The Liberty ship S.S. Harriet Tubman was launched in South Portland, Maine, becoming the first Liberty ship named for an African American woman.
On June 3, 1944, the Liberty ship S.S. Harriet Tubman was launched at the New England Shipbuilding Corporation yard in South Portland, Maine. The ship was christened following a successful petition by the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), led by Mary McLeod Bethune, to the U.S. Maritime Commission requesting that a vessel be named in Tubman's honor.
This launch made the S.S. Harriet Tubman the first Liberty ship named for a Black woman, a significant milestone during World War II when the Maritime Commission was building thousands of Liberty ships to support the Allied war effort, most named after notable American figures. The christening ceremony was attended by prominent Black civic leaders and was celebrated as recognition of Tubman's contributions to American freedom and the ongoing fight for Black dignity during a war being fought partly in the name of freedom abroad while segregation persisted at home.
The ship itself served as a cargo vessel supporting Allied logistics during the war. Its naming represented a rare and meaningful wartime tribute to African American history and womanhood, foreshadowing later 20th-century efforts to honor Tubman through U.S. postage stamps and currency proposals. The event underscored how Tubman's legacy had, by the mid-20th century, become a symbol embraced by Black civic and women's organizations advocating for greater recognition of African American contributions to the nation.