Lena Horne launches the SS George Washington Carver

MAY 07 1943

Silent newsreel of Lena Horne sponsoring the Liberty ship SS George Washington Carver at Richmond Yard No. 1, launched before a crowd of about 1,500. The ship was named for the Black scientist and was built by a workforce that included roughly a thousand Black women across the four Richmond yards. The launch drew the OWI photographer E. F. Joseph, whose series on the Carver's builders is now at the Library of Congress.