Baker Honors Black History: Brigadier General Sherian Cadoria - the first African American Female General
Born January 26, 1940, in Marksville, Louisiana, Sherian Grace Cadoria grew up picking cotton with her mother and two older siblings. Cadoria said they would be picked up by a truck at their homes at 4 every morning and would head home at 5 p.m. as dusk was settling in; 12-hour workdays at a young age.
Cadoria graduated from Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, LA in 1961 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Education and holds a Master of Arts Degree in Social Work from the University of Oklahoma.
In an interview with Essence Magazine in April of 1990, she recalled, “When I started in the Army in 1961, there were jobs a black, by unwritten code, could not do.” said Cadoria. “I can never forget that the coveted position of Platoon Leader… was denied me because a black could not carry out all the duties the job entailed. Specifically, in Anniston, Alabama, a black could not take the troops off the installation because of Jim Crow laws.”
She became the first African American woman to achieve general officer rank in the regular United States Army on promotion to brigadier general in 1985. She was the highest-ranking black woman in the military at the time of her retirement in 1990.
On November 11, 2002, she became the first woman and the first African American inducted into the Louisiana Veterans Hall of Honor. Additionally, Cadoria is a member of the Louisiana Black History Hall of Fame and the Louisiana Justice Hall of Fame.
You can learn more about Army Brigadier General Sharian Cadoria by visiting Sherian Cadoria - Wikipedia, The story of retired Army Brigadier General Sharion Cadoria (wafb.com), or Brigadier General Sherian Grace Cadoria | Culture | southerndigest.com.
“A woman today has to do more than her male counterpart. Come in knowing that you're going to have to give 200 percent effort to get 100 percent credit. And most of the time you will get 100 percent credit.” - Sherian Grace Cadoria
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