← The History Chicks : A Women's History Podcast
The History Chicks : A Women's History Podcast
Charity Adams Earley
02:11:57
Charity Adams Earley was the first, and highest ranking, African-American officer in the Women's Army Corps. During WW2, she led the 6888 - The Central Postal Directory Battalion, which was sent to Europe to make sure that years of backlogged letters and packages were delivered at last to the waiting soldiers. Her work showed the importance of diversity, teamwork, and strong leadership in overcoming barriers of race and gender.
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- [00:01]
Susan
Welcome to the History Tricks, where any resemblance to a boring old history lesson is purely coincidental.
- [00:08]
Becky
Here's a quick announcement. Have you ever wanted to go on one of our field trips? Now's your chance. There's still a few places available for our trip to Philadelphia this summer. The dates are June 18th to 22nd, 2025 and you can find out all the details at Like Minds Travel. That's L I K-E M I N D S travel.com click on group Tours and scroll down. We hope to see you there and here's your 32nd summary. Charity Adams early was the first and highest ranking African American woman officer in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps during World War II. She led the 6888, the central postal Directory Battalion, which was sent to Europe to make sure that years of backlogged letters and packages were delivered to soldiers at last. No male, low morale was their motto. Her work showed the importance of diversity, teamwork and strong leadership in overcoming barriers of race and gender. The End let's talk about Charity Edna Adams Early.
- [01:18]
Susan
But first, let's drop her into history in 1945, in addition to many events leading to the end of World War II, later that year Grand Rapids, Michigan became the first city in the world to fluoridate water. The character Pepe Le Pew debuted in Looney Tunes cartoon called Odor Able Kitty. The modern trampoline was patented and labeled as a method of treating foodstuffs. A patent was filed for the very first microwave oven. The Swallow Sidecar Company was renamed Jaguar Cars Ltd. The United nations was founded after 50 nations signed a charter. 10 year old Elvis Presley played his first public performance at a talent show and came in fifth. Women in France voted for the very first time and the first issue of Ebony magazine was published. Bob Marley, Deborah Harry, Helen Mirren, Wilma Mankiller, Goldie Hawn and Bette Midler were all born. Anne Frank and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt both died and in 1945 the 6 Triple 8 Battalion was sent to Europe.
- [02:31]
Becky
Charity Edna Adams was born in Kittrell, North Carolina on December 5, 1918, the oldest of the four children of Reverend Eugene Adams and Charity Ozella Nash Adams, though since Mama was also Charity, our subject went by her middle name, Edna most of the time. I don't know why our same name boys juniors, but same name daughters are like Big Edie, Little Edie, Lorelai and Rory Gilmore.
- [03:02]
Susan
Yeah, I wondered the same thing all the time.
- [03:05]
Becky
Well, Mama, the original Charity had been a teacher before her marriage. She was the oldest In a large family and was expected to contribute as she grew older. Her own father was himself a teacher, and Mama's family valued education to an extreme.
- [03:22]
Susan
Because education was such a focus of this family, she was sent away to complete her education and went to Wilberforce University, which is a historically black college in Ohio, so that she could become a teacher. And it was there that she met her. Her future husband, Popa, had been born.
- [03:42]
Becky
On a farm, and since there was no school higher than elementary school anywhere near his home, Papa had to leave his home and stay with family acquaintances While working to support himself through high school. He went on to Biddle University, which was founded in 1867 in Charlotte, North Carolina, and was the very first four year university in the south to ever have an African American president.
- [04:09]
Susan
It is actually there still. It's now renamed John C. Smith University in Charlotte, N.C. after his first year of college, Eugene's father wrote to him and asked him if he was done with his schooling because he needed him back on the farm. So papa was interested in getting him educated, but only to a point. Meanwhile, Eugene is learning, you know, the Hebrew and the Greek and the Latin. I think this struck me the most because the different paths that Eugene could have taken, this educated one or the one, you know, supporting the family back on the farm, those were the choices he had to make.
- [04:44]
Becky
I always think about that growing up. There were probably moments where you took a path like a fork and you don't even know it. Like that movie Sliding Doors.
- [04:53]
Susan
Right, right.
- [04:55]
Becky
One of my favorite movies of all time, Even though it includes Gwyneth Paltrow, which I'm like, here we go. But that movie, super good. It all hinges on one second and how that one second, really through her life in two different directions. So cool. Anyway, Papa and mama were married, and then Mr. Adams got his bachelor of divinity degree, for which you need Greek, Latin and Hebrew. That is a big deal. Ultimately, he accepted a position as preacher at a church in Columbia, South Carolina, which is where all the children grew up in an extremely segregated community. The drinking fountains were labeled, the buses had a sign dividing black and white writers. You knew which stores, which restaurants, which services were whose, and they were not the same. We've talked about it all before. One of Edna's earliest memories was sitting with her father on the steps of the church watching a KKK parade go by. That is not a good memory. Another one of her childhood memories is busting into the store saying, I think we're coming in here to buy chocolate and white Milk. How about it? Dangerous Game? Dangerous Game. Well, the Addams family placed emphasis on education just like the grandpa and grandma's generation had. From an early age, they played word and math games with their children. They read to and taught reading to their children, and also critical thinking.
- [06:28]
Susan
Our little Edna was extremely bright. When it was time to test her to see what level of school she should go into, instead of kindergarten, she tested into second grade.
- [06:40]
Becky
Her parents had provided her with an excellent base. She was the youngest in her class by a couple of years. Just like me.
- [06:50]
Susan
Not like me.
- [06:51]
Becky
And in my case, I think, well, my parents played games with me or whatever. But I also did go to two years of Montessori preschool, which really prepares you to handle some academics when you get to kindergarten, especially in the 70s, where a lot of emphasis was placed on learning the names of the colors. Are you kidding me, right?
- [07:10]
Susan
I know you had already mentioned how this town is so segregated. The school that she went to, it was a three mile walk to school. But in her memoir she talks about it so fondly as it was a real social time for her, that she could hang out with her friends for those three miles, whereas you and I would be like three miles uphill in the snow in both directions.
- [07:32]
Becky
Well, and then Papa took another position and they moved house and she ended up going to a school that was much closer. And she did miss that little. You know, it's kind of funny because I had a long commute and when it stopped, I actually kind of regretted, you know, the audiobook time and the. And the downtime that I had. I can see it. It can simultaneously be horrible.
- [07:54]
Susan
Yeah.
- [07:54]
Becky
And also something you miss, you know, it's become a part of you. So I get it. Edna and her slightly younger brother, Eugene Avery, who everyone called Avery because Rem. Papa's name was say it with me. Eugene Avery and Edna were voracious readers and the best of friends. Their parents were included in their education. This was a family that enhanced what the children had learned at school with further lessons at home. It should be mentioned here, by the way, that often teachers at white schools were required to have only a high school diploma. And the further west you got sometimes not even that. And teachers at black schools, although they were paid less, were often required to have a university degree.
- [08:40]
Susan
Edna and her brother Avery were, like you said, so close. Every week they would take their allowance and go down and buy some Horatio Alger books. He was an author from the 1800s who was, like, writing YA books, kind of, but they were mostly about A poor boy who overcame the odds through honest work. But they would sit on their front porch together after they got their books and swing back and forth, gobble the whole book up, and then without missing a beat, just pass the book to each other and swap books.
- [09:09]
Becky
Aw.
- [09:09]
Susan
My brothers and I did the same thing when we were kids. Cause we could buy a book before we went on a cruise. I mean, it's on a boat where we were living, but we could buy a book. So we had three books. Oh, yeah, yeah. It was really cute. So that, I don't know, that was a nice memory.
- [09:23]
Becky
I think she said in her memoirs that her father was sort of boggled at the sheer volume of books they got through and kind of disbelieved that they were really reading them. Like, what else were they just sitting on the porch, like randomly staring into the book. And he tried to quiz them for a while and she kind of joked like, these books all had the same formula. After a while he gave up because it's like you just would make up a name and then worked hard and then blah, blah, blah came along and pulled him into the carriage. You're going to be my assistant and like, you know, right?
- [09:54]
Susan
It's like the Hallmark movie of the 1800s with a poor boy. Yeah.
- [09:58]
Becky
Yes.
- [09:59]
Susan
And you have to remember this family also had a lot of books in their house. Both parents were so educated. And again, we've said this so often, the kids were given free reign of the family library so she could read whatever she wanted.
- [10:12]
Becky
At the top of elementary school, which in this day and age was. Went up to eighth grade the last year, a number of promising students nominated by the teachers were tested to see if maybe they could jump ahead, essentially skipping eighth grade to go right on to high school, which at the time, and even in my time started in ninth grade. Now, although Edna easily made it through, Mama and Papa are like, absolutely not. For which I commend them. I mean, she's already two years younger than everyone in her class. And I'm here to tell you as a person that lived through it, academically, it's whatever, it's Doogie Hazar. I can do it. It doesn't matter. But like, think about Doogie Hazar and how everybody looked at him weird when he's a doctor in the hospital, emotionally, maturity wise, you can forget it. Like, ask me how I know. Nonsense. So I'm glad they kept her back a year. Though I will tell you, Edna did not see it that way. She did not understand at the time she was actually angry and actually kind of humiliated that they didn't let her go on.
- [11:16]
Susan
Soon after she felt a little bit better about it because she found out that all but two of those 12 students that were tested into going into high school were not allowed to go by their parents just like she was.
- [11:29]
Becky
Yeah. So I think it was fine.
- [11:31]
Susan
Yeah. So she was in good company. I would have doubted it. Sending my kid up to high school. I didn't even want to send him when it was time.
- [11:39]
Becky
Yeah, there's something to be said for being. I mean, honestly. Luckily in my case, ninth grade was still in junior high school at the time. I was functionally 13 in high school. You know, like if you, if you go by the standards of Edna's time, she and I would have been 13 in high school. Oh, so everyone else is like, oh, this boy's cute, that boy's cute. And you're like, I'm psst. What do you think of that? Strawberry shortcake? Yeah, I tell ya. Well, so Edna finally did get to Booker T. Washington High School, where she had inspirational teachers that shepherded Edna through four years of academic rigor, including Latin, French, history, math, literature, English, and her most hated subject of all, science. She just hated it. I don't know why, just did. Well, Edna graduated at 16 as valedictorian of her class, having had perfect attendance, never missed a single hour, and was therefore the recipient of a number of scholarship offers from HBCUs, which are historically black colleges and universities. A few of the offers came from the likes of Fisk University, founded in 1866, Howard University, founded in 1867. But she chose Wilberforce University, founded as far back as 1856. It had been her parents alma mater. It was the furthest away, which she said in her memoir was one really good aspect of it. I know sometimes people want to go the farthest away to college. They can. It also started the earliest in the year. She never told her parents. That is why she chose it. They were like so tickled that she chose their alma mater. Right.
- [13:28]
Susan
So just so we know that she's a real person, you know, oh, I get to get out of here sooner. But you know what parents out there who are going, oh my goodness, independence is the goal. We have to keep reminding ourselves of that, especially when they're about this age.
- [13:42]
Becky
Right.
- [13:43]
Susan
You know, independence is the goal of parenting. It's not not having a relationship with you. They still will, but they're independent and it's the goal. Let me step off my soapbox and I think Papa might have realized that because his parting words to her as she was about to get on the train were, we've tried to teach you right from wrong. Just do right. Oh, that's so simple. Okay, dad. Thanks. Bye.
- [14:10]
Becky
Papa had set a very good example in other ways. He didn't just teach her right from wrong. He was a shining beacon of community involvement and improvement.
- [14:22]
Susan
He was a bank officer. He helped establish the Bell Street High School, which is not the high school his kids went to. He was president of the NAACP Columbia, South Carolina chapter. He also helped found the. It was called the Negro Citizens Committee of South Carolina, which worked towards civil rights. So by the time Edna got to college, she had seen in her father and in her mother actually how to be part of your community. So Edna herself got involved in a lot of organizations on campus, like the Women's Self Government association, which was a.
- [14:59]
Becky
National organization of women college students. They had speakers and conferences and people wrote papers and newsletters. And it was, you know, women going to college was, you know, four decades long. And there were a lot of issues that would come up. And this was a way, almost like a network that you could belong to, an advocacy group.
- [15:23]
Susan
She also was active in the NAACP on campus, the literary society, and she joined Delta Sigma Theta sorority, which is not the oldest black women's sorority. That title goes to Alpha Kappa Alpha at Howard University.
- [15:39]
Becky
You know what, there are a couple of subjects that we have already talked about that ended up being not honorary members, but like members of the Delta Sigma theta sorority. Mary McLeod Bethune and Shirley Chisholm. And also Rudy Huxtable. What's her name? Keisha Knight Pulliam. Oh, for a little pop culture reference.
- [15:57]
Susan
That's nice. Good one.
- [16:00]
Becky
Well, Edna had an on campus job for all four years of school. It was part of the condition of her scholarship where she majored in math and physics. She ended up also with a major in Latin and a minor in history. It amazes me.
- [16:18]
Susan
Yup, yup.
- [16:19]
Becky
In her senior year, Edna took classes that certified her to become a teacher. And soon after graduation, Ms. Adams went back home to South Carolina and did indeed become a teacher. Junior high or the most challenging of all levels. Brave, brave, brave.
- [16:39]
Susan
Even more brave if you think she's only 19 at this point and she's teaching middle school.
- [16:46]
Becky
She taught science, ironically, as she had hated no subject but science during the entirety of her own education. She also taught mathematics. I would like to relate an incident in the teaching of mathematics. In her autobiography, she taught the gospel of save up to Buy things, don't put things on layaway. She taught it so well. The kids went home and told their parents that a deputation of angry merchants came up to school and read her the riot act, which I thought was hilarious.
- [17:21]
Susan
I know, I know. The store owners were complaining because, of course, they weren't getting the extra interest if you paid full cash. Right. But she did continue to teach to save. So that was still one of her focuses.
- [17:33]
Becky
Right.
- [17:33]
Susan
In the first year that she was teaching, her father gave her a gift of paying for the first six months of a health insurance policy. When the payment came due, after that, the agent came by the house and asked to speak, to quote Edna. And the whole family was outside, and they all kind of like, held their breath because they knew what was coming. And Papa Eugene said, there's a Ms. Edna Adams here. And the agent said, and I am just quoting this, I can't call her Miss. I have to call colored people by their first name, he said. And so Papa Eugene just looked him in the eye and said, then you have to cancel this policy and never set foot on this property again.
- [18:15]
Becky
So that is why, now that she has reached adulthood, we are going to be calling her Ms. Adams out of respect for the family sentiment. That is a very specific request from a historical figure that we will honor ambition, personal ambition, was percolating this whole time around. Two years in, Ms. Adams registered at Ohio State University as a master's candidate for something called vocational psychology. It's kind of the intersection between the workplace and humanity. And I went to look this up. And this is the definition that the overseeing organization of modern vocational psychology says. It says this field requires a tremendous ability to put together fundamentally different elements to make critical decisions. Well, if that isn't foreshadowing for her future life, I don't know what that is. So she taught in South Carolina during the school year and then traveled and went to her own classes in the summer session that she had, free from teaching, back out to Ohio. So let's leave her there for just a minute and fly out to the wider world and see what's going on. America and Americans had been very reluctant to join in the war in Europe. There had been a Great Depression. There were pacifist sentiments after World War I, and really are relatively small, relatively unprepared. Military all contributed to a general feeling in America of not my circus. Now, the year before, sort of seeing the writing on the wall out of an abundance of caution, the United States had staged its very first peacetime military draft this is 1940, the year before. It was the just in case maneuver. Like everybody kind of knew that inevitably we might be drawn. But it all came to a head two days after Ms. Adams 23rd birthday. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese perpetrated a surprise attack on the Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Naval base. In a two hour attack, the Japanese killed over 2,400Americans and catapulted the USA into war on multiple fronts. Okay, so the holiday season is over and with it went a lot of the anxiety. But we gotta face it, it's kind of gross out. In fact, my car just got 100% buried by the snowplow. So there are other challenges with the current season. And what I'm going to do is treat myself to something. But I don't want to spend a fortune to kind of turn my mood around. And that's where Quince comes in.
- [21:16]
Susan
I thought exactly the same thing. So last week I bought a cardigan. It's an oversized cardigan with pockets. It's cotton and it'll be a good transition piece from cozy now to springtime. I'm very excited to get it.
- [21:31]
Becky
I always like the way that those kind of grandpa sweaters look over a dress.
- [21:35]
Susan
Mm, yes, me too. A dress. Or jeans. Or even you know what, my pajama bottoms. Not gonna lie, wear them sometimes.
- [21:46]
Becky
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- [22:11]
Susan
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- [22:18]
Becky
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- [22:28]
Susan
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- [22:36]
Becky
Quince.com chicks with America at war, there was great societal change as millions of men volunteered or were drafted into the armed forces. And back home. Of course, uniforms, airplanes, ships, equipment, food needed to be prepared in large quantities. And war plants sprang up all over the country staffed by minorities who'd been previously excluded from the workforce because of discrimination, including of course, African Americans and women. In fact, African American labor leaders threatened strikes. 100,000 committed threatened strikers in Washington D.C. if the new defense plans didn't provide equal opportunity for African Americans, and President Roosevelt quickly agreed. Women, also in the millions, poured into well paid manufacturing jobs, but not for the most part into the military.
- [23:57]
Susan
Women have been on the battlefield for as long as there's been wars. They just haven't been really recognized in our own country. There was women that pretty much disguised themselves as men during the Revolutionary War. During the Civil war, there was 400 women who again disguised themselves as men to go into battle. On both sides of the conflict, women were on the battlefield as nurses. I mean, we talked about that in Clara Barton and Dr. Mary Walker. In the Union army alone, there were 6,000 females who worked in a medical capacity during the Civil War. Even black regiments had women that were there at the battlefield either as the spouse of a soldier that was following the camp or in a medical capacity. There was one woman, Susie King Taylor, and she was educating the soldiers during the Civil War who had previously been denied an education. Women have been there even when they got a little bit more organized during the Spanish American War and World War I with an army Nurse Corps, they were paid half as much as the men. They still got a salary, which was an improvement, but not anything near where their counterparts as males were getting paid or any benefits. You know, if they get injured, they're just SOL.
- [25:15]
Becky
U.S. representative Edith Norris Rogers of Massachusetts introduced a bill for the creation of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, quote, for the purpose of making available to the national defense the knowledge, skill and special training of the women of the Nation. And on May 15, 1942, President Roosevelt signed the WAAC into law. And Oveta Culp Hobby, who was the. This is a long title. Women's interest Section chief of the War Department. Public relations. That was her title. Seems backwards. She was sworn in as the first director of the waac. It was the first time that women could serve in the army officially in roles other than nurses or as special exceptions to the general rule.
- [26:09]
Susan
And in this capacity, this is the Woman's Army Auxiliary Corp. They got paid. There was housing, there was uniforms, there was medical care, there was training. But again, there's no survivor death benefits. There's no veterans medical care after they get out. There's no retirement, no disability, no overseas pay. So it was a step, but it wasn't a full step.
- [26:32]
Becky
Our old friend Mary McLeod Bethune immediately swung into action to make certain that African American women did not lose out on what she saw as a great opportunity to advance the cause of equality. There was a philosophy called the Double V. Victory in war equals victory at home. Perhaps by exemplary service in the military, that would translate to the furthering of civil rights in the generalized country. Now, if you haven't listened to our Mary McLeod Bethune episode, Ms. Bethune at this time was deeply involved with the Roosevelt administration as an advisor to the president on, quote, negro affairs. Now, I'm telling you, if we say that word, that's the proper word that was used. At the time, the actual term black was considered extraordinarily offensive. So if we are quoting people and they say the word negro, please be assured that we are being respectful. She also, Mary McLeod Bethune, was a close personal friend of Eleanor Roosevelt's. Ms. Bethune had begun a years long advocacy for African American women's participation in the military. And in 1942, she took on the official role of special assistant to the Secretary of war. And it was Ms. Bethune's responsibility to recruit and select the first 40 African American women who were to join the very first WAACS as officer candidates. They were allotted 10% of the total could be African American. Ms. Bethune's network was extensive. Not only was she connected politically and civil rights ically, which isn't a word, but she herself had created an HBCU from scratch. Please listen to those episodes. And had education and street cred connections as well. And so it was that our Ms. Adams got a letter, a personal invitation to apply for the waac. She had been recommended by the dean of women at Wilberforce. And the dean promised, and I quote, career opportunities and leadership opportunities if you only seize the chance. So Ms. Addams trusted this person to have her best interest at heart. And she sent in her application. And her family knew it was never going to happen. I'll support you. But women officially being in the military was new and very contentious. Was it ladylike? Would it be distracting for the men? Were women designed for the stresses of war? You know, we brought you up to make your own decisions, do whatever you think is right. Easy to say when it's like a pipe dream. And no one thought that was really going to happen. She got kind of excited about it, about the thought of it. I began making a mental adjustment to an unknown future. The only basis I had for accepting the idea at all was just an optimistic hunch. She got kind of excited about the possibility of adventure, actually.
- [29:34]
Susan
So she filled out the application and she sent it in. And she said, quote, I knew little about the military and expected the army would be so pleased to receive my application that I would hear from some general within 24 hours. After a week, she stopped waiting. Week?
- [29:54]
Becky
Well, you know when you think you have just killed it in a job interview and it's just nothing.
- [29:59]
Susan
Right.
- [29:59]
Becky
And crickets.
- [30:00]
Susan
Yup.
- [30:00]
Becky
You know, how did she put it? I gave up in disgust and decided not to waste my time on an organization that was so slow in answering their correspondence. Lol.
- [30:11]
Susan
Welcome to the army. Yeah. So she was heading back to Ohio to continue her studies over the summer, but she had left one day too early. She's on the train heading up to Ohio and they pull into a stop and she sees her aunt outside at the train station and she's like, what are you doing here? And she's saying, you need to get in touch with your family right away. The army wants you.
- [30:35]
Becky
So, okay, there's a 15 minute layover. Driver like, can you hold the train? I cannot hold the train. And she's like, it's always late anyway. What's your damage? I mean, you know, paraphrasing. And he's like, mm. And she goes, well, will you come with me while I make the phone call? Now, I've heard something very similar when we are on these field trips. Someone goes, well, the bus won't leave without you, so I'm sticking to you.
- [31:00]
Susan
Yeah.
- [31:00]
Becky
And that's the same philosophy. So come with me to the phone and I'm gonna call home.
- [31:04]
Susan
She learned that the army wanted her. And not only did they want her, but they wanted her in Atlanta at 8am the next morning.
- [31:13]
Becky
Ma'am, I am like 200 miles away. It's 10pm in the night. Like, it's too bad. So sad. And then the driver got a little restless and she reached out with her hand and she grabbed the back tail of that man's jacket and squished tightly and did not let him go. I think it's so funny. But she really did want to go if they were cool about her, you know, no show situation in Atlanta. And she decided to go to the local Columbus, Ohio army base and see if somebody could help her figure out who to contact. And that whole military base was covered by a strong sep field, which stands for somebody else's problem. That's the most powerful force in the universe, according to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Somebody else's problem field. Since that book wouldn't be written for another, let's call it 40 years, I'll just quote Ms. Addams herself. Ironically, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, written by Douglas Adams. No relation. Ms. Adams herself said, I thought that Buck would never stop passing.
- [32:24]
Susan
This just popped into my head as a hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy reference. But it's 1942, and the answer to.
- [32:31]
Becky
Everything in the universe is 42.
- [32:33]
Susan
Yep.
- [32:34]
Becky
Man, we are science fiction.
- [32:36]
Susan
I know. I don't know about that, but yes, well.
- [32:40]
Becky
So finally, after a whole morning of runaround, she got sent to an officer who was from a town only 44 minutes from her hometown in South Carolina. But he took it on as a personal mission. Seems like he made some. And the emphasis is not mine. Long distance calls. Do you remember when long distance calls were just, like, really a thing? You'd wait until, like, it got dark and hope that the rates went down. Huge charge, wouldn't show up on mom and Dad's bill, you know?
- [33:09]
Susan
Yeah, I remember.
- [33:11]
Becky
It was a big deal. And anyway, this captain, this South Carolina captain got all of her records transferred from the intake station near her house, which, you know, she'd been assigned to Atlanta to right there at Fort Hays in Ohio. And he goes, you should hurry and go get in line for the physical. It's happening right now.
- [33:29]
Susan
So she did. She got her physical, and the next thing she knew, she was sitting down for an interview. Now, I personally think she's feeling very confident because this was, like, her first task in the army is just to get answer this request. You know, she had to go out of her way and find another way in to get sitting down to have this interview. So she's answering the questions with a lot of confidence. She later thought maybe overconfidence. One of the questions was, do you think you could take a group of 10,000 women overseas with no other officers and feed them? She's thinking, I don't know how I do it. But she says, well, if any other woman can, given the same training, I can. All right.
- [34:14]
Becky
On the way down to where the interviews were, she tells the tale of. I'm going to call this a hilarious misinterpretation of societal norms in the military? I don't know. Everybody was very confused. The military men in question had never really had to deal with women coming in in an official capacity, like lady persons should be treated one way. I. I hold the chairs, I open the doors, you know, and the ladies expected it. But new soldiers are treated a whole different way. Yeah. She said this was the worst disregard for rank that had ever been seen on this military base because no one knew what was happening. So on her way out the door, after all of this confidence that was largely. I don't know if it was exactly artificial. It was more like the ignorance is bliss department. I think she overheard one of the women that was interviewing her say, well, let's take her and see if she's as good as she thinks she is. That could be taken. I don't know. That could be taken bad or good. I mean, I would say the first sentence, let's take her, means Good. Right? Ms. Adams was really bummed out that she'd blown it, but actually she'd been selected for officer training.
- [35:35]
Susan
She got a letter just a couple weeks later. It said, if she reported, report to Fort Hazen, Ohio. If you don't, no big continue on your life. Thank you for your time. So this was her last out. She could just say, no, this isn't for me.
- [35:49]
Becky
But she reported there was great community interest, let's call it even concern for Ms. Adams and her companions. You know, out of the thousands of applicants with the 10% quota, only 40 African American women were selected for this program. Remember, the WAACs at all were brand new and novel. The nation was really struggling with women in the military at all. And now this layer of race added on fascinated the public. When she reported Ms. Adams because her name starts with A, she was given the very first WAC number issued at Fort Hays. So the first group of eight people, seven white women, and Ms. Adams appeared on the front page of the Columbus paper. Everybody was so fascinated by these women officially entering the military. There was so much fear in the black community. Like everything else, this had the potential to go very, very wrong, to turn into scapegoatery or bad publicity. There was a lot of pressure. And then she appeared in the paper and she wrote, I, a Negro, had appeared on the front page of a white daily without having done anything criminal. A most unusual situation that added to the community's support of my actions that seems, I don't know, a little sarcastic or a little bit fatalistic, I think, but also very realistic. There was great potential for problems. You know, the African American community rallied around, helping her get kitted out for the big adventure with money and materials. And days later, Ms. Adams and 24 others, white and quote, negro, as she said, were headed to Fort Des Moines in Iowa by train. It was a convivial journey, and all the women bonded, deeply bonded in an extremely unprecedented and fraught situation. Foreign.
- [38:16]
Susan
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- [40:51]
Becky
When they arrived in Des Moines, they were surrounded by reporters and photographers. The country lake could not fathom everything that was happening. Here's the thing that was not so awesome. Despite the camaraderie that everyone had experienced during their recruitment and intake and the journey there. Frankly, when they got to Des Moines, they were shocked. The colored girls were ordered to go sit in a corner and wait for everyone else to be assigned their quarters. And then they were marched to a separate but equal, we know how that goes establishment. Even though the commanding officer came personally to apologize. And if it were up to him, this being Iowa, he would not have had it be so. But he was only following army procedures. The African American women were to be assigned to their own segregated platoon and would be trained separately. There were 39 women in the third platoon, first company. There were supposed to be 40. Hilariously, just like, you know, oh, the fifth beetle or whatever. Many, many, many women would claim to have been that 40th person who, for whatever reason couldn't make it. Isn't that funny?
- [42:08]
Susan
Yeah, it is. It is. And that they didn't fill the spot. That's the part that I was like, oh, you had an. You had a spot.
- [42:15]
Becky
But, yeah, well, these women were from all backgrounds, they were all from all social classes, from all levels of education and work experience and marital status, and they were all to become one unit. And I think this is hilarious. The army is not used to lady persons. This is the first go round for this. And the very first thing that men did when they got to this base was they would line up and get their uniforms. And how it normally goes is you go through, you say your size. The guy behind the counter pulls your size and sets it on the pile. You move down the line, 10 minutes, you're out. You got all your stuff. Mm, mm, mm. Now, we've all shopped for women's clothes, haven't we? Yes, we have. Can you guess what happened when 439 women went through? It was absolute chaos. Nothing fit, nothing was the right size. Everything had to be taken in, let out, lengthened or shortened. It was a nightmare. The army had to arrange several more go rounds for uniforms. Surprise. It's a brave new world, you know.
- [43:16]
Susan
There was three items that were universally fitting. The purse, the necktie, and the scarf. They were guaranteed that. But as they are going through the process of starting their journey in the military, they're in various degrees of military dress for a while.
- [43:35]
Becky
Yeah, Anything that fit was to be worn. So there could be a person in full civilian garb with their. What they called a hobby hat. After the director of the wax over a hobby. It was like a. Like a squarey rectangular baseball hat. Hard to explain, but so often there were people just standing there in their workaday clothes. Plus the hat. Once your skirt fit, you'd add a skirt. It was really mismatchery for A while. But once everyone was finally through, they were well turned out in khaki skirt suits, the jacket and tie and gloves. Gloves were mandated. The leather bag, the hobby hats, certain kind of shoes. And training began. The training officers had been carefully selected for the third platoon. These were all men, of course, at the time, they were, quote, the least racist to be found. Well, that's something. But overall, the trainers resented having to train women. How about that? They didn't screen for that.
- [44:34]
Susan
Right. And all of these women got a crash course in military life, you know, at least. I don't know. This may be sexist of me, but at least. I think the men at the time knew kind of what they were getting into with basic training, whereas the women were like, let's just see what happens. This is going to be interesting kind of situation. There's so many military customs, all that lingo. They had to learn first aid, they had to learn hygiene. Not just regular hygiene that they had from home, but what was available to them, you know, perhaps out in the field. They had to learn how to take care of their equipment and how to use it and how to read maps. And then there was a physical training.
- [45:17]
Becky
On top of that. They all, since they were in officer training, had to be trained in the principles of command. Even the projecting of one's voice had to be trained. If you think about traditional feminine attributes of the time, soft spokenness was a virtue. Well, not when you are a commander in the army. So they had to overcome that too, also in the back of their minds. Although everyone was playing it by ear, traditionally, even in the army, male African American soldiers were often relegated to things like cooks, truck drivers, stewards, janitors. Everyone was playing it by ear. There was this overarching thought in the back of your minds that we're here to serve, but we may not be valued, you know?
- [46:05]
Susan
Oh, for sure.
- [46:06]
Becky
There's a reason that we keep saying Ms. Adams. Because there was no defined title for the WACs, no one knew what to call them. Because at this time, the WACs, this is WAAC, weren't officially part of the Army. They were just adjacent. So do you still call them miss? Did you call them Mrs. How are you gonna know who's miss? And Mrs. Is it private Soldier?
- [46:28]
Susan
Right.
- [46:28]
Becky
Auxiliary Adams. It was very awkward and no one knew. And so just like the uniforms, the thing you could be called in a given day really varied. Also because every trainer had his own protocol for that. Hilariously, I gotta tell you one more like, lady persons are not the same story during Parade men were instructed to look to the left and focus their eyes on the second shirt button of their neighbor, lady landscapes being what they are in the second shirt button area, if you know what I mean. This led to a non uniform appearance among the platoon.
- [47:08]
Susan
Right.
- [47:09]
Becky
If that makes sense.
- [47:10]
Susan
Yeah, yeah.
- [47:12]
Becky
So they ended up having to have a whole new protocol for that. Okay, focus on the knot of the tie.
- [47:18]
Susan
That's right.
- [47:19]
Becky
Please. So also in her autobiography, Ms. Adams said there was another comedic thing that led to a little bit of jokes. Men were not allowed to keep anything in their shirt pockets, especially not during parade. And so the trainers were used to barking out, what's in your shirt pocket, Private? But they were too freaked out to say anything to the women, because what if there wasn't anything in the shirt pocket? I can only imagine the conversations that were held between the trainers, like, I don't know what to do. Well, they were guinea pigs for all kinds of rules and regulations and policies, and they had to get used to almost daily changes in routine, honestly, while being followed by photographers everywhere they went. These particular women, all of them had been chosen for leadership, but I really think they were probably chosen more for resilience and patience. But maybe that's all the same thing.
- [48:21]
Susan
True, there were things that Ms. Adams really enjoyed about this process, and one of them is called a close order drill. And all the military people are going, oh, I know what that is. I am not a military person. So I had to look it up. And that's the formal movements and the formation that instills discipline by teaching automatic responses to orders.
- [48:42]
Becky
So she loved giving that another automatic response that was supposed to be instilled into you was saluting coming to attention when you saw a officer of superior rank, they got so jumpy that they started saluting every uniform so they wouldn't mess up. And Ms. Adams tells an embarrassing story. They were in the town, she and a couple of other officers, and they saw some men in uniform coming toward them on the sidewalk. And they all jumpily saluted the Coca Cola delivery man. And from then on, for the rest of her life, she felt a little bit of a way every time she saw a Coke, because it was super embarrassing. And everyone on the street kind of laughed, not meanly. They weren't like pointing and laughing, but it was more like, oh, no. So cringe, you know, Yikes. Well, but gradually all this awkwardness kind of peeled away. New situations are always awkward.
- [49:39]
Susan
Of course, their days were regimented. That's what the Army's all about. This Is something that I learned. I always thought it was revelry, but it's not. It's reveille, revoli. It's French. There's no r at the end. I'm looking at it, I'm like, oh, reveille.
- [49:54]
Becky
I never thought it was revelry. That's. That's like joyfulness. Revelry is when you dance around.
- [50:00]
Susan
I know, I know. Well, I got the word wrong. It happens to me quite a bit.
- [50:06]
Becky
Well, and you know what, though? How often does it come up in civilian life? That's like when we were talking about the plague, plural, of octopuses. Like, you know what? If I were a marine biologist, I'd probably have that down. True, true, true. But like. But it's something where you're like, huh? Almost like, you know when you try to write the letter Q, and sometimes you're like, Q, it hardly ever comes up and you're like, which direction does that go in? Cursive.
- [50:31]
Susan
I always get like. You have to write something simple, like blue. Like blue. The color blue has its. You know, it's just like a minor.
- [50:38]
Becky
I will tell you, I get gray and gray wrong.
- [50:40]
Susan
Oh, I do too, all the time or whatever. Sometimes I'm British with the gray, and sometimes I'm American.
- [50:45]
Becky
Yeah. Like, as long as, you know, if it. If it instills an image in your mind, that's all fine. It's the right grade.
- [50:51]
Susan
Yeah, that's right.
- [50:52]
Becky
It's the right reveille.
- [50:53]
Susan
So the reveille was at 6:30. And then they had classes from 8 to 4:30. They marched everywhere, which Ms. Adams loved marching. There were Saturday inspections. They also had parade practice. And contrary to how I would line people up, the women were lined up tallest to shortest. So being one that would be at the end, I can just imagine that to keep the pace of the women at the front, I'd be doing kind of a institute of funny walks kind of thing while marching just to keep, you know, to keep up the pace.
- [51:33]
Becky
Do you remember a commercial from either the 70s or 80s where it's kibbles and bits. Kibbles and bits, I'm gonna get. And the big dog is just striding along and the little one is. Legs are like.
- [51:44]
Susan
Yeah, yeah.
- [51:46]
Becky
That's exactly what it would be like. But you had to keep it on size, right? Because everybody had to look uniform and.
- [51:50]
Susan
Their feet had to hit the ground at exactly the same moment. All of them.
- [51:54]
Becky
Shoot, that was dirty. That was dirty to people of my height. And it was also dirty. That Ms. Adams noticed that, like, it was it. It was comedy. Yeah. Gradually the women came together, all the rough edges were polished off, and they turned into true army officers. And they were commissioned as third officers in the Women's army auxiliary, the African American platoon. During the ceremony on August 29, 1942, they were presented last due to segregation, but witnessed by Congressman Rogers, who had put forth the bill to create the wax in the first place. Charity Edna Adams, whose name came first alphabetically, became the very first African American officer in the entire WAC system. So all of the officers that were commissioned as third officers in the WACs were given, like a parallel rank as a second lieutenant in the Army. So now she is Lieutenant Adams. It is clear now what we are to call her at last. And so that is where we will be going from now on. During the classification interview, I have to say that Lt. Adams had written truck driver in her desired jobs, because literally, truck driver and cook were usually the track. It was truck driver, cook, clerical, actually, for wax in general. And honestly, African Americans didn't usually get put in clerical jobs or hadn't been up to then. But the interview began to ask questions about her having taught for so many years about being the valedictorian of her high school class. How did she feel about possibly being a recruiter in the African American community? How did she feel about public relations? Like, huh. The questions she got weren't the questions that she expected to get. Like, can you drive a truck?
- [53:55]
Susan
Right, right.
- [53:56]
Becky
One of the members of 3rd Platoon, Harriet Hardin is her name, actually became an aide to the WAC director, OVETA Hobby. Others were peeled off for other admin posts, likely based on their previous work experience that was already better than anyone had been led to expect, quite honestly.
- [54:17]
Susan
And Lieutenant Adams, her assignment was right where she was, right at Fort Des Moines. Her role was going to be training up new recruits as they came through, which was great because she was loving the marching.
- [54:29]
Becky
So Lieutenant Adams learned on the job. So did all the officers in the wax, though she had to keep it all inside her mental struggles and maybe lack of confidence at first, even before the people got there, she had to struggle to get supplies. It was a matter of being on this. It's like getting French fries from the kitchen when you're a waiter. Do you know, do you know how that is? Like, you gotta use your wiles. Well, what she did is she basically created a phantom account to charge items to, figuring, you know what, nobody's cross checking this. And by the time somebody finally gets around to it. Guess what? Will already be in my unit's housing sheets. Sheets will be there.
- [55:11]
Susan
Right.
- [55:11]
Becky
So whatever the ends justify the means, she. She got good at making do and making things happen. All good. And then she received and began to train the new troops. Now, the thing is, the troops would come in and they would have one week of equipment conducts. This is like what was ironed out when the officers got trained. Then four weeks of basic training, and then one week of specialist training and then staging for being sent out on their new assignments. Here's the thing. White wax had different teams for all of those endeavors, but the African American platoon had to do it all because of numbers and because of segregation. The African American officers became therefore more adept at changing their roles and getting skills they needed for each stage, more even than any of the white male officers on the base who hadn't had to wear that many hats.
- [56:10]
Susan
Right. Well, you know, I'm going right back to when she first got interviewed. She was so resourceful. She knew she couldn't get to Atlanta, that situation. So she was resourceful and she got herself into the interview. So I think that was just like a foreshadowing of the resourcefulness that she's developing now that she's in the job.
- [56:32]
Becky
As time went on, she was able to choose subsidiary, let's call them middle managers, the army calls them non commissioned officers, and everyone else calls them sergeants. So she was able to delegate duties and basically run from behind the scenes. And everyone noticed. And on December 23, 1942, Lieutenant Adams was promoted to captain, one of only four African American captains in the entire wax.
- [57:05]
Susan
What's remarkable to me is how fast that happened. I mean, I knew that they were gonna have to promote people. But within, what, six months, she went from recruitment to third lieutenant to second lieutenant to captain, all in six months.
- [57:20]
Becky
I just think her abilities really made themselves known very early. She's just very good at organization and making things happen. And she inspired people to want to do a good job. That's just the mark of a good leader, I think. Yeah, so she's got all this respect in the wacs, and even they got dragged. Reluctantly. The army wax in general, were starting to gain a little bit of respect in the army itself. But then you get on a train. You get on a train and you go to South Carolina.
- [57:50]
Susan
Captain Adams was traveling in uniform, but when the train got to the south, it got to the segregated South. There was an area in the dining car where black passengers were welcome to eat. So she lined up with Everybody else to get into the dining car. And the steward was letting people through, and he said, only people in uniform first. So, of course, she stepped through, and he put his arm in front of her and said, not you. Well, this big, deep, booming southern voice from behind her said, what the hell do you think she has on? Get your bleepity bleep. She didn't write the words out in her memoir either.
- [58:32]
Becky
Yeah, the man did not say bleepity bleep. But as I don't 100% know where my little birdie sound is right now, let's just go with Susan saying the word bleepity bleep.
- [58:41]
Susan
Get your bleepity bleep arm down before I break it off for you, the man said. And then he launched into this speech about, why are we fighting this war? This is what we're fighting it for. And Captain Adams is giving her service. She can eat anywhere I can. And it was, yes, sir. And they were led into the dining car.
- [59:03]
Becky
So they sat in the center. It should be noted this man was a second lieutenant. And I know maybe we're not all familiar with the ranks. He was of lower rank than Captain Adams. Just letting you know. So she was the boss of him.
- [59:16]
Susan
Yeah, right. Technically.
- [59:18]
Becky
But it should be noted that when they sat down, I mean, the steward was not gonna fight this fight. They sat down, and no one spoke in the car the rest of the way. It was so awkward in there. It was so against societal norms. And all you could hear the whole time says Ms. Adams in her memoir is the mumblings sort of under his breath, but, like, meant to be heard about white trash and stupid crackers and bottom, they gonna learn. And the brains in their head. And it was like that was the soundtrack of her dinner. Yeah. So, you know, we got dinner, but it was very, very awkward. I will say, I think the only reason he was, quote, obeyed by the steward is that he had a Southern accent. I really do think that if he had come down there with Brooklyn vowels.
- [60:05]
Susan
Right.
- [60:05]
Becky
There would have been a fight, maybe. Yeah. I don't know. Well, so anyway, it's not all roses. We get in this little area of the wax where you have respect, and then you go out in the real world again and realize, oh, wait, I remember. I remember. Well, the first thing that happened when she got home is she went to an NAACP meeting. Her papa was the president of the local chapter. During the meeting, some news came that the clan had surrounded their house. Not for her, but for. Exactly. But, you know, Papa was the one they were targeting. I don't even think she ranked on their system or whatever. Well, the Klan has surrounded the house. And after the meeting, they got back and they kind of walked past all these parked cars. And as the family got inside, all the men in their hoods got out of the cars and started to stand all the way around the house. It was absolutely terrifying. They turned off all the lights. Papa got his gun out. And then the family sat in the dark, totally terrified. They called the police. And the police said, we can't do a thing about people just parked on the public street. What do you want us to do?
- [61:13]
Susan
Right? And this is her reality. I mean, this is not something new for her. This is, you know, her whole life has been. So they sat all night, and the Klan was outside, just surrounding their house and the house next door where there was another member of the NAACP and just stood there and just waited until dawn. And then they all got in their cars and drove away.
- [61:37]
Becky
And this was the country that African American officers and soldiers were putting their lives on the line for. And you kind of have to wonder why they did it. When it comes to grocery shopping and meal planning, I have this problem. A lot of times, due to everyone's schedule, I am the only one concerned with eating. And when left to my baser impulses, I will often devolve to chips and dip. It is really dirty. And so what I need is to get back on track with that goal of eating more vegetables. And I know potato chips on a technicality, yes, sure, that's a vegetable, and so are tortilla chips, corn. But that's not what I mean. I mean real, real vegetables, like the ones that you get with hungry root. It's the easiest way to eat healthy.
- [62:52]
Susan
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- [63:29]
Becky
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- [63:58]
Susan
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Becky
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- [64:49]
Susan
When Captain Adams got back to Fort Des Moines, there was still segregation. Not as bad as when she was in the South. But the black recruits were all seated at separate tables in the dining hall. If there was a white recruit that wanted to sit at their table, she was strongly discouraged not to do it. They were housed in two separate quarters and they had a separate officer's club. Our friend Dr. Mary Bethune had taken on keeping an eye on the African American wax as her project. This was her official duty. So she was often going to Fort Des Moines to check up on things. And she is seeing everything that's happening there. She wondered why, if state law didn't allow for segregation in Iowa in eating places, why was it happening at this fort? And of course, the answer is because that's how we do it in the military. But it wasn't entirely. There were other forts that were more integrated than Fort Des Moines was. And every opportunity she had, she got a hold of all of her contacts, not only within FDR's cabinet, but in the press as well, just to point out the inequality of the woman of Fort Des Moines and in the WAC entirely.
- [66:13]
Becky
So with that happening on the outside, and keep in mind, Mary Bethune is pulling other threads as well, threads that wouldn't come to fruition immediately, but the work begins now, years ahead. That's a little not spoiler, but foreshadowing. Well, you do what you can do. And in the fort at Des Moines, in their situation, Captain Adams knew that it was up to her to boost morale and make everyone feel like the important cogs that they really were in the patriotic war machine. And so, you know, this is only a lady person would come up with this. I think she decided to begin a beautification project. Now, it did get a little out of Hand, a little out of hand. But they spread morning glory seeds everywhere, and the morning glories climbed up the fences and looked lovely. They at one point had cajoled the carpentry division, some men to build them a rose arbor, which ended up being a giant monstrosity. And they lied to the man that built it and said the major made them take it down. But in fact, it was like, ooh, no, that's not good. They went shopping and they got curtains. At one point, they're like, pull it back, lady persons. This looks like a house and not a military base. But nonetheless, you know, they had a victory garden out back. Just tried to make it a place they were very proud of. The thing is, they were showing people up almost. They were a model company. They were the company that was shown to visitors to the base, and she took a lot of pride in that. The officers tended in the African American platoon to stay around a lot longer than the WAC officers on the white side. And the stability really showed in the skill at the parade, in the general appearance of the platoon, the general appearance of the housing. There was a lot going on in a positive way. Sometimes in the quieter moments, Captain Adams would look around and take stock of what was going on. And I quote, we were very proud when we received the colors on the parade grounds. But our proudest moments were when we escorted the colors, by which she means the American flag, back to post headquarters and executed the ceremony. There were moments here when we all felt how strong our patriotism really was. It was always there, but we were usually too busy with routine activities to let it come to the surface. When we stood at present arms and watched the flag go down with the Star Spangled Banner sounding in the air, we were always filled with a deep and rich feeling. So America was not really returning the favor. You know, Wax in general had fallen under sort of an air of comedy and public censure. Off color cartoons started to be published. A strong suspicion of or intimation of, almost like official prostitution, I hate to say. Or if not that strong, perhaps a dirty version of the Mrs. Degree, like, you're just here to get a man type of thing. Therefore, communities and parents in particular were less willing to be supportive of the new recruits and ladies that wanted to sign up. And that was, of course, another big challenge. For a while, the quality of the new recruits was not the carefully vetted, valuable intake that it had been. I love the story. I don't know if you've seen the movie Nanny McPhee, but the little kids refused to get out of bed. And Annie McPhee handled it well. This new recruit decided she was sick of marching and sick of all this nonsense and she was tired of being dirty and it was over and she was just gonna sleep in bed and they could all just lump it, you know what I mean? And it went up the chain of command, like, no one could get this lady out of bed. And they finally called on Captain Adams and she had to be creative. She's the last. The buck stopped there, right? And how embarrassing would it be if you literally had to call military police to get a two day recruit out of bed? I mean, come on. And so she decided to think creatively. That is what Captain Adams is known for. She said, fine, then you are hereby confined to your bed. You will not move. You will be escorted to the latrine twice a day. You will be under guard. Enjoy your rest. And by the end of day one, the person's like, okay, I'd like to get up. And Captain Adams is like, no, ma'am. That's right, no, ma'am.
- [70:38]
Susan
There are consequences to your actions.
- [70:41]
Becky
Well, I love that. Anyway, so the short version is she was resilient. She was a mother figure, but yet, you know, stern but fair. And that the African American platoon was getting a reputation for being quite the place to be and quite the place to live, you know, and so unwillingly, she was. I just hate this. She was relieved of duty because they were booting her upstairs. That's the thing. You get too good at a job and then they want to give you another job.
- [71:10]
Susan
That's right.
- [71:12]
Becky
It's like, can't I just skate in my happiness? No, they never let you do that. And so it was an unwilling promotion, but she did have a larger canvas. The thing is, as segregation wore on, there was a buildup of trained women. As the wider world, all the units out there, the unit cos rejected having African American wax in their jurisdiction. So the pressure is building. She had a lot of challenges. It's a very complicated situation, and it always has been and always will be a very complicated situation. What role do I have? You feel the patriotism. America doesn't particularly care. Seems like locals care. Wider world doesn't care. It's like so complicated. Like, who am I? What am I supposed to do? And what can we do to kind of break this logjam across the board?
- [72:02]
Susan
It wasn't just difficult to get African American recruits. It was getting more difficult to get any WAC recruits. They were trickling down as far as the number of women coming into the program, and again, our friend Dr. Bethune and Eleanor Roosevelt and Edith Rogers and others were on the case. They're saying, look, this program is working. But these women who are now trained in military procedure, who can now go anywhere and do all these jobs to free up our men to go fight, they don't have the same protections still. They don't have the same rank protections. They don't have any privileges or benefits of being in the actual army because they're still in the Auxiliary Corps. Within a year, FDR relented and the Auxiliary was dropped. The Woman's Army Corps was officially announced, and all the women were suddenly now covered under all the same protections and benefits as any other man in the Army. I do want to say that we're focusing on the army because that's what our story is. But there were women in other branches of the military as well. The Navy had their waves and the Air Force had their WASPs, all totaled. Over 350,000American women joined the armed forces during World War II.
- [73:33]
Becky
I do want to say that the Navy only had very minimal, I want to say, between two and four African American officers in its own corps. So the Navy was not as welcoming as the Army.
- [73:48]
Susan
No.
- [73:49]
Becky
Shortly after, I mean, weeks after the conversion from the WAAACs to the WACs, hard to say. WAAC became WAC. Sounds the same. Our friend Captain Adams was called to be at parade with the CO of the post. Common enough again, like I said, her platoon was often called to be the show place. She was exhausted, but she had seen the bus come. Principals of high schools all across America were there. And sure enough that, you know, that's who we're going to show off for. Fair enough. You brush off my hat, let's get going. And she shows up there. And much to her great surprise, instead of simply being the showpiece in front of a lot of high school principals, she was pinned with the insignia of the next rank up. Captain Adams had been promoted to Major Adams, one of only two African American women in the wax to receive that rank. She was also called in. She, one of the highest ranking officers of color in the wax, was called into a special meeting. How exciting, said the administration. We have a brilliant plan for you. We are going to create an entire separate but equal training facility only for African Americans. Won't that be great? You guys won't have any of this trouble anymore about feeling like the others. Won't it be great? And Major Adams, a lifelong veteran of separate but not equal. And all it did to your psyche. Absolutely refused. That is the worst idea I've ever heard. But what if we gave you a direct order because you're the highest ranking, you would be the CO in charge of this whole battalion. And she said, I hereby refuse whatever it took. If they were going to prosecute her for that, she was not going to be in charge of what she viewed as a giant travesty. We are a part of a bigger system and you are not going to shunt us to the side. After all this time, and it wasn't.
- [76:01]
Susan
Just happening at Fort Des Moines, all this segregation. Fort Devens in Massachusetts was also having a huge problem with the segregation of their wax there. The African American wax were given all the menial jobs even though they had been promised. Enter the wax. You can learn to become a medical technician, but all they were learning to do was scrub toilets and do other things that we think of as being part of the army. But when you see your white counterparts getting those jobs that you are just as if not more qualified for, you start to get a little upset. Finally one day, tired of having kp, that's kitchen patrol, having KP duty, and after hearing a commanding officer say that he did not want any of the African American wax as medical technicians. So it wasn't even like they were scrubbing toilets and floors to get to this job. It's going to like.
- [77:03]
Becky
It wasn't wax on, wax off. It was for real, forever. Wax on, wax off.
- [77:10]
Susan
Sorry. It's funny.
- [77:12]
Becky
I'm just saying.
- [77:12]
Susan
Wax on. Sorry. Okay. A group decided that they were just going to go on strike. They knew the consequences of this action. They knew that this act could be considered mutiny because they are not doing the jobs that they were ordered to do. And if it came up for a court martial, there was a possible death penalty. So some of the women stopped their strike, but four held out. They were court martialed. They were sentenced to a year of hard labor. But the press, both African American and mainstream press, got a hold of this information of what was going on at Fort Devens. There was a wave of public support for these women and ultimately the charges were dropped. But they had made their point. Look what's happening here. And the African American press never, never let up on reporting about the segregation in the WACS that was headlines on their papers all the time.
- [78:15]
Becky
So while Major Adams is working as a control officer, so she dealt with like lost property and the tracking of equipment forms officer, where she focused on streamlining of processes within the army and a training officer where she focused on, as they say today, human resources. All of these things couldn't be better training and better PR for her. As the leader of her future and most famous assignment, the army had a thorny problem that involved lost property, new processes and human resources that they just couldn't figure out how to fix. Not only that, it was turning out to be a giant PR and morale nightmare. In their defense, there'd been absolute chaos taking place on the battlefront of Europe. I want to fly out to the big world. This is August 1944. Paris, which had been occupied by the Nazis, had been liberated by the allied forces. But before that, and slightly after that, the front lines moved around, back and forth, up and down, back and forth. It was a very unsettled time during the war in Europe. It was a very variable time. Something that got left behind was mail delivery. You know, when people and units were moving about in great danger, the last thing you're probably going to do is worry about these packages. And so what did you. Just like our post office is doing in this blizzard, we're leaving them back at headquarters. All the packages, all the letters. And they have been building up for a long, long time now. We talked about during the Civil War, how soldiers that got a little jar of jelly from home would often break down. That little jelly from home meant the world to them. It meant more to them psychologically. Like, what am I fighting for? Oh, this, this is. It was a reminder of what they were doing, you know. But no one had gotten any mail for months and months. And it was very demoralizing. They thought they'd been forgotten. So Christmas passed, Christmas past of 1944, with this heavy cloud over the soldiers heads in Europe, something had to be done. And due to the advocacy of the aforementioned Dr. Bethune, Eleanor Roosevelt of Ovada Hobby, up and down the chain, pressure was exerted and an offer was extended to the army. I have a vast resource to deploy to handle this situation. All you have to do is accept it. And so in February 1945, Major Adams was summoned to receive an exciting new assignment.
- [81:17]
Susan
She was called into her colonel's office and asked if she would like to be deployed overseas. It had yet to happen for African American WACs. There were white units that had been sent overseas, but no African American WAC unit had. Now I just want to make it clear, there was an all African American female unit that had gone overseas. They were deployed to Liberia in 1943, but they were not an army unit. It was a Medical unit. So it's just, you know, there's been nursing units overseas and at the front lines. So that had happened, but there had not been a WAC unit sent over. Her colonel told her this is the real move. He said, I've always refused to release you from training center because I could see no advantage for you in letting you go unless you have an opportunity for a promotion. So how do you feel about this?
- [82:17]
Becky
Major Adams would be in charge of over 800 wacs. They knew they were going overseas and therefore they had to report to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, to receive specific training to be outfitted for overseas duty. But no one knew what this duty was going to be. And it was very like they had to climb ropes and they had to practice getting off of a sinking ship. Imagine the montage that you always get, like the basic training montage. We're crawling under the wires, we're climbing the wall in a pyramid. They had to put on the gas masks and then take them off and all emerge coughing out of the little shed. Like all of the stereotypical things, marching, getting ready, etc. The thing that brought them all together was at last, at last, you know, we are going to be sent somewhere very valuable. And even if they hadn't trained under Major Addams, everybody knew who she was, right? Everybody. Everybody in the wax knew who Major Adams was. And Mandra Adams was going to be their co. It was very exciting.
- [83:27]
Susan
She's like almost like a whack celebrity because she was touring bases, she was making sure that recruits were being trained properly. So all of these women who had come from different bases had seen her before in a, you know, high profile, on the stage capacity, and suddenly they are the ones that are going to be under her command. You're right. It was so exciting. And she was ultimately responsible for picking each of the 850, that's what they had as their quota women that were to go. Not all the women that went to this training succeeded. A lot of them didn't make it. Within two months, Major Adams and her first officer, Captain Campbell, were put on a transport plane. It was just like you see in the military, two rows of seats facing each other, not comfortable at all. Only 3 of the people on the plane were women. The third one was, curiously, a civilian who was coming along with one of the officers. Somehow, I never really, really certain exactly how that was. Major Adams had her orders. They were in a sealed envelope. She was instructed not to open it until they were over open water. So from Washington to Bermuda she didn't. But the plane was gonna go to the Azores and then on to Scotland. So at one point, she was finally able to open her orders, and she saw what she and her battalion were gonna be doing. Major Adams was to be in charge of the 6888, which is called the 6888 Central Postal Directory Battalion. And this group was made up entirely of women of color, mostly African Americans, although there were some Hispanic women there and some women of Caribbean descent. It was all women of color.
- [85:25]
Becky
There were millions of packages and letters that had been warehoused for future sorting. And this was to be their job, to clear the backlog, to get the mail distributed wherever in Europe it was supposed to have gone. And they only had six months to do it. The number millions didn't carry a giant amount of weight until they arrived and saw the hangers after hangers of sacks stacked over their heads. Imagine the Indiana Jones, like that last thing where they put the grail in the box and they stick it to the side, and then the camera pans back. It's almost that level of despair.
- [86:14]
Susan
Yeah.
- [86:14]
Becky
I mean, she had to invent a process. She had to create the working conditions. She had to create the staffing, the protocol. Everything was up in the air. This is the problem presented before you. How you solve it is really up to you.
- [86:32]
Susan
And she was given a little bit of time before the rest of her unit arrived, because all the rest of those ladies were still to come over. They had a school that they were given that they could use as their barracks and their mess hall. She insisted that there be. And this sounds diva, but it is absolutely not a beauty parlor, so that the women could have their hair done and just feel good about themselves. That was a necessity. So she is inventing everything from the ground up. And we're talking weeks. We're not talking like, she had months to do it.
- [87:07]
Becky
So the first contingent of wax departed on a ship called the Isle de France. And they had to do a giant zigzag situation across the Atlantic Ocean, because what was patrolling? The German U boats, Untersee boats. That's what their official name is. The submarines were patrolling the ocean, shooting down ships. And so can you imagine, I mean, the terrifying nature of being in a boat, knowing there's something hunting you? I don't know. It's so scary to me.
- [87:41]
Susan
And the Ile de France was actually a former luxury liner that had been stripped. So it's. You know, I can just imagine walking up thinking, oh, I'm gonna go on this beautiful boat, and then getting inside and just finding rows and rows and rows of, you know, triple cots. And that's where they're gonna be staying eight days. And a lot of these women were seasick. So that just makes it even more miserable, because seasickness doesn't end until you touch dry land again. So they are traveling in complete darkness at times, knowing that the zigzagging that's throwing them all around down below was because they were trying to save their lives and not be attacked by a U boat.
- [88:23]
Becky
At last they arrived in Glasgow, Scotland. And from there they got on a train to go to Birmingham, England. And I have to say, I'm glad they got acclimated on the boat, because conditions at the new place, at least the working conditions, were hardly even better. I myself have worked in an unheated warehouse. You do get acclimated after a while, but then your ink freezes in your pen, right? Yeah. Several million pieces of mail in all the warehouses were stacked from floor to ceiling. A lot of the packages had had homemade cookies or cake in them like you would send to a son or a sweetheart in the army. Now, had he gotten those things in the proper time, they would be delicious. As it was, some of those pieces had been there for a couple of years. Guess who likes old, gross food. Rats like that and mice like that. And the rats and mice were a little discombobulated when their lovely little grocery store was interrupted by 800 lady persons. And they made their displeasure known.
- [89:32]
Susan
One of the things that happened. While Major Adams and Captain Campbell were preparing their new quarters and barracks, a general came by and he asked her, can your troops march? Now, remember, she loves marching. This is one of her favorite things. And she said, yes, sir, they are the best marching troops you will ever see. He said, great, because after they get here, just two days later, I would like them in a parade. So these women have traveled across the ocean. They have taken a train down to Birmingham. They're in a brand new country. There's all kinds of, you know, typical currency issues and just first time being in a different country, you know, everything. Now they have to march. But that's okay. That's what they do.
- [90:22]
Becky
I know on one hand it's like, oh, how dare you. And on the other hand, it might be something familiar, like, you know, day four. You always want to eat a hamburger.
- [90:32]
Susan
So let's just march that when you're.
- [90:33]
Becky
In Paris on day three. Yeah, it's not a hamburger, but it's.
- [90:38]
Susan
Something a little glitch that happened was that while Major Adams was the highest ranking officer in this group, she wasn't actually given orders that she was the commanding officer. Those orders came, and so she decided it was time for her to just issue one, just make it so. So she assumed command of the six, triple eight. And she's 27 years old, so she's responsible for these 824 enlisted women and 32 officers with this monumental task of clearing these six airplane hangars and this school that's packed with all this mail out in six months.
- [91:21]
Becky
Complicating the scenario was that a lot of soldiers had the same name in the days of Robert Smith. You could have hundreds of Robert Smiths. Which Robert Smith was this particular letter intended for? Where was he at the current time? You know what? Quickly, different strengths came to the fore. There was a large contingent that was expert at map reading, at tracking the movements of units, of using all their contacts and their deductive powers to determine where a unit might have gone and at what time, and cross reference it to the list of soldiers. There were people that were very good at deciphering handwriting, a specialty that still exists in the modern United States Postal Service, by the way. Yeah, it is called the Remote Encoding Center. It is in Salt Lake City, Utah. And people still have to manually read people's chicken scratches and tell the computer what it really says. Of course, the 6888 did not have computers to help them in their work. In fact, sometimes their work had to go more into the realm of forensics. They had to open the packages and letters and see if there were any clues inside. They even had experts in things like perfume and local products that could determine if a package had been completely disassembled from what town it might have come from, based on the products that had been included in the care packages. I mean, there was so much deductive reasoning here. And I'm reminded of, like, a 900 dimension escape room is basically what we have going on here, right? All these cogs going in every direction. And then when they were finally inspected by a superior officer, how dare he object to the women having, quote, opened and read our soldier's mail? Like, honey, what.
- [93:29]
Susan
How do you.
- [93:30]
Becky
What on earth.
- [93:30]
Susan
How do you expect this to happen sometimes? Do you see what we are doing here? There was also people whose expertise was package restoration. They could painstakingly puzzle together these packages that had been torn open by rats or just mishandled or not packaged properly. And they were also charged with censoring letters. So those black lines that run through people's letters that are telling secrets of the war so they don't get back overseas. That was one of the other things that they had to do.
- [94:04]
Becky
Another thing more grim that they had to do was when they determined the letter had gone to a deceased soldier. They were responsible for writing to the family and deploying the mail in the homeward direction.
- [94:19]
Susan
Major Adams broke the group up into four companies and divided those into three 8 hour shifts, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.
- [94:30]
Becky
As the mail started being delivered, the joy, the ripple of joy, the waves of happiness for this began to spread across Europe. They were beginning to be known. Their powers were beginning to be appreciated.
- [94:46]
Susan
Their power was that they were processing 65,000 pieces of mail in each of those shifts. That's mind boggling to me. The motto that they were working by was no mail. Low morale. And it was true, because once they started unclogging it, like you just said, soldiers were getting their mail and their morale was increasing. Because she was doing such a phenomenal job with the 6888, it was a pretty routine thing for higher ups in command to come and inspect the operation. One day a general came by for a grand tour. And they had it all coordinated because so many came by. He was shown how the operation worked. He was shown the doors of the sleeping women. He was shown everything. It was just a proper tour from top to bottom. And then he said, I would like them all lined up for inspection. And the women that were available lined up. And he said, adams, where's the rest of your unit? This isn't a battalion. She politely reminded him that there were three shifts. So a third of the people were working. He had seen them working. She wasn't about to have them stop. A third of them were sleeping. And we walked by their rooms. The doors were closed. I would not let you go in there. Do you remember that? And this is the rest. And the general just got really belligerent. And he said, but. But I wanted to review all your troops. I'll tell you what, Major Adams, I'm going to send down a white first lieutenant to show you how to run this unit. And she just, I mean, summoned all the restraint she had. But the words that came out of her mouth were, over my dead body.
- [96:37]
Becky
I applaud her for that.
- [96:40]
Susan
No kidding. And then she takes it a step farther. Cause the guys really mad. He's like, you're gonna hear from me. And he kind of flounces out. And then he started court martial proceedings against Her. But she was one step ahead of him because while he was there, he had made so many sexist and racist comments that she was lining him up for herself to present. Say, look, this is what he was doing while he was here. When the general realized what was happening, that there was a countercharge against him, he dropped his charges with some BS about it being too expensive to bring in a new officer to replace her. So nobody can. He can replace her.
- [97:21]
Becky
No. Such nonsense. Yeah, Such nonsense. And, you know, that is just corporate upper management, honestly.
- [97:28]
Susan
Yeah. Like, bow down to me. Let me see how much you respect me. I don't care what you're doing. My presence here should be the focus of everybody's attention.
- [97:37]
Becky
You know, I read something, and this actually applies here. I haven't had it written down, but, like, how some people define respect as recognizing the other as a human being, and others denote respect as treat me as an authority figure. And so it's like, if you don't treat me as an authority figure, I won't respect your humanity. And that almost seems like what happened with that general.
- [97:57]
Susan
Definitely. And I would venture a guess that it happens with a lot of generals in the army at this time. The fine folks of Birmingham, however, were very excited, unlike this general, to have all of these women in their presence. They were inviting them to Sunday roast dinners. They were inviting them to teas. When Major Adams and Captain Campbell arrived, they were surprised at the lack of segregation. You know, they had arrived in London that they were. There was no segregation at the time, so they were welcomed by it, you know, by not being unwelcome, I guess.
- [98:33]
Becky
Well, you know what? We've talked about that before. Josephine Baker arrived in Paris to find it's whatever. She adopted France as her home country largely based on its lack of segregation.
- [98:43]
Susan
Right.
- [98:43]
Becky
And I imagine as someone that grew up under that system and then, of course, became an adult and worked under a variation of that system, very official, very integral to many parts of your life. To get to a country that didn't have that policy must have felt like a weight you didn't know you were caring, marrying suddenly lifted off of you. Although she still had to deal with the segregation that traveled with her in the heads of the American servicemen.
- [99:13]
Susan
Right. The Americans brought the segregation. As a matter of fact, in the American Red Cross, a lot of the women were given passes to go into London, and they were staying at an American Red Cross hotel. Major Adams was told, we realized that your colored girls would be happier if they had a hotel all to themselves. So we've leased one and are renovating and furnishing it right now. Isn't that awesome? Paraphrase spin there.
- [99:43]
Becky
And it's the same old thing from, like, wouldn't it be great if there was a battalion all your own? You know what that reminds me of in that? Well, particularly the movie, but. I know it's a book, but in the movie, the Help, won't it be nice if you have a bathroom of your own? Yeah, it's like that. Like, oh, I am doing such a good thing for you.
- [100:00]
Susan
Yeah.
- [100:01]
Becky
Won't you feel so happy? It's like, no.
- [100:04]
Susan
But she, again, thinking woman, she waited until they called her back into London to see the finished hotel. And she went by and said, I'm so sorry that you've gone to so much expense and trouble. I advised you that this hotel is unnecessary. I promise you that as God is my witness, as long as I'm commanding Officer of the 6/8th Central Postal Directory Battalion, not one member of that unit will ever spend a night here. And she made it so. She made it so. And found places for her women to stay in London so they would not stay at this segregated hotel. I love her. So the project that the army had told the six triple eight to do in six months, and a lot of people believed that they would fail at that. The six triple eight with Major Adams in charge cleared 17.5 million pieces of mail and not six, but in three months.
- [101:10]
Becky
It was a shocking achievement. So that was a trackable achievement. The sheer numbers that you can put on a piece of paper and add up. But think about the intangible. The amount of joy, of morale, of camaraderie, of relief given to the soldiers and their families by the members of the 6888 cannot be quantified numerically. But that, I think, is a contribution to the American effort in World War II. You just can't put on a balance sheet. Okay? So I wish I had done this a long time ago. It's never too late to start. Cotton pillowcases are no bueno for mermaid hair. That is something I didn't fully know until I used Blissey's silk pillowcase. Silk pillowcases remove the frizz factor from wavy and curly hair in a way that is almost magic.
- [102:31]
Susan
And you know what? I'm going to go so far as to say I don't have personal experience because I have curly hair. But I mentioned this to my hairstylist who had commented that my frizz was going down and I said, I've been using the Blissey pillowcases and sometimes I use the Blissy Bonnet. And she goes, my daughter, who I know has straight hair, swears by those things. Her entire sorority swears by the silk pillowcases. So I think it's across the board. But for us curly haired people and my kids, who I gave them to for Christmas, it's a life changer.
- [103:00]
Becky
Also, it's not just good for your hair, it's good for your complexion. So just like your hair, your skin also suffers from moisture wicking and rough treatment that a silk pillowcase just handles for you. So you'll see an improvement not only in your hair's texture, but your skin's as well.
- [103:21]
Susan
And these are silk fibers, not satin. They are pure silk fibers. And silk in and of itself is antibacterial and hypoallergenic. So there's nothing bad about these pill cases. Plus they look pretty swanky.
- [103:34]
Becky
Also, this is important because, you know, I treat my dishes this way too. It's like, well, if you didn't survive the dishwasher, I guess you can't survive in this house. Surprisingly, these silk pillowcases are machine washable, which is very important for me. I've got high maintenance pets. I can't handle high maintenance domestic linens. So because you are listeners, blissey is offering 60 nights risk free, plus an additional 30% off when you shop at blissi.com historychicks that's blissi B L I.
- [104:08]
Susan
S S-Y.com historychicks use code historychicks to get an additional 30% off your skin and your hair will thank the six. Triple Eight did so well in Birmingham that they were sent to Rouen, France to do exactly the same thing over there. Things were a little bit different when they got to France. For instance, civilians were hired to work alongside the women. And male German POWs were also used for carpentry and other skilled work on the base. There was a lot more traffic around the base. Word had gotten out about these women, about how awesome they were, and they were attracting people to come see them from near and far. And soldiers passing through town wanted to take a look, maybe date one of them. They were asked once again, as soon as they got there to be in a parade. And they got to show off their marching skills right through downtown Rouen, where they then got to pay their respects to our old friend Joan of Arc.
- [105:33]
Becky
It helps a little bit, quite a bit that it was post VE Day. Victory in Europe Day was May 8, 1945. And so everyone was still around, you know, everyone was still accomplishing tasks in Europe and awaiting being sent home. But it helped a lot that the acute danger of battle was over. And so our friends at the six triple eight were released from time to time to go to festivals, to small towns where they had been invited to eat at people's homes. It was a lot more like a working vacation than an all hands on deck. Put your head down. Oh my God. Stress fest that it had been.
- [106:20]
Susan
In Birmingham, there was even enough time for a wedding. PFC Florence Collins of the 6888 married Corporal William Johnson. It was the first African American marriage to be performed in the European theater. That would be the European theater of operations. That's kind of the technical lingo. They were also able to start thinking about not just their futures, but the futures of their neighbors back home. They decided that in their newsletter which was entitled Special Delivery. Isn't that cute? About a month after they had started in Rouen to do a fund drive for the United Negro College Fund. And in just a couple weeks they raised $4,500 to support education back home.
- [107:04]
Becky
That's amazing.
- [107:05]
Susan
Is. Although there was tragedy that struck, three women that were on an authorized social excursion died in a jeep accident. The army wasn't sending funds fast enough for burial. So again the six triple eight passed the hat and got enough money to have these women buried. They needed to purchase custom made caskets. And the German POWs were actually the carpenters that worked on them. They are three of the four women that are buried in Normandy's American cemetery. The fourth woman was a Red Cross volunteer who had died.
- [107:42]
Becky
As the need for soldiers and sailors diminished in the newly acquired peacetime, the members of the 6888 began to trickle home. However, due to their success in both Birmingham and Rouen, the unit itself was moved to Paris. Hooray. Which would seem to be a big blow if you'd already been sent home. Like, damn it, like you missed the big kahuna. That's a bummer. So they continued their work. Were in Paris. One of the members of the six AAA got an unprecedented honor.
- [108:19]
Susan
Major Adams was promoted again, this time to Lieutenant Colonel Adams. This is the highest rank possible for anybody in the WAC.
- [108:31]
Becky
The remaining soldiers boarded the Claymont Victory on February 27, 1946 to return home to the United States after their extensive tour of duty.
- [108:45]
Susan
But Lieutenant Colonel Adams had one more responsibility on this ship. On the ship already was a unit of white female nurses. And they were not happy about having An African American colonel overseeing them, despite the fact that she was the senior female ranking officer on the ship. We have a major here, she can be in charge of everyone. But Lt. Col. Adams basically said, I'm the senior officer. I have the assignment to carry out here. I am not getting off the ship. But if you all can't go under my command, pack up your stuff, get off the ship, you have 20 minutes. And they're like, but, but, but. And behind her, the captain said, she's absolutely right. And now you only have 17 minutes.
- [109:36]
Becky
You know, I think if there's going to be ranks, there needs to be respect for rank.
- [109:39]
Susan
Absolutely.
- [109:40]
Becky
When the 6888 got home, I am sorry to say that there was a little bit less ceremony than you might have expected. The unit was dissolved, but not before some awards. The members of the unit received the European African Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, the Women's Army Corps Service Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal.
- [110:07]
Susan
In addition, Lieutenant Colonel Adams went to Washington. She got to meet Dr. Mary Bethune at the National Council of Negro Women's meeting and they presented her with a distinguished service award. I love that she got to meet her. You know, Dr. Bethune had been championing this whole operation for the African American wax the whole time. And then she got to meet her. That's great.
- [110:33]
Becky
But otherwise everyone was turned out for the most part to reintegrate into civilian.
- [110:40]
Susan
Life after all these awards and debriefing by the military. On March 26, 1946, Papa Eugene and Colonel Adams sister arrived to take 27 year old Miss Charity Edna Adams, who's now a civilian, back home.
- [110:59]
Becky
After she left the army, she was asked by many organizations to of course give speeches, which she did to a certain extent. It was pretty inspirational actually. Almost an unbelievable story of the time series of stories. She went also back to Ohio State University after all of this delay for more time and finished her master's degree still in 1946. After she was done, she got a job with the VA in Cleveland, Ohio. Her job was to review veterans requests for GI Bill, educational funding and other benefits. She determined how much money everyone would get awarded. That was a very responsible job. That was a very critical part of the after war economy. And she had that job for a couple of years and then went to do educational work. She was the dean of student services at Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State College in Nashville and then became the dean of students at Georgia State College in Savannah, Georgia.
- [112:15]
Susan
Personally, things get interesting for her at about the age of 31. It was then that she married Stanley Early. She had known him since back at Wilberforce. They weren't dating, but they had known each other. He was also a vet and he was also a medical student in Switzerland.
- [112:33]
Becky
Well, there weren't a lot of spots open in America, even for men, for African American doctors in the medical colleges of America. It was often easier to get a spot if you went to Europe, I'm sorry to say. So when they lived in Zurich, Mrs. Early, that's the first time I'm going to refer to her with her new married name. I was like, there's a lot of names here. Mrs. Early attended a language learning immersion program. It's called the Minerva Institute. I love that. That she went to an intense language immersion school to learn German. And then after she had done that, mastered German, she actually attended college for two years. In German.
- [113:18]
Susan
In German. Studying analytical psychology.
- [113:22]
Becky
Yeah. Yeah.
- [113:23]
Susan
No, it wasn't even just like something ordinary analytical psychology.
- [113:28]
Becky
When they returned to the United States, her husband began his medical practice, which he would have for another 40 years, in Dayton, Ohio. They had two children, a boy and a girl. The boy named after his father, as is tradition. It seems to be. And also became a very active member of her community. She sat on the board of directors of the Dayton chapter of the American Red Cross. There's a little bit of irony. She'd crossed swords with the American Red Cross during the war. She was on the board of Sinclair Community College and the board of the Dayton Power and Light Company, which I did not know had boards of directors because I am naive in that way.
- [114:17]
Susan
Also the Dayton Metro Housing Authority, she was on the board of that and the Dayton Opera Company.
- [114:24]
Becky
And she was the founder of the Black Leadership Development Program, which is still active in educating and training African Americans in leadership skills. So they trained them and sent them out back to their own communities. Sounds a lot like the platoons in Des Moines, doesn't it? Yeah, it's still around. It's called Parity Incorporated now.
- [114:48]
Susan
She also volunteered with the naacp, the United Way, and the United Negro College Fund and the ywca. So she's not sitting around just, you know, knitting afghans at all.
- [115:01]
Becky
I do like an Afghan, though.
- [115:03]
Susan
I do, too. She probably was doing that as well. I mean, she's very multi talented and can handle a lot of projects at once. In 1989, she penned her memoir. It's entitled One Woman's A Black Officer Remembers the WAC. In 1991, she got honorary doctorates from both Wilberforce and the University of Dayton. The accolades are just rolling in. In 95, she was honored by President Clinton at the groundbreaking for the women's memorial in D.C. and she was honored. In 1996, she was honored at the Smithsonian by the national postal system for her wartime service.
- [115:45]
Becky
Was she on a stamp? Is that what that means?
- [115:47]
Susan
No, I think she was. She had an honor, like an event. They honored her charity. Edna Adams early died on January 13, 2002 at the age of 83. She's buried at the Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum in Dayton, Ohio.
- [116:05]
Becky
As recently as 2018 and I have seen this monument. Fort Leavenworth, Kansas dedicated a monument to the entire unit, the 6888. But it has a. A bust of Mrs. Early. I'm sorry, it's hard for me to call her that.
- [116:24]
Susan
Lieutenant Colonel. She's in uniform, actually.
- [116:27]
Becky
So it might be a bust of Lieutenant Colonel early, right, Or Lieutenant Colonel Colonel Adams. You know what I mean? You know, the lady we've been talking about this whole time is in uniform. She's emerging out of the top of the monument from the waist up. And it's definitely within striking distance of Kansas City, if you are here.
- [116:46]
Susan
And there were five living members that attended the ceremony from night 92 to 98 years old.
- [116:51]
Becky
In March 2022, all 855 women who had been assigned to the 6 Triple 8 Central Poster Directory Battalion were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President Joe Biden. It was for meritorious service, not only for the successful completion of their mission at the end of World War II, but for their sustained collective pursuit of racial and gender equality in the face of significant social and political barriers. It was the nation's thank you card to the entire battalion. But yet there's more. On April 27, 2023, an army post in Virginia that used to be called Fort Lee became Fort Gregg Adams, after Lt. Gen. Arthur Gregg and Lt. Col. Charity.
- [117:44]
Susan
And in 2024, after being inspired by a magazine article by Kevin Himille called Fighting on Two Front War that focused on an interview with Corporal Lena Derricott, Tyler Perry made the Netflix movie the Six Triple Eight starring Kerry Washington as Lt. Col. Adams. Some of the characters in the movie, like Corporal Lena Derricott, are based on real people. And as far as the movie goes, I thought it stuck to history pretty well. I mean, it's not a documentary, but there's a lot of facts in there that actually happened. The real women in the movie are, of course, Lieutenant Colonel Adams, Corporal Lena Derricott, Captain Abby Campbell. So that was her second in command.
- [118:31]
Becky
Like her sous chef.
- [118:32]
Susan
Right. And she ended up serving 27 years in the military before she retired, obviously. FDR, Dr. Bethune, thank you, Oprah, for bringing that to life. And Eleanor Roosevelt were all real people.
- [118:48]
Becky
I would have absolutely loved to see a drunk history episode on the six Triple eight, but alas, there is not one.
- [118:57]
Susan
I do have one. Like, I don't know if it's. It's not a spoiler exactly, but one thing that they did in the storyline for narrative economy. You know how Lena is not married and then she goes over there and she meets her husband? Well, in real life, she was already married before she went over there. Doo, doo, doo.
- [119:19]
Becky
Well, that's okay. It was good for the story arc.
- [119:21]
Susan
It was. And she did have a friend who had died there, a Jewish boy. And so that was true, too. I mean, maybe not their relationship exactly, but close enough.
- [119:32]
Becky
As of August this year, I don't know what's gonna happen, but two congresspeople from Ohio introduced a resolution. All they can really do is request that Mrs. Early Lt. Col. Edna Adams be honored with her own postage stamp. As of this recording, it had not yet been issued or approved. But just so you know, someone's on it. Yep. And the paperwork has been filed, which Lt. Col. Adams would have appreciated.
- [120:07]
Susan
That seems like a slam dunk, that one.
- [120:10]
Becky
Yeah. And that is the end of the life of Lt. Col. Charity Edna Adams early and the afterlife of same. And now it's time for media. And as usual, we will start with books. Now, unusually, I'm gonna start with a children's book called the Six Triple 8th Battalion and Military Achievement by Khaleesa Wing. And it has, like, the right hand page will have a photo, and the left hand page will talk about what happened. And our old friend Mary McCloud Bethune does feature in the book.
- [120:47]
Susan
Also, another cute kit, since we're starting with kids books, was a graphic nonfiction called the Courageous 6888, the all female battalion of World War II by Dr. Ardika Tyner and illustrated by Cynthia Paul. I mean, you know, I have a thing for graphic nonfictions, so it was one of those. It was good.
- [121:09]
Becky
We would be remiss if we did not highlight absolutely our subject of her assorted names, Lieutenant Colonel Edna Adams Early. I know we changed her name so many times during this show that it's getting to be a little bit like, I don't know, she wrote a book called One Woman's Army. There are a lot of anecdotes in there that will really personalize what you have learned today. A lot of doubts, perhaps a lot of behind the scenes the curtain gets pulled back. Highly, highly recommend.
- [121:40]
Susan
Yeah, me too. Another book about the six triple eight is called To Serve My Country, To Serve My Race. The story of the only African American wack stationed overseas during World War II by Brenda L. Moore. And it was kind of academic feeling, but it was also readable, so I liked it.
- [122:00]
Becky
Also, you would not see this exactly, but I have so many pages in this book turned down that had it been a library book, I probably would have had to buy it. But luckily this is already my book that I own. And as a little bit of defense, you know who else writes in her books? Rory Gilmore.
- [122:20]
Susan
Oh, okay. Well, you're in good company. I bet Hermione writes in hers too, right?
- [122:26]
Becky
I think Hermione seems like a anti writing in the book person.
- [122:30]
Susan
Okay, well then Bellatrix does.
- [122:33]
Becky
I don't think Bellatrix can read. I'd be surprised if she spent any time on it.
- [122:39]
Susan
Funny. Another book that might be of interest. It's related. It's called Glory in their spirit, how four black women took on the army during World War II by Sandra Bulzenius. And it's the story of those four whacks who decided they would rather be court martialed than stop their strike at the fort in Massachusetts. And it in of itself is really quite a story. It could definitely be a movie. And finally, for my books, I don't ever do this, but I am going to tell you, do not fall for this book. It's called the Untold Story of Charity Adams by someone named Lindsay Gordon, who I strongly suspect is an AI program. Not only does it is it very short with huge font, there were so many errors just in the first few pages. But even before that, on the COVID is a white female military officer. Ugh. So anyway, don't fall for that one.
- [123:36]
Becky
Hmm. You know, that's happening a lot.
- [123:38]
Susan
Yes, there is good uses for AI but you know, I should have known. It was just published in December when the movie came out. I should have known, but I was greedy for biographies, so I got that one.
- [123:52]
Becky
Okay, so I. This is a little bit Outer Limits. I think maybe this is like for a little background reading. I read this because I got down a rabbit hole about the occupation of Paris. So there's a book called When Paris Went Dark. Paris, Occupation, Resistance, Liberation by Ronald Rossbottom. R O S B O T T O M. And it is sort of the story about the almost five years that the Nazis occupied the capital city of France. No particular correlation with this episode in particular, but fascinating nonetheless.
- [124:30]
Susan
We're gonna go ahead and put this on the show notes. There is an oral history interview with Charity Adams early later in her Life. It's on YouTube. We're gonna put it in the show notes because you can hear from her and she's a delight. I can only imagine. I mean, in this she looks like just. You just wanna hug her, but you can just hear what kind of commanding officer she was. So good.
- [124:56]
Becky
Also some links on the history of the WAC and its formation if you would like, and if you've already seen it, you can also read the transcript of the movie. I found it on a blog called Scraps from the Loft and the entire transcript is there. If you are more of a reader than a like, you can get through the movie in as fast as you can read. We're talking about the six Too late. Yep.
- [125:23]
Susan
Oh, wow. Wow. I did not know about that. I can also link you to the article which is interesting with that interview with Lena Derricott that inspired the movie. There's also a documentary on PBS called the 6888. It starts with President Clinton introducing her. It's kind of humorous. You have to see it. I'll link you to that.
- [125:43]
Becky
And then an infinite amount of articles that we used for research on the general formation of the women's services all over the world. Mary McLeod Bethune, which is a little bit of a repeat. We've got some resources that will just link you straight back to our Mary McLeod Bethune episodes and to the media located there. If you have not heard our episodes on her, I suggest that you go back and listen because I think you'll find her story equally as inspirational.
- [126:15]
Susan
I don't have anything else.
- [126:17]
Becky
All right. And in closing, later in her life.
- [126:20]
Susan
She said, when I talk to students, they ask, how did it feel to know you were making history, but you don't know you're making history when it happens? I just wanted to do my job.
- [126:33]
Becky
Thanks for listening. Bye. If you liked what you heard today, please tell a few friends or leave a review for us on Apple podcasts or your favorite podcatcher. And I have a challenge for you if you are so inclined. How about a little project? If you go to USPS.com and search on their site for something called the Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee, there's actually a four step process to suggest a stamp subject. And I would be so grateful if you would all put your shoulders behind that of the two congresspeople from Ohio and see if we cannot get momentum to get Mrs. Early a stamp. Okay, I'm gonna leave you with that. That's a little project. Also, Again, if you're interested in going with us to Pennsylvania, go to likemindstravel.com and go to group tours and look at the data there. We also have another trip coming in October, but I am not at liberty to release those details as of yet. But stay tuned for that. Hooray. I don't know if we had strong enough words about how you should go on Netflix and watch the six Triple eight. We highly recommend it and I don't know how long they stay, so act now. Thanks for everything. Happy New Year and we'll see you shortly with another new subject. The Song at the End Is Worth the Fight by Marie Hines See you next time.
- [128:08]
C
Wipe the darkest shades away Happiness your saving grace Ignorance won't clean the slate won't find your final resting place don't circle around the task at hand.
- [128:43]
Becky
Or.
- [128:43]
C
Take a far when you can stand disregard the reprimand Needing more than second hand maybe bigger pictures to paint more horizons to chase something better in searching, reaching, burning, bleeding black and white deeper oceans to swim unpredictable whims and you're learning, you're learning Freedom's worth the fight Dreams touched with apathy leave the legends set them free Scaling walls in disbelief oh you can't clown what you can't dream this mega your pictures to PA more horizons to chase Something better in search reaching, burning, leading black and white deeper oceans to swim unpredictable will sign you learning you learning freedom's worth the.
- [130:08]
Becky
Fight.
- [130:19]
C
Tied up and bound in the cords of our conviction Got my bag of tricks and pocket full of luck Watercolor paint by number a reminder of another telling me to stay in line but I'm suffocating There's bigger pictures to paint more horizons to chase something better in searching, reaching, burning bleeding black and white deeper oceans to swim unpredictable winds and you learn and you learnin and there's bigger pictures to paint more horizons to chase something better and searching, reaching, burning bleeding black and white deeper oceans to swim unpredictable winds and you're learning, you're learning how to cry how to live with how to change Freedom's worth the fight.