February 15, 2008
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Profile America for the 15th day of Black History Month. Hazel Johnson-Brown capped her distinguished military career in 1979 when she pinned on the star of a brigadier general in the U.S. Army, the first African-American woman to achieve the rank. In doing so, she became the first black chief of the Army Nurse Corps. The promotion came after assignments which took her to many parts of the world, including posts as a staff nurse in Japan and chief nurse in Korea. General Johnson-Brown also served as assistant dean of the University of Maryland School of Nursing and director of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Nursing. Today in the U.S., there are just over 300,000 African-American women among the nations veterans. This special edition of Profile America for Black History Month is a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.