There’s nothing like Black History in the making. From girl scout to coast guard, come this April, Captain Zeita Merchant, Tougaloo College alum, will rock a new uniform as she steps into the rank of admiral, –the first Black woman to achieve this title in the Coast Guard’s 233-year history.
The Jackson, Mississippi native promises to serve the nation while commanding the Port of New York. The decorated captain has had several historic firsts, including her current position as Commander, USCG Sector New York where she is responsible for ensuring the safety and security of one of the Nation’s busiest and most economically important port complexes moving hundreds of billions of dollars in cargo and tens of millions of passengers annually.
Enjoying over 25 years of active-duty service, Captain Merchant is a recognized authority in maritime safety and security, and crisis management. She has served in a variety of assignments at the operational and executive levels and has been certified as one of the Coast Guard’s top Emergency Managers leading large-scale, multi-jurisdictional incident responses across the Nation.
Born in Chicago, Merchant moved to Jackson with her family in the mid-80s when she was in third grade. It was a homecoming for her mother, raised around Yazoo City, and her father, raised in Pocahontas. The couple had left for Chicago to escape the challenges of a late-60s Mississippi.
Merchant spends her day-to-day in New York, but her roots are planted firmly in Jackson, –a city she still considers home.
Born in Chicago, Merchant moved to Jackson with her family in the mid-80s when she was in third grade. It was a homecoming for her mother, raised around Yazoo City, and her father, raised in Pocahontas. The couple had left for Chicago to escape the challenges of a late-60s Mississippi.
Merchant’s family of five was tightly-knit from the beginning despite economic challenges. Her parents taught her and her siblings that values like family and community service were more important than money.
Salutatorian of her class, Merchant left Lanier High School and went 10 miles away to Tougaloo College with the intent of becoming a doctor. Her undergrad degree in biology, however, did not lead to a medical career. Nearing the end of her Tougaloo education, Merchant knew it would be difficult to afford medical school, especially with new debt adding to her undergraduate student debt.
Her career in the military started simply because she needed another option.
“Having a career and being on my own,” Merchant said. “That was two of the things I was really focused on at that point in time, and I wanted to do something different. I always had this passion for service, but I never thought it would be in the form of military service.”
Merchant learned of Coast Guard’s College Student Pre-Commissioning Initiative, a scholarship that helps students in minority-serving institutions by covering tuition and paying a salary while the students train.
“When I heard about the scholarship program, I’m like, I don’t know what the Coast Guard is, but I’ll find out,” Merchant joked. “And, the more I talked to the recruiter, it was really one of those things where I saw it as temporary, as an opportunity to kind of build my resume as well as have money in my pocket while I decided what I was going to do next.”
The scholarship’s obligation was for three years. Those three years eventually turned into 27 years, and Merchant’s is far from done.
“I really feel like this is God’s plan and not my plan,” Merchant said. “I couldn’t even come up with this if I wanted to. My faith and my trust in him was what carried me this far, and I will continue to see what’s next… this is another door that has opened for me, and the sky’s the limit.”
The fact that she’s a historic first is still surreal for Merchant. The promotion for her goes beyond personal accomplishment, but about the broader impact on those she can inspire. When asked what she would tell a teenage Zeita at Lanier High, Merchant said, “We get in our own way because we think we don’t deserve the best based on where we’re from.
“I would tell my younger self that you got to get out of your head, get out of your own way and the world is truly yours to conquer.”
Merchant’s new position as Rear Admiral will go into effect in April 2024.
