Haywood Hubbard Jr. was born Nov. 29, 1921 in Campbell County, Virginia. 

By the time of the spring 1940 Census, his family was still in Campbell County, part of the Lynchburg metro area. His father, Haywood Hubbard Sr., was a machine cleaner at a paper mill and his mother, Mary Scott Hubbard, a homemaker.

Young Haywood graduated from the segregated Campbell County Training School in June 1940 and applied that same month to join the Navy. His reason, he wrote, was to “better myself.”

Times were tough for Americans during the Great Depression, and especially so for African-American families such as the Hubbards. The father and another son, Henry, who worked as an animal skinner at a soap factory, earned a combined $762 in 1939 to support the household of seven.

Haywood Jr. enlisted in August 1940. He was a mess attendant second class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

Because of his race, only one branch of the segregated military was open to Mr. Hubbard — mess attendant — men who cooked, cleaned and performed other services. They could advance to become a petty officer first class as a steward or cook for officers, but that was their limit.

Sources: The Baltimore (Maryland) Afro-American; Census; Virginia birth record; Navy enlistment records and muster roll; Virginia marriage record. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.