The Bernice Middleton papers include certificates, correspondence, photographs, meeting minutes, funeral programs, newspaper clippings, and a handwritten autobiography documenting the life and career of Bernice Middleton.

Bernice Middleton (1915-2002) was born in 1915 in Arkansas to Rev. T.J. and Pearline Middleton. The family moved to Idabel, Oklahoma, where T.J. Middleton was a pastor of the A.M.E. church until 1929, when the family moved to Rosston, Arkansas to live with members of Pearline Middleton’s family after the death of her father. Though the family was of limited means, Bernice Middleton was able to graduate high school as class valedictorian and earned a scholarship to attend nursing school at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock. She eventually graduated with an R.N. license from the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps and moved to California where she worked as a nurse in the armed forces. Following the outbreak of World War II, she moved to San Francisco to work at a veterans’ hospital in 1943.

.5 linear feet (1 box)

Permission to publish from the Bernice Middleton Papers must be obtained from the African American Museum & Library at Oakland.

No access restrictions. Collection is open to the public.