AMERICAN RED CROSS BARS GERMAN WOMEN
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) All American women of German parentage are to be barred from service in the American Red Cross by order of Colonel Jefferson R. Kean* of the United States Medical Corps.
The Colonel's order, issued 100 years ago today, June 26, 1917, was sent out to directors of Red Cross hospitals across the nation.
According to a special report in the Chicago Daily Tribune, women of German, Austrian, Bulgarian and Turkish birth were under suspicion "in the allied country" and their presence would embarrass Red Cross units going abroad.
*Colonel Jefferson Kean received the Army Distinguished Service Medal as a Brigadier General "for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished service to the Government of the United States."
SOURCES
Hall of Valor, www.valor.militarytimes.com/
"Red Cross Bars German Women", The Chicago Daily Tribune, June 27, 1917.
University of Virginia Library
Jefferson Randolph Kean
Colonel U.S. Army
circa 1909
The University of Virginia Library
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) All American women of German parentage are to be barred from service in the American Red Cross by order of Colonel Jefferson R. Kean* of the United States Medical Corps.
The Colonel's order, issued 100 years ago today, June 26, 1917, was sent out to directors of Red Cross hospitals across the nation.
According to a special report in the Chicago Daily Tribune, women of German, Austrian, Bulgarian and Turkish birth were under suspicion "in the allied country" and their presence would embarrass Red Cross units going abroad.
*Colonel Jefferson Kean received the Army Distinguished Service Medal as a Brigadier General "for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished service to the Government of the United States."
SOURCES
Hall of Valor, www.valor.militarytimes.com/
"Red Cross Bars German Women", The Chicago Daily Tribune, June 27, 1917.
University of Virginia Library
Jefferson Randolph Kean
Colonel U.S. Army
circa 1909
The University of Virginia Library
