New London — Jackie Robinson ended racial segregation in Major League Baseball when he took the field with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947.

Notwithstanding Robinson’s accomplishment in the world of professional sports, it was four years earlier that New London would host a milestone that helped break down racial barriers in U.S. armed forces.

On April 14, 1943, Joseph Charles Jenkins completed his training at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London and received his officer’s commission to become the first officially recognized African-American officer in the country’s sea service.

His achievement was commemorated with a special, and at times emotional, ceremony at the Coast Guard Research & Development Center in New London on Friday, with Jenkins’ extended family in attendance — including his children and grandchildren.

“I don’t think this is overstating it, but Mr. Jenkins really is the U.S. Coast Guard’s Jackie Robinson. It’s a tremendous historical significance for the service and for what it means to our history,” said Capt. Dennis C. Evans, the commanding officer of the development center.

Evans noted that Capt. Michael "Hell Roarin'" Healy, who gained fame as the commanding officer of the cutter Bear, received his commission in 1865 from the Revenue Cutter Service and was a ship's captain in the late 19th century. Healy was the son of an Irish plantation owner and a slave and while he would be defined by today's standards as African-American, he never self-identified as such.

Jenkins pioneered the way for minorities not only as the first African-American officer but also as the first ranking African-American officer on the nation’s first integrated sea service vessel, the USS Sea Cloud. Jenkins was promoted to the rank of lieutenant junior grade and served as the Sea Cloud’s navigation officer.

A painting of the USS Sea Cloud, which was converted into a weather observation vessel for the Coast Guard, hangs in the lobby of the research center and artifacts from Jenkins' service are part of the Coast Guard’s museum's collection that is expected to be shifted to the planned National Coast Guard Museum in downtown New London.

Along with Jenkins’ groundbreaking achievements in the service, members of his family said his entire short life was the source of great pride for his relatives.

Hertha Jenkins Woodruff, the youngest of Jenkins’ three children, said her father died in 1959 at the age of 44 of hypertension and kidney failure when she was just 7 years old. His was a short but impactful life.

“Daddy Joe,” as he was known to his children, “was a leader and a planner as well as a pioneer,” Woodruff said.

“My mother said he was analytical and measured everything, and everyone, with a slide rule,” she said.

Jenkins worked for the Michigan State Highway Department for more than two decades, during which time he earned a civil engineering degree from the University of Michigan in 1937. He enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard in 1942, at the age of 28, and attended a reserve officer training course at the Coast Guard Academy.

After the end of World War II in 1945, Jenkins had returned to Detroit to become the Michigan State Highway Department’s assistant director for metropolitan Detroit and was commissioned as a captain with Michigan’s National Guard engineering Corps, according to a biography written by Coast Guard historian William H. Thiesen.

Jenkins was honorably discharged from service in 1947 and would later go on to work in the private sector, providing engineering surveys and establishing building developments. Woodruff said her father also provided professional guidance for African-Americans and others in need of service.

She remembers a man who was extremely neat and orderly and helped to integrate the neighborhood his family moved into in Detroit that was a mix of professionals and auto workers. He was a member of numerous civic, social and professional organizations as well as a Boy Scout leader and PTA president at an elementary school.

“I truly believe my father’s message to you today is we were not placed on this earth to become spectators but should fully be engaged to improve this world by serving others,” she said.

Among other family members attending Friday’s event was Jenkins’ granddaughter Carmen Woodruff, who livened up the ceremony with a musical performance that included a rendition of the "Semper Paratus,” the official Coast Guard motto and marching song, which brought the crowd to their feet.

Paul Jenkins Jr., grandson of Joseph Jenkins, said that though he never got to meet his grandfather, he always felt deeply connected and said that helped to instill a good work ethic and family values in the rest of the family.

“I often tell my daughter ... that one of the most important things about life isn’t the fame or the money or the glory or any of that. It’s about what you leave on this earth ... legacy,” Jenkins Jr. said. “For a long time in my life, I didn’t know what legacy meant. It really resonated with me today when I see all these people, almost 60 years later, continue to honor my grandfather. It’s a special prideful moment for me and my family.”

g.smith@theday.com