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00:00:09On March 2, 1945, I issued and signed General Order No. 1, the undersigned hereby assumes
00:00:22command of the 6th 888 Central Postal Directory Battalion, and I cited the proper authorities.
00:00:30The longer the 6th 888 was on the job, the more we appreciated the value of our work.
00:00:38How male can make, male, M-A-I-L, how male would make the loneliness, the fear, the death
00:00:47of friends, all of these easier to bear.
00:00:50There was no black, no white, no rank, just an understanding of our working muscle.
00:00:56No male, no morale.
00:01:00I feel especially honored to have this opportunity.
00:01:04In the United States of America, there's a form of address which applies to one person
00:01:10only.
00:01:11And I get to use it tonight.
00:01:13Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States.
00:01:24General Powell, General Davison, Admiral Gravely, Ossie Davis, Colonel Early, I hate to throw
00:01:39any cold water on this magnificent night, but I'm just sitting here thinking whether as
00:01:45Commander-in-Chief I should dismiss or simply demote whoever it was who arranged for me to
00:01:52speak after a Colonel Early.
00:01:57care for you.
00:01:58If you will, Dean check it out, tell us.
00:05:28And so the black press took on that responsibility, okay, how do we publicize, how do we put this information
00:05:34out there in the general community to gather some support for this?
00:05:38And one of those person who was Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, who said, wow, why should not African Americans be
00:05:48allowed to enter the military, go and fight for this country as others do?
00:06:40And she eventually became their president.
00:07:21And in the white community.
00:07:22Because remember, this was the first for women, period.
00:07:25So as units of white women were being sent to the European Theater of Operations, or the ETO, Dr. Mary
00:07:33McLeod Bethune and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt rallied to have black women included in the overseas effort.
00:07:39And this effort between the two of them also engaged, you know, but they did it in such a strategic
00:07:48way that they tied it to the politics of the day also.
00:07:52From an activist standpoint says, we can push this agenda as a national agenda as a national agenda to the
00:08:00leadership of the East United States, and we can tell that story the way no one else can tell that
00:08:06story in terms of that our young men and women are there on the battlefield during World War II, doing
00:08:14this everyone else was doing.
00:08:15And not just always those menial jobs, or being cooks, or janitorial jobs, and so forth.
00:08:21Private Roberts, Sergeant Jackson, Lieutenant Carter, and, uh, uh...
00:08:32Private Parks, First Class, First Class is right.
00:08:38My sister wants to join the WACs. What do you think of that?
00:08:42Huh. She's crazy. What the devil's a woman want to be a soldier for?
00:08:47Just a waste of time.
00:08:51This is a man's war.
00:08:53What sort of jobs could they do?
00:08:55So, the Women's Army Corps, the idea for the Women's Army Corps, actually came from Massachusetts Congresswoman Edith Norris Rogers,
00:09:03and she had actually been in France during World War I, I believe her husband was an ambassador, and she
00:09:10had volunteered in Red Cross hospitals, and so she had seen first-hand the Hello Girls, the nurses, working overseas
00:09:20on behalf of the United States Army, and not getting veterans' benefits.
00:09:24And this struck her, and so when she came home, and she was elected to the Massachusetts legislature, she felt
00:09:33that it was her duty to make sure that women never again served without the same rights as men.
00:09:39And so she actually proposed a bill to Congress well before our entry into World War II, but because of
00:09:47the social dynamic in the United States at the time, the social roles created for men and women,
00:09:52it was very disliked and did not pass, actually, until after Pearl Harbor, when we entered into World War II,
00:10:03and the United States realized we have a manpower shortage and we need to do something about it.
00:10:09You know, the entire country was mobilized in support of the World War, meaning, you know, multiple theaters, multiple engagements.
00:10:18They passed the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps bill, which was a very abbreviated version of Edith Norse Rogers' bill.
00:10:27Instead of enlisting in the Army, the women served with the Army as auxiliaries.
00:10:32They did not have the same benefits as men.
00:10:35In many cases, they were not allowed to do the same things, but they were meant to release a man.
00:10:42With the creation of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, every branch of the Army has some sort of insignia that
00:10:48represents it.
00:10:48And so for Colonel Hobby, who was actually Director of Hobby, set about trying to figure out what that symbol
00:10:56might be, what seemed to be most appropriate was Pallas Athene,
00:11:01the Greek goddess of wisdom in war, and the arts of war as well.
00:11:06It identified them first and foremost as a member of the Women's Army Corps.
00:11:10If you were a young lady and you joined the Army between 1942 and 1978, you wore the insignia of
00:11:17the Women's Army Corps.
00:11:18In July 1943, General Eisenhower had asked for women to be sent to him in a post headquarters unit in
00:11:27North Africa,
00:11:28and auxiliaries were not allowed to be sent overseas.
00:11:32So at that time, they started to create the WAC bill, the Women's Army Corps bill.
00:11:37They dropped the auxiliary, and then women at that time were officially enlisted in the Army.
00:11:43They were given the choice to get out or enlist and continue their service.
00:11:48The majority of them did choose to stay in.
00:11:51The black women were recruited from all walks of life, all socioeconomic levels, you know, women in college.
00:11:59And there were over 6,000 black women at the time in the Army during World War II.
00:12:05Of those 6,000 black women, 855 were identified to form the 6888.
00:12:13We went to the theater one night.
00:12:16It was Lieutenant Clark and a couple others, but an MP came up to us and said,
00:12:23you ladies can't sit here.
00:12:26So Lieutenant Clark said, what's the problem?
00:12:31Are we in officer's seats?
00:12:33She said, because I am an officer, and, you know, the rest of this entourage is with me, you know,
00:12:43and so I say it's okay, but he said, oh, no, it's not that.
00:12:48He said, you people are supposed to sit over on that section.
00:12:54So she said, in other words, this is a segregated theater.
00:13:00She said, let me talk to the head of the base itself.
00:13:04And she said, I need to talk to him right now.
00:13:10So she got his number and called him.
00:13:13And she said, look, she says, my ladies have just been insulted.
00:13:21She said, we came here to do a job, and you're telling us we can't enjoy a theater
00:13:27or that sitting somewhere in some segregated.
00:13:33She said, if this is the way you feel about us, she said, I will take every woman off this
00:13:39base tomorrow.
00:13:41She said, because we came here in good faith to do a job,
00:13:46and we're going to be treated like everybody else.
00:13:58I went in thinking that it would be sort of like a boarding school.
00:14:04I had never been away from home, and I was stationed at Des Moines, Iowa, when I first went in.
00:14:12They trained us in six weeks because we had to have officers to train the enlisted women who were coming
00:14:18in that fall.
00:14:18I recall the first day that we went out for a gas drill.
00:14:27And evidently, I didn't get my mask on, but I ended up with all these leaves in my face, you
00:14:33know.
00:14:34Burning from the gas.
00:14:35Yes, yes.
00:15:10The black women had to go to recruiting stations north because they could not enlist
00:15:18in the recruiting stations in the south.
00:15:20You think of 6,520 black women, they passed the test, they passed the physical requirements,
00:15:27and those are the ones who made the cut.
00:15:29I volunteered to go overseas, so all of the training was in Oglethorpe, Georgia,
00:15:34and I was transferred down to Fort Oglethorpe.
00:15:37They got down there, and just as they got into the area, the commander of the base said,
00:15:46I know why you're here.
00:15:47We know why you're here, and because we heard that you were coming,
00:15:52but I want to tell you that I will do nothing to help you get ready to go overseas.
00:15:58Kind of like a Jim Crow within the military, and keep in mind,
00:16:01this was before Truman's order in 1948 to integrate the armed forces.
00:16:07So this is, you know, early 1940s, 42, 43, 44, where you had black women, you know,
00:16:14joining the military, again, because it was, you know, the nation was at war.
00:16:19In order to be able to get the equipment that they needed from the commander down there,
00:16:25they had to go outside and get a message back to Washington about it.
00:16:31And after they got the equipment, the commander came and said,
00:16:34I know somebody had to call to Washington.
00:16:37Now, you just tell me who it was.
00:16:42And when Charity Adams called me at home Christmas of 1944
00:16:49and asked me if I wanted to go overseas, I said, yes.
00:16:53She says, well, I would like for you to be my battalion executive officer.
00:16:58And, of course, while I was at home, I got orders to report back there for duty.
00:17:03Another history-making thing to me was the fact that we sailed on the Ilde France,
00:17:07and I had read it by the way when I was in the high school,
00:17:09and I said, I never thought I'd be on the Ilde France.
00:17:13Yes, in February of 1945, we went overseas, and we landed in Scotland.
00:17:21And our first assignment was in Birmingham, England.
00:17:25They thought they had thought of everything that they needed to do,
00:17:28but somebody asked, who's going to do our hair?
00:17:34When I got overseas, that was another life, you know, really.
00:17:40On our way over, we were, because this is wartime,
00:17:46and we were being chased by a submarine, so we had to shoot out.
00:17:52And we made a landing in Ireland,
00:17:57and then we got moving on out, you know.
00:18:02And so we ended up working in Birmingham, England, which was okay.
00:18:09And while I was there, I was doing the mail service, okay,
00:18:14and that was it.
00:18:15And I worked on the day shift.
00:18:18I don't remember working on the shift.
00:18:21They had three shifts, okay, because this was a 24-hour duty.
00:18:25And that's probably why we were able to get the work done in such a short span of time.
00:18:30We got all the work for the English soldiers,
00:18:34the soldiers that were stationed in England.
00:18:36We got that done in about three months.
00:18:45We went over, and we were bumped into beds.
00:18:52And I had always heard of troop ships, you know,
00:18:55and I was thinking of hammocks and things like that.
00:18:58Well, we were, we had beds, and it was very interesting.
00:19:04They were told, okay, we're going over to England.
00:19:08We don't know if we're going to get attacked, so be ready.
00:19:12Now, one night we had a, a little deal there,
00:19:18because the ship lurched,
00:19:20and all of the bags went from one end to the other,
00:19:25and the girls were screaming with me.
00:19:28I looked, find out, and I said, what's going on?
00:19:31And they told me something, and I just turned on over and went to sleep.
00:19:35And I didn't believe the rumor,
00:19:36but later on, I found out there was no rumor.
00:19:39That you were turned, suddenly turned, because the submarine was chasing?
00:19:43Yes, uh-huh.
00:19:44And one lady I spoke with said her ship was diverted to Ireland
00:19:48because of the incoming, you know, from the German U-boats.
00:19:52Another lady mentioned that they were told,
00:19:54don't change clothes, you know, stay in your uniform,
00:19:58because we don't know what's going to happen.
00:19:59So they were confronted, you know, with a combat situation early on
00:20:04before they even arrived to England.
00:20:07The experience in England, you know, they had, like, been, you know,
00:20:11the blitz was, in all practical purposes, over,
00:20:13but there were still V-bombs and so forth.
00:20:16And she talked about having tea with a British woman officer
00:20:19who she had got to know about, and, you know, got to know when they had,
00:20:24and it was like, you know, it's like you hear these V-bombs,
00:20:27and it was really, you just, you know, you hear it go off, you're fine, you know.
00:20:32There is a level of courage, and by courage, I mean,
00:20:36I think I should do this, I don't know whether I'll succeed or not,
00:20:39that I wish I had.
00:20:41And she was confident, she was smart.
00:20:45I never thought she was, like, I can do anything without trying,
00:20:51but that if you're given the opportunity, if you work hard, you can do it.
00:20:55Well, you don't really think history when you're doing something.
00:20:58It's not history until after you do it.
00:21:00So, actually, I understood that I had,
00:21:04that several officers had wanted that assignment,
00:21:07but I had the most troop experience.
00:21:09So, if you're going to send nearly a thousand people overseas,
00:21:13you want somebody who has troop experience.
00:21:14It was almost a case of not having much choice.
00:21:18And I wanted, if we went, I wanted us to do as good a job
00:21:22as I thought we had done at Fort Des Moines.
00:21:24And, therefore, that's how I thought about doing the job well.
00:21:28Although I didn't know what the job was,
00:21:31and I didn't know where I was going when I left the stage,
00:21:34I knew that, and this is the punish that I have used in the Army
00:21:39and anyplace else, given the same opportunity and training,
00:21:43I'm sure I can do as well as anybody else.
00:21:47And the general walked in.
00:21:48I'd never been that close to a general with stars on.
00:21:52And I jumped up, and he said, relax.
00:21:55He says, is Captain Donaldson around?
00:21:58And I said, we can get her right away, sir.
00:22:00He said, just cool it, just cool it.
00:22:03And he had graduated from West Point, I guess, years before.
00:22:11And then his son was at Tuskegee,
00:22:13and then he became the commander of the Tuskegee people down there.
00:22:18So, while I was in Eglin, he came over to me, the son.
00:22:26He came over to me, and he said,
00:22:28you're one of the few WACs that I don't know.
00:22:31Because wherever he was stationed, there were other WACs,
00:22:35but I'd never been there.
00:22:36And, uh, uh, not Des Moines, uh, Ohio, uh, when they integrated.
00:22:47And all of the others were there, but I was somewhere else.
00:22:51And, uh, so, uh, I told him that I had met his father.
00:22:55And we had a nice, long conversation.
00:22:57But that's the only four famous folks I knew other than General LeMay.
00:23:01By 1944, Benjamin O. Davis had been in the military 46 years.
00:23:08He joined the Buffalo Soldiers around 1898.
00:23:12So he was one of the few African-American officers
00:23:16who had stayed in the military
00:23:18through the beginning of the 1900s, the 1910s, the 1920s.
00:23:23He had to have been the professor of military science
00:23:25at a lot of these schools where these women, uh, went to.
00:23:29So he was no secret, um, in the African-American community.
00:23:33He was no secret in the, uh, in the military community.
00:23:37Also with what he saw in, uh, then, uh, Major Adams.
00:23:43But the reason she was beaming and going through her mind,
00:23:46she was meeting a celebrity.
00:23:48Uh, and so, uh, I'm sure it was, uh, it was a great honor.
00:23:56So, four or five years ago, my organization, we were doing some research, uh, on World War II,
00:24:01and we came across this story about seven to eight hundred African-American women
00:24:05being based in Birmingham.
00:24:07And we were like, that's interesting.
00:24:08We live just up the road.
00:24:09Where is this?
00:24:10We then realized that we had this great story to tell
00:24:12that nobody in the city talks about.
00:24:14And that's how we came to find out about the 6888.
00:24:16We discovered that the actual mail was actually held at Birmingham Airport,
00:24:20which is known at the time as Aldam Airfield.
00:24:22The mail would be coming, sorted there in hangars.
00:24:25The hangars were full.
00:24:26There was something like nine or ten hangars full of mail stacked to the roof.
00:24:30What they would do is actually ship it across to here.
00:24:32And the women, when they first got here, these were old barracks.
00:24:34They were actually an old grammar school.
00:24:36So they lived in the accommodation.
00:24:37And what you would see is, again, in the distance there,
00:24:40there were some temporary buildings that were actually built for them to sort the mail,
00:24:43and that's where they actually worked.
00:24:44This was 1940s.
00:24:48They had been given the task of clearing a backlog that was over two years long.
00:24:56The mail was piled from the floor to the ceiling in a Quonson hut.
00:25:01And every morning, the trucks would come in loaded with packages of mail
00:25:08and packages that had been housed in the warehouses.
00:25:13And they would leave all, dump all of these packages into one big room.
00:25:20And it had been there.
00:25:22So it was infested with every living thing.
00:25:26And these women had to go in there and go through every single piece of mail.
00:25:31And in order to accomplish, they were given six months.
00:25:35They organized into APO where they knew where every soldier in the world was.
00:25:41The mail at that time was documented in the warehouses in Birmingham, England, up to the ceilings.
00:25:48A cadre of people who went through and sorted out and gave us packages of mail that suited our files.
00:25:57And I had the V's.
00:26:00And you would have thought that that was a short list.
00:26:04But no, there were many, many people in the Army whose last name began with V's.
00:26:10As time passes, I think, and more of the story is told, I think we will come to appreciate the
00:26:15contributions that they made.
00:26:18Not just by getting that, you know, that mountain of mail moved under extreme conditions.
00:26:24Not just because they weren't respected by a lot of the people in the American military,
00:26:28but because they were working under horrible conditions for mail that had been there for two years
00:26:35and had stacked up and people would address the mail to Johnny, U.S. Army,
00:26:41and expected it to get to him or her in some cases.
00:26:45We as black women were used to being together as family.
00:26:49We were trained and brought up like that.
00:26:52We respected each other.
00:26:53When trouble came with us, we were all together.
00:26:57That's why I think we got that milled down.
00:27:01I refused to accept any segregated facilities that they wanted to create for them.
00:27:07And after that, they didn't try.
00:27:10There were not any white wax in Birmingham, but there were white wax in lots of places in the U
00:27:16.K.
00:27:17And they all used the same wax recreational hotel in London.
00:27:21And this is where the real problem came in.
00:27:23The Red Cross wanted to set up another hotel for the black wax.
00:27:28And I promised them that it would be over my dead body before anybody slept there,
00:27:32and nobody slept there to my knowledge.
00:27:34You're going to get brass.
00:27:35I used to call myself a brass magnet, and that's pretty much what this unit was.
00:27:39They were a brass magnet.
00:27:40This general decides to show up and inspect the unit.
00:27:43Well, because they had these mountains of mail to get through,
00:27:47she decided they needed to work, obviously, around the clock to get this done.
00:27:51So people are working in shifts.
00:27:52So some are sleeping, some are working, and some are going to be available for inspection.
00:27:57So about a third of the unit, a battalion, which is a couple hundred people, showed up.
00:28:01Working 24-7 operations, three shifts, you're never going to have 100% strength available for inspection.
00:28:09So he wanted to review the troops and see what these Negro women were doing.
00:28:13And he basically asked, well, where are your troops?
00:28:16So when they came here and they set up, they created a shift system for them to be efficient in
00:28:20sorting the mail.
00:28:22And as you said, many of the women were actually missing from the parade.
00:28:24He wanted to wake them up, but as soon as I remember, she understood that by waking them up would
00:28:29break the shift pattern
00:28:30just because he wanted to satisfy his need to see all the troops.
00:28:33The general realized this wasn't the number he expected to see, and basically said, well, where's the rest of your
00:28:38unit?
00:28:38And she explained, or tried to, and he wasn't satisfied with that.
00:28:43He wanted to inspect everyone because he was a general, obviously.
00:28:46And basically, she's like, well, this is not going to work, and pretty much told him that.
00:28:52She ended up, sir.
00:28:53And she said, well, sir, I have one shift of sleeping.
00:28:58I have one shift working.
00:29:02And so these, the third, she only had a third of her unit available for him to review.
00:29:08Well, of course, he decides this is insubordinate.
00:29:11And he, of course, also suggested to her, not suggested, pretty much told her he was going to have a
00:29:16white male lieutenant
00:29:17come down and show her how to run it.
00:29:19Well, that's demeaning on a lot of levels.
00:29:21She was a senior officer.
00:29:23No lieutenant's going to come down and run a battalion, first of all.
00:29:26It was ridiculous.
00:29:27But it was just a measure of how little he respected her and what she was doing.
00:29:31She doesn't know what triggered her response.
00:29:36She says she doesn't know if it was the word white or the word first lieutenant.
00:29:42But she commented that sometimes your mind has to respond like a human computer.
00:29:48And she said before she knew it, she responded, over my dead body.
00:29:53So, of course, he's going to try to, you know, have charges brought, have her court-martialed.
00:29:58But she also was quick enough to realize there were different Army policies in writing that existed that prohibited that
00:30:04kind of behavior.
00:30:05And he pretty much crossed the line.
00:30:07What I really, really liked about her response, she devised her own war council because she knew she was going
00:30:14to be court-martialed or threatened with court-martialed.
00:30:17And so she already strategically prepared her own basically countermeasure, I guess I'll call it.
00:30:23But at the end of the day, he realized that he'd overstepped, that he was wrong.
00:30:28And I think that was testimony of Major Adams.
00:30:30She stood up for her women.
00:30:31She made sure that they were treated well and they had the right supplies that they actually needed as well.
00:30:36So it's just interesting to see that this major would have been pulling rank and also from a gender perspective,
00:30:41you know, I'm a white officer, you'll do as I say.
00:30:43He came and before he left the country, left Europe to stop by and see her and pretty much let
00:30:52her know that he respected her.
00:30:54She'd outplayed him and, you know, they let it go.
00:30:59So I thought that that was a lot.
00:31:01One, she could not let that pass in front of her soldiers, not to have, you know, not to let
00:31:06him try to bring a lieutenant in to run her battalion.
00:31:10She was respectful, I think, in the way she pretty much told him, no, sir, with all true respect, no.
00:31:15And then, again, she had prepared her own countermeasures so that whatever he came at her with, she was strategically
00:31:21ready to answer it.
00:31:22When Turner early appeared, she was a tall, slim, good-looking woman.
00:31:30I guess she was about my confession.
00:31:32But when she appeared, everybody gave their utmost attention to her.
00:31:37We respected her.
00:31:41On the weekends, or when they would have a break, the English people were so fascinated by seeing these women
00:31:48of color.
00:31:49So they actually thought that Ms. Rudick was a white woman, okay, and, of course, she corrected them.
00:31:54But they would invite them to dinner.
00:31:56And Ms. Rudick, that was one of her fondest memories.
00:32:00She said she would just look forward to that on Sunday because she was getting a home-cooked meal.
00:32:07And she said, by the way, the food was pretty good.
00:32:10And she got to talk about other things other than being in this unit because they just thought it was
00:32:18a job.
00:32:19They got to talk about Birmingham, England, and what the English people were doing during the war.
00:32:28In Birmingham, we called it Birmingham, but we were corrected.
00:32:32Birmingham.
00:32:35And I had to get used to cold showers.
00:32:38We had the showers on the outside.
00:32:42And that was very interesting.
00:32:44We were in this small town, and we would go into the city for recreation and go to the movies.
00:32:52When they came to Birmingham, they were well-received.
00:32:54Now, there's always a contradictory story when we're looking at history, but, again, most of the women said that they
00:32:59were welcomed in Birmingham.
00:33:01They understood that this racial segregation that they suffered at home from the Jim Crow laws weren't prevalent in this
00:33:05country at the time and were outlawed, so they felt a bit more welcomed.
00:33:09Some of them talk about the way they were treated as white American soldiers had passed rumours across to them,
00:33:14saying they have tails and if you look at their skirts.
00:33:16Also, there were incidences in the city centre, but most of the women talked about meeting families from Birmingham and
00:33:22spending time with them as well.
00:33:24So it's interesting to see how we've got two kind of, two interesting lines.
00:33:28Some people said they were great, and then we look at it from our point of view as black people
00:33:32today and say, well, you were, you know, suffering from racism at that time here.
00:33:35But I have to go by their testimony, and they all seem to say they enjoyed their time in the
00:33:39city.
00:33:40In England, we could go to all of the restaurants that were open.
00:33:46We could go to all of the dance halls.
00:33:49Most of the time, that's where we went because we enjoyed dancing.
00:33:52So we would go to all of the dance halls and dance.
00:33:57So we've got these spots in the city where they integrated with us as well.
00:34:01And, you know, I think it's just really nice that we actually marked the fact that they came here.
00:34:05And as you can remember, the women came back in 1981.
00:34:07And the place where we had the initial meeting was at the building where they actually came and visited as
00:34:12well.
00:34:12So hopefully when they see this, it may spark some memories for them.
00:34:15I thank the good Lord, the dear God above.
00:34:19I'm still driving, okay?
00:34:22I adhore the idea of not being able to drive because I feel that that's going to really be a
00:34:30happy, you know,
00:34:32not to go to my church to do work or go to my church because I love my church.
00:34:37I love my brothers and sisters there because they love me and we all act the same.
00:34:43When you're around nice people, it's easy to smile because you're happy.
00:34:47That's right.
00:34:48You know, you're happy.
00:34:49Hey, a smile is better than a tear.
00:34:52That's so.
00:34:59Well, I already knew about Joan of Arc, but we just wanted to see the point where she was burned
00:35:05escape.
00:35:06And it was concrete and there was a cross there.
00:35:11So we walked up and I can't remember, I don't think we were allowed to touch the cross at that
00:35:17time.
00:35:17And we stood there and some man came over and talked to us a while and then we laughed.
00:35:23But I understand it's been really done and I'd like to see it.
00:35:26You know, when I first heard about it, I never even dreamed that I'd see the point where she was
00:35:32burned escape.
00:35:34And I still haven't gotten in my mind why those men were cruel enough to burn somebody alive escape.
00:35:41Still can't get in my mind, but she was a brave woman, very brave woman.
00:35:51Well, she enlisted because my, her brother, my uncle Daniel Thornton, he was a sergeant in the 25th Infantry out
00:36:00of Fort Huachuca.
00:36:02Our family lived in Nogales.
00:36:04He was in World War II in the Pacific Theater and he was bayoneted at Guadalcanal.
00:36:11So as a result of that, she enlisted at Phoenix and our family are biracial African-American and Mexican.
00:36:20My, our grandfather was African-American from Texas.
00:36:24He migrated to Mexico and my grandmother was from Sinaloa and this is during the Mexican Revolution.
00:36:31So they married and came back to the U.S. where my mom and her siblings were born.
00:36:38And, um, so my uncle being bayoneted, uh, she felt she needed to do something, so her something was enlisting.
00:36:49And so she was actually, because she was biracial and her first language was Spanish, she didn't speak very good
00:36:57English at that point.
00:36:58They gave her a choice, she could either join the White Regiment or the Black Regiment, so she chose the
00:37:04Black Regiment.
00:37:05My sister was doing her master's thesis about how Afro-Latinos identify because her father is Black, her mother is
00:37:13Mexican.
00:37:15And, you know, as the course of that, she had to interview my mother and all of her sisters.
00:37:20She had to answer the same set of questions herself and interview me too.
00:37:24So when she interviewed my mother, she told us all this information about her time with Italian, her experiences with
00:37:34the other women.
00:37:35You know, how some of them really took her under her wing and, you know, taught her things that a
00:37:41young woman needed to know working and being in the Army and going overseas for the first time from a
00:37:48small town.
00:37:48You know, when you don't know anything, just, you know, she said all this wealth of information that she never
00:37:54told us before.
00:37:55Like, the lady that she was the closest to, she was, like, best friends with, and Alvin and I are
00:38:01not sure what stage she came from or any, you know, how we could find her, you know, or her
00:38:07family.
00:38:07But her name's Maddie, and there must be, like, five or six pictures of her.
00:38:13And three or four of them are her and my mother in their uniforms smiling together.
00:38:18And, you know, there's little notes on some of them.
00:38:21One of them, it's a picture of Maddie by herself, and on the back she dedicates it to my best
00:38:26friend Chino.
00:38:27Chino.
00:38:28Yeah, her sisters called her that, you know, families have, like, those family nicknames.
00:38:32Her, yeah, that's her nickname.
00:38:35Chino.
00:38:35I think it's because of the eyes.
00:38:36They thought her eyes looked kind of Asian, you know.
00:38:38And then she says, when you get married and have twins, don't run to me for help.
00:38:44Magalas was a sleepy town.
00:38:47Um, so, it actually was her ticket out of Magalas.
00:38:51I just couldn't believe that we were just oohing and aahing over it.
00:38:55And just, you know, the pictures of her and all of these other women that we didn't know.
00:39:02And some of them she has names on.
00:39:04And then other ones they're not names.
00:39:07And then there's a few pictures of Rouen France, like, on fire basically.
00:39:12There's, like, smoke plumes.
00:39:14And then she has written in there, you know, in Spanish, you know,
00:39:18Rouen France, Durante la guerra, you know, during the war.
00:39:22We're getting so much of more of a picture of her as a young woman and all of that.
00:39:29And there were two other things that were stuffed in the album.
00:39:32Um, I wasn't familiar with it, but they're, they're little, they're smaller than 45 records.
00:39:39It's called a Boisograph.
00:39:41And I guess it's like photo, a photo book, you take pictures with your friends.
00:39:46Well, they had Boisograph machines, and you record something.
00:39:49So one of them's kind of scratchy, and it's her, her previous boyfriend who was also serving.
00:39:56And he's talking to his friend.
00:39:58And I couldn't really understand it, but the other one's very clear.
00:40:00And he's asking her to sing him a song.
00:40:03It's that song, Besame Mucho.
00:40:05And she sings it, like, oh, my God, that's my 19-year-old mother's voice.
00:40:10You know?
00:40:11It's like, I recognized it.
00:40:13It's like, that's her, but that's like the young her.
00:40:15I only know her as mom, you know?
00:40:18You know, she lived to be 89 years old.
00:40:21And like, that's my, my last memory of her.
00:40:30Now, what was so interesting about this in, in our stay in France was that we were housed
00:40:39in barracks that had been used by Napoleon's troops.
00:40:47And that was history, you know, we were living in the lap of history.
00:40:53Because of segregation, the women formed their own teams, softball teams, basketball teams,
00:40:58ping pong teams, and entered tournaments throughout Europe, and became very successful.
00:41:03And one incident, they were on their way to Stuttgart to a basketball tournament, and they couldn't
00:41:10board the train because there was no car for blacks, for black women, or for blacks, period.
00:41:18So they found the local commander, and I believe he was a general.
00:41:23And he asked him, do you think you can win?
00:41:26He said, yes sir, but we need to get there to win.
00:41:29So he got a car for them, a separate car on this train, and they went to the basketball tournament
00:41:36and won.
00:41:37Our own mess hall, our own supply, our own military police, we had our own transportation, and we had women
00:41:47who did everything.
00:41:49We looked at the service, and we needed something, we looked at the service record to find out what that
00:41:52person had done.
00:41:53With 800 women, we had all kinds of things.
00:41:58We opened up a beauty parlor, we had beauticians who, we found out who they were, we had beauticians.
00:42:05These women were pretty good at playing softball.
00:42:08And I can believe that, because these were, again, black women, and that's one of the things that you did
00:42:17at home.
00:42:19You played softball, or you played batball, depending on where you were from in the country.
00:42:27Sometimes you had a, you called it stickball, you know.
00:42:31And on Sunday's evenings, after, after church, after dinner, families got together, and that's what they played.
00:42:38They played softball, they played kickball, because that's what we did.
00:42:42But I hear the, the six triple eight women, they, they were pretty good at playing, playing softball.
00:42:48I would not have wanted to play with them, because they, they was good.
00:42:51And then there was so much to see in Paris.
00:42:55We had the different department stores, and we also had all of the perfume houses.
00:43:06But I managed to go to the Versailles Palace.
00:43:12Wonderful.
00:43:13And, oh, I, I just enjoyed myself, it's the best I could in the, you know, in the situation.
00:43:22And, oh, I did this, I was the best I could.
00:43:27And I was like, oh, I really enjoyed how to get here.
00:43:41I absolutely loved that, and I could have a nice работ in the world.
00:43:41So many people would love to see.
00:43:42And so many people would love to see.
00:43:42And I could see, and I could do this.
00:43:43When I could do this.
00:43:44And I could see our iniciations.
00:43:45And, I could see, but this is a different way.
00:43:46It could be a new character.
00:43:47It could be the best I can do, but it's different.
00:43:50Because I could be a new character.
00:44:08Three women, they died in a vehicle accident while they were there, and the Army did not
00:44:14send the bodies back to the United States. And so within the battalion, some ladies had
00:44:22experience with, we call it mortuary affairs, and so they took care of the bodies, I guess
00:44:29they prepped them in terms of makeup and clothing, and collected money to have a burial in Normandy,
00:44:35and so the women's bodies are still there in Normandy.
00:44:38A girl wants to get killed in our unit, overseas, in an automobile accident. Then we found out
00:44:46that some of them had worked in funeral parlors, and of course they fixed up the girls, they
00:44:51wanted to put them in just plain boxes, and that was most interesting to me because they
00:44:59were, I think, two Protestant and one Catholic, and when I went to the funeral, I had to go
00:45:04to the funeral home. And the man asked me, how tall are they? There's some wooden boxes.
00:45:11I said, well, one's as tall as me, and one's as tall as the other lady. So here I am
00:45:16standing
00:45:16up beside caskets trying to find some casket to fit me. Then we, they didn't want to have
00:45:26funerals for them. So we said, no, we cannot bury these girls this way. And we're not going
00:45:32to put them in just a pine box. So we had women there who had been working field parlors,
00:45:36and they draped it with cheesecloth or something. They fixed them up beautifully. Beautifully.
00:45:42We had German prisoners who worked. They did the cooking and serving. And they were strict.
00:45:51The French women who worked, they had like a trough outside. They had them washed down, get
00:45:58all that lipstick off and everything. But my, I didn't know this until I was over there that
00:46:08they buried people in a shelter house. And so Early said, no, we're not going to do that. The German
00:46:21prisoners built coffins, and they put them in the coffins and buried them.
00:46:41The family owned a newspaper, the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper, which was very
00:46:46predominant newspaper for black paper back in those days. It had editions in Baltimore, Washington,
00:46:52Philadelphia, New Jersey. There was a North and South Carolina edition, and there was a national
00:46:56edition. And everybody worked at the paper, including me. And you had to learn, you know,
00:47:01I think I started on the switchboard. And then you worked your way up to editorials where you wanted to
00:47:05get to. But all of my aunts worked there too. Again, I can't emphasize enough how strong-willed all
00:47:12these ladies, my aunts were. But my mother is the one of the five that didn't go to college.
00:47:19Rather than go to college, she went into the 6888, which is why she's not in the sorority. Her mother
00:47:26was one of the original 22 founders of Delta Sigma Theta. Her four sisters are all Deltas. My mother was
00:47:32not
00:47:33because she didn't go to college. And you have to be an undergrad in order to pledge. She didn't do
00:47:38that.
00:47:38She went into the 6888. My mother was in the Women's Army Corps. And then more specifically,
00:47:46the 6888 Central Postal Battalion. And my father was in the U.S. Coast Guard. They met at a football
00:47:54game, actually. And I found a letter that my father wrote to my mother because he had a part-time
00:48:00job
00:48:01in a police department. And he accused my mother of a felony of stealing his heart. That was a pretty
00:48:08quick engagement. And they were married the day after Christmas because my grandfather said,
00:48:13you will not ruin my Christmas. So their anniversary is the 26th of December. And their birthdays are the
00:48:21same day, January 9th. Neither one of my parents really spoke about their military service. It was
00:48:27many years later, when my father started getting sick, that he and I would sit down and he would talk
00:48:33about what happened, what he did in the South Pacific. My mother never talked about her service.
00:48:38I mean, for a long time, I mean, I knew she served, but I didn't know what she did, where
00:48:44she went,
00:48:45who she was with. She'd never talked about it. The only thing that I can remember as a child was,
00:48:50she'd go around singing this army song. It's kind of like Reveille, you got to get up, you got to
00:48:56get up,
00:48:56you got to get up in the morning. And she would sing that because she had five children. And so
00:49:01that was her way of waking us up in the morning was to sing that song. And I vaguely remember
00:49:05that.
00:49:06Neither one of my parents ever told me that they were proud of me, but they showed me that they
00:49:12were
00:49:12about what they did. I mean, the fact that she would come down there like that, it told me everything
00:49:17I
00:49:17needed to know about that. When I got promoted, when I tied the two between my mother and my father,
00:49:22my father never ever told me he was proud of me. Not once in his lifetime, in my lifetime,
00:49:27did he ever tell me that. But when I was at Fort Bragg, I got promoted from first lieutenant to
00:49:32captain,
00:49:33and my father came down for that. There's my mother.
00:49:41But my sister is the one that said, have you seen this? No, I didn't see it. There's mommy right
00:49:48there, you know, kind of a thing, you know, and it was clearly that was her, you know,
00:49:53so we're pretty proud of that. You know, there is a record.
00:49:59I'd love to admit is I am a baseball fan. I'm a Baltimore Orioles baseball fan. My mother was a
00:50:06baseball fan. And she would sit in her room and my mother was a big crossword puzzle person. She had
00:50:15all of these, uh, dictionaries, the crossword puzzle dictionaries all over the place,
00:50:20that and knitting. And she'd be doing her crossword puzzles or doing her knitting,
00:50:24and an Orioles game would either be on the radio or on television. And she was just fine.
00:50:29You know, my family could tell you today, I will go to an Orioles game in a heartbeat. So it's
00:50:35the
00:50:35little things like that that I remember about her, you know, and her tenacity and just trying to bring
00:50:40everybody together.
00:50:47So, so here is Charity Adams. She's, uh, she's been in the army at this point for about three years,
00:50:54three and a half years, uh, getting ready to be coming back to the United States.
00:50:58On the Queen Mary, uh, Major Adams was put in charge of the women on board.
00:51:04She went to bed that evening, waiting for the ship to sail at midnight.
00:51:08And one of her officers comes to hers and said, there's a ruckus going on.
00:51:12And there were some white officers on board.
00:51:14And I'm not really sure what, what's happening.
00:51:17And white women says, we don't want to be under the command of a black woman.
00:51:22So at some point, she had been put in charge by the captain of all the women on the ship.
00:51:27Um, African American, white, um, regardless of the rank, but she was a senior ranking major on the ship.
00:51:34So Charity Adams said, well, I don't, I don't understand what the problem is.
00:51:37What is the problem?
00:51:38And they said, well, we don't want to sail on the ship with you in charge.
00:51:44And so Charity Adams said, well, um, I am in charge.
00:51:49And they said, well, we have our own major, referring to the fact that they had a white major
00:51:53for the nurses.
00:51:55And so they thought that it would be fine if Charity Adams commanded the African American
00:52:02women and the major, the white major commanded the white women.
00:52:08So Charity Adams wasn't going to have any of it.
00:52:10And she said, no, she said, I am in charge.
00:52:12I'm the senior ranking major.
00:52:14I was put in charge by the captain and the ship is sailing at midnight.
00:52:17You have a choice.
00:52:19You either stay on the ship or get off and you have 17 minutes.
00:52:26It may have been 16 to do so.
00:52:28And it will sail with or without you.
00:52:30And I guess the room was silent at that point.
00:52:33And as she began to step away, she heard a voice behind her.
00:52:38And it turned out to be the captain of the ship who said, major Adams is correct.
00:52:43She is the senior ranking officer.
00:52:45She's in charge of all of you.
00:52:49And if that is a problem, you now only have 17 minutes to get off my ship.
00:52:55Needless to say, they stayed on the ship to make it back home.
00:53:10The Buffalo Soldier Monument has a number of elements to it.
00:53:14There's an entranceway with a little bit of the history of the monument and then a wayside,
00:53:19which has an image of the 10th Cavalry in action.
00:53:23And you can push a button and it'll tell you a little bit about the unit and about the Buffalo
00:53:27Soldier Monument itself.
00:53:29And then there's the main monument, which has a heroic sized statue of a Buffalo Soldier
00:53:34with an upper and lower reflecting pond.
00:53:37The upper reflecting pond is uneven to indicate the uneven integration of black soldiers
00:53:42into the American military from Crispus Attucks at the Boston Massacre up to the Buffalo Soldiers
00:53:50themselves.
00:53:51And then you have a waterfall, which is, you know, metaphor for a term we use all the time,
00:53:57a watershed event in history.
00:53:58And that's where the Buffalo Soldiers and then the Truman integration of the military,
00:54:04where he issues an executive order to integrate the military.
00:54:07And there's a period right after that where the waterfall is in the water and it's all churned up.
00:54:11So there's a period of discontent or disruption where that happens.
00:54:16But then you see on the far side of it, the lower reflecting pond, which is smooth and round.
00:54:21And that's to indicate the desired end state, the place that we hope to be if we're not there now
00:54:26at some point in the future where this is just not a thing.
00:54:29This is just the way, the way it is and the way it was for the generation before you.
00:54:32And everyone just accepts it.
00:54:39So thank you,
00:54:43my friend.
00:54:44Yeah.
00:54:44Yeah, yeah.
00:55:25KFC Delores.
00:55:46Private Mayville, Rutland Tanner Campbell.
00:56:40That's a great day. It is well. Senator Moran, General Christman, General Sutton, other members of the official party, along
00:56:54with the family and friends of the 68th Central Postal Directive Battalion, and especially the five living legacies and the
00:57:03son of Lieutenant Charity Adams.
00:57:06My task this morning is the 688 Monument in Leavenworth. What did they do here? What's the historical connection?
00:57:17I would say simply this. The Buffalo Soldiers Military Park honors African-American military units.
00:57:25The Buffalo Soldiers were the first all-black unit to serve in peacetime, and they changed the face of the
00:57:36military forever.
00:57:37And the 6888, being the first all-black, white unit to be deployed overseas, changed the face of the army
00:57:46forever.
00:57:46That's the historical connection, the historical change.
00:57:50It's a wonderful way to recognize the 6888. In particular, to recognize the five women who are sitting here today
00:57:59from that unit.
00:58:01It's almost impossible to express the scale of the task the unit faced.
00:58:07My dad is a World War II veteran. Served in Europe.
00:58:13I never thought about his mail. I never thought about his packages.
00:58:18My mom went to work for a pennies store in Emporia, Kansas, and worked there for the four years my
00:58:24dad was in the service.
00:58:27I never thought on a personal level until I was with you today what role you and others played in
00:58:34my family's life.
00:58:35To make sure that my mom and dad communicated with each other for the long period of World War II.
00:58:43So from my family, a personal thank you to you for keeping two people who loved each other together.
00:58:52You did them a great service.
00:58:55When we unveil this memorial, when we unveil this monument, what we're really saying is this.
00:59:04Thank you for your service.
00:59:06We respect you.
00:59:09And we love you.
00:59:10God bless you.
00:59:34When was I born?
00:59:36March 5, 1924.
00:59:38My brother was in the Navy.
00:59:40I just decided I wanted to be in the Army.
00:59:45I guess I felt as though I wanted to do something.
00:59:49Thinking of some of the things she had told me about, I decided to go get me a job at
00:59:55the post office.
00:59:56I was inspired by my mother's journey in life where she worked getting mail out in the Army.
01:00:04So I decided to do it for a career.
01:00:07I'm overwhelmed with emotions, really.
01:00:11Of course, I'm excited that she's finally been given an opportunity to be recognized publicly for her service.
01:00:19And then just from talking to her, it's just a bit overwhelming in terms of all that she went through
01:00:25when she was in the service.
01:00:27And what was going on in the state of our country, race relations, during that time.
01:00:32So it's just been a lot.
01:00:34There's an organization called Dream Flight.
01:00:37And what they do is they restore old planes from World War II.
01:00:41And they invite World War II veterans to come on a flight.
01:00:45And they restored this plane.
01:00:47And they asked her if she wanted to go.
01:00:48And initially we said, well, no, Mom, that's quite adventurous.
01:00:52You sure you want to do that?
01:00:53And she said, oh, I can do it.
01:00:55And so she went.
01:00:56And actually, we didn't actually know she was going to go on the flight.
01:01:00We happened to be, my mom happened to be riding home and heard her name on WTOP.
01:01:06That she actually went on the flight.
01:01:08We thought they were just going to take her to see the plane.
01:01:11But she actually got on the plane and flew in the air.
01:01:14It was amazing.
01:01:17Many of the women in World War II were recruited because of their skills.
01:01:21So seemingly they had skills beforehand.
01:01:23But it seems that that experience then was able to broaden the horizons in the sense of
01:01:30understanding what they themselves could accomplish would be greater than perhaps what they thought
01:01:38before they had joined.
01:01:40But at the same time, I sometimes wonder how much they don't really realize what role models
01:01:45they are for the generations of women that come behind them.
01:01:51Because I think as people understand the importance of their stories, especially young men and women in
01:01:58uniform today, and they look at what they accomplished, you know, this part of the greatest generation,
01:02:04even though oftentimes we don't think of women as part of the greatest generation, but they were.
01:02:09One of the things that has been a mark of the relationship between white people and black people
01:02:20is that white people never expected anything of us.
01:02:24You see, so when you got out there and did something that was extraordinary, they didn't recognize that.
01:02:31They said somebody else must have done that, and many times they deny it and give the credit to somebody
01:02:37else.
01:02:37But the rest of it, the real fact of the matter is, nothing was ever expected of us.
01:02:45Very seldom did African Americans ever be in a position where you could see somebody who they publicized,
01:02:53or you saw a picture of it, but my mother talked about her all the time in glowing terms.
01:02:59Oh, Gertrude, look at her, she's doing this, you and my sisters and I, y'all should look at that
01:03:05and be proud of that.
01:03:06And that was it, and her name, even when her name first came up to me, of being with these
01:03:13wax, right away, it snapped just like that.
01:03:17They accomplished a lot without getting recognition for it, and that's hard,
01:03:22because you want the reward in life of being recognized for what you do.
01:03:28I was a reasonably good coach, but it made me feel good when I was recognized for it.
01:03:32Those women did an awful lot to inspire people and would not acknowledge for it.
01:03:38Here we are today, in 2018, acknowledging people who made such a significant impact.
01:03:45When they talk about Georgetown basketball and John Thompson, they wouldn't think about the fact
01:03:51that the wax inspired him to say, hey, you can do something else.
01:03:57They were patriotic because they knew that in order for the African American community to progress,
01:04:05and these are some of the things that Mary McLeod Bethune had stated, some of the things that
01:04:10Benjamin O. Davis Sr. stated, and some of the things that Charity Adams believed, that in order for the
01:04:16African American to have a voice in the forward progress of their community, then you should serve,
01:04:24and you need to serve your country. So America was their country.
01:04:31And then, you know, after the war, the GI Bill comes along, and they have an opportunity to take
01:04:37advantage of that. Probably the reason why a lot of them went on to school and got masters and PhDs,
01:04:42and ended up going on to a second career that was even greater than their career with the military.
01:04:47So they were able to take advantage of those opportunities, and for African Americans,
01:04:52that was a step into the middle class. I think that vaulted thousands of, tens of thousands,
01:04:58of African Americans and their families into the middle class, and it's an opportunity that would
01:05:03not have existed if they hadn't gone and joined the military during World War II.
01:05:09Telling that story and documenting, documenting what these particular military units, that in most
01:05:15cases were all military, were all black, and most of the time they had a white commander, but those
01:05:21soldiers still performed at the same level as their white counterparts in terms of defending and
01:05:27providing for the democracy of this country. But I must tell you what happened just before the
01:05:32troops arrived in England. General John C. H. Lee, who was commanding general of the communication zone
01:05:41in the ETO, invited Noel and me to dinner. And dinner was in our honor, and it was very nice
01:05:51and very
01:05:51swank, and then it's George Sank Hotel. And we're in the midst of the dinner, as you mix protocol and
01:05:58social, sociality together. But General Lee said to me, Adams, can your troops march? And there is only
01:06:04one answer when a general asks you a question. The answer is, you have never seen better marching
01:06:09troops in your life. And he said, when do they arrive? And I said, they arrive on the 13th, on
01:06:15the 12th,
01:06:15they'll be in quarters on the 13th. And he said, I'll be down on the 15th to see them march.
01:06:20That was your arrival welcome? That was my arrival welcome of the troops. Well, the troops had come over on
01:06:25the Ile de France, and it had taken 11 days, and they had been chased by submarines for several
01:06:29days. So that, with the salt water and being unaccustomed to ship mode facilities, it was a
01:06:36rather sad-looking lot that got off. But we were ready for them, and we marched for General Lee,
01:06:41and he was so pleased he wrote my father a letter and told him I was a fine young woman.
01:06:45So I was very pleased.
01:06:46That is great. How about the reception?
01:07:00So
01:07:05you
01:07:06you
01:07:10you
01:09:45And we are joined here today by two amazing women.
01:09:50They gave me their ages, but there's no reason to know, because they look about 30-40 to me.
01:09:56Mary Raglan and Alice Dixon, who served in the 6888, the only unit of African-American women in the Women's
01:10:05Army Corps to serve overseas during World War II.
01:10:09Let's please give them a round of applause.
01:10:11I know Mary is here, as well as Alice.
01:11:47We'll win a beauty test with patience, fortitude.
01:11:52Dick Tracy will get a rest, have patience, fortitude.
01:11:58Pullman trains will soon have face, have patience, fortitude.
01:12:03Crosby's horse will win a race, have patience, fortitude.
01:12:08No danger.
01:12:09Patience, fortitude.
01:12:12Patience, fortitude.
01:12:15Patience, fortitude.
01:12:16And things will come your way, and things will come your way, and things will come your way.
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