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