Delta Sigma Theta’s Marcelite J. Harris, a Spelman College Graduate, Became the First Black Woman to Serve as a General in the U.S. Air Force

Did you know that the first African American woman to become a general in the United States Air Force was a Spelman College graduate and a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.? Her name was Marcelite J. Harris, and she rose higher than any Black woman before her in the American military.

Marcelite Cecile Jordan Harris was born on January 16, 1943, in Houston, Texas. She graduated from Spelman College, the historically Black college for women in Atlanta, in 1964 with a bachelor’s degree in speech and drama. It was there that she became a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Harris joined the U.S. Air Force and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1965. In 1970, she broke new ground as the first woman aircraft maintenance officer in the Air Force, entering a field that had long been closed to women. She rose steadily through the ranks, later serving as the Air Force’s first female director of maintenance and overseeing maintenance operations at every Air Force base, with responsibility for more than 125,000 military and civilian personnel.

On May 25, 1995, Harris was promoted to major general, becoming the first African American woman to reach that rank in the United States armed forces. According to the Texas State Historical Association, when she retired in 1997, she was the highest-ranking woman in the Air Force and the highest-ranking African American woman in the Department of Defense.

Her service continued after the Air Force. She worked for NASA as a site director in Florida, and in 2010 President Barack Obama appointed her to the U.S. Air Force Academy Board of Visitors. Spelman College awarded her an honorary doctorate in 1999.

Marcelite J. Harris died on September 7, 2018, and was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. From Spelman College to the highest ranks of the United States Air Force, she opened doors that no Black woman had opened before her.