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[Portrait of Jean Marie Bright, 1944]

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[Portrait of Jean Marie Bright, 1944]

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Title	[Portrait of Jean Marie Bright, 1944]
Date	1945
Date approximate?	yes
Subject headings	World War, 1939-1945 United States--Armed Forces--African Americans American Red Cross
Era	World War II era (1940-1946)
Service branch	Red Cross
Item description	Portrait of Jean Marie Bright against a backdrop of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., probably taken in Fall of 1944. Bright wears the American Red Cross Military Welfare winter uniform with the Military Welfare overseas cap.
Veteran's name	Bright, Jean Marie
Veteran's biography	Jean M. Bright (b. 1915) served with the American Red Cross in New Guinea and Japan from 1944 to 1946 . Jean Marie Bright was born on 25 September 1915, the daughter of farmers John and Lollie Bright of Rutherford County, North Carolina. She graduated from the Allen Home High School in Asheville, North Carolina, in 1933, and then attended North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, from which she graduated in 1939 . In the late 1930s and early 1940s Bright moved between various cities in North Carolina and New York for teaching various jobs. In summer 1942 she moved to Washington, D.C., to work as a clerk-typist in the adjutant general's office at the Pentagon. The following year she returned to Greensboro and served as director of recreation for the Windsor Community Center in Greensboro . Bright joined the American Red Cross in September 1944. After training in Washington, and at Camp Pickett, Virginia, she was sent to Camp Pendleton in California for embarkation to the Pacific in December 1944. Bright worked in recreational clubs in Finchaven, New Guinea, for almost a year, and then in Tokyo, Japan, until May 1946 . Following her discharge, Bright worked at several jobs, including as a clerical worker at Macy's in Washington, at the Harvard Coop in Massachusetts, and as a substitute teacher in Louisburg, North Carolina. She received a masterï¿½s degree in English from Columbia University in 1953 and returned to Greensboro, where she taught at North Carolina A&T State University until 1978. In 1979, she set up a summer camp for low-income children in Rutherford County, North Carolina.
Type	image
Original format	photographs
Image type	Formal portrait
Original publisher	[Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified]
Contributing institution	Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries
Source collection	WV0295 Jean M. Bright Collection, 1944-1946, 2004-2005
Collection summary	Papers, photographs, an oral history interview, and artifacts and textiles document Jean M. Bright's Red Cross service in New Guinea, Japan, and the Philippines during World War II. Papers include five postcards from New Guinea; a postcard of the S.S. Lurline, the passenger troop ship that Bright sailed on; a 1945 Christmas card from the Philippines; and a 1944 immunization register. Postcards contain brief messages about an all-African American church in New Guinea and about the cabin Bright shared with five other African American Red Cross workers on the Lurline. Photographs depict a Red Cross club building; Bright in her Red Cross uniform; the city of Manila and locals in the Philippines; Tokyo in late 1945 and after the war; and the Kamakura Buddha in Japan. Artifacts and textiles include Bright's Red Cross overseas cap and skirt as well as souvenirs from her service in Japan and the Philippines, including Japanese and Filipino shoes and a Filipino salacot. Collection also includes photocopies, clippings, letters and other materials about Bright's non-military life.
Series/grouping	3: Photographs, 1944-1945
Box	1
Folder	3: Photographs, 1944-1945
Finding aid link	https://libapps.uncg.edu/archon/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=464
Rights statement	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Additional rights information	IN COPYRIGHT. This item is subject to copyright. Contact the rights holder noted above for permission to reuse.
Object ID	WV0295.6.001
Digital publisher	The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University Libraries, PO Box 26170, Greensboro NC 27402-6170, 336.334.5304 -- http://library.uncg.edu/
OCLC number	900813051

[Portrait of Jean Marie Bright, 1944]

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