Army nurse Daryle Foister spent the war years serving in hospitals across the globe. When she returned to the United States after her war duty she wanted to further her education and applied to the nursing school at Louisiana State University. But Daryle was denied admittance to the nursing program, and she believed it was because of the color of her skin. She brought a lawsuit against the university in 1951 and won. Because of Daryle’s suit the university’s law school and medical schools were opened to black students.
The black women who broke race and gender barriers to help win World War II could only dream of a day when a black woman and her family would live in the White House of the United States. And because of their determination and courage in the 1940s, their dreams became a reality.
NOTES
Chapter 1: War Workers
“I stood in line with the others”: Afro American 8-12-1944
Ethel was one of the many women who were eager: Telephone interview with Florence Hawthorne, 9-29-2011
A government official from the War Manpower Commission: Time 9-21-1942
A spokesman for the agency said he had 500 openings: Afro American 9-29-1942
“While agencies struggle toward a nationwide”: St. Petersburg Times 12-21-1941
But not all businesses were ready: Telephone interview with Florence Hawthorne, 9-29-2011
“when the imperative need of utilizing”: Chicago Daily Tribune 6-4-1942
“all had sweaty hands”: Chicago Defender 11-6-1943
“Colored women just do not have”: Afro American 12-22-1942
“Negroes could not be used”: Chicago Defender 11-23-1940
Two black women in Ohio: Journal of Negro Education, Summer 1943
“has experienced no difficulty”: Chicago Defender 3-10-1945
“It is as toothless as a month-old baby”: Afro American 12-22-1942
When an arsenal in New Jersey: Chicago Defender 2-17-1945
Toilets became a major issue: Chicago Defender 10-16-1943
President Roosevelt became involved: Chicago Defender 12-25-1943
“They say they need food”: Chicago Defender 3-18-1944
In some cases, auxiliaries were formed: Chicago Defender 11-27-43
The wives who followed their soldier husbands: Crisis 1-1943
“It was a discouraging process”: Chicago Daily Tribune 10-11-1942
“Every cadet in all the CAP squadrons”: Chicago Daily Tribune 8-18-1944
“The most delicate job”: Afro American 3-31-1945
“For though I have witnessed two lynchings”: Afro American 3-18-1944
“Indeed, visibility in the community”: Notable Black American Women, 62
“There is a world revolution”: Chicago Defender 11-14-1942
“One thing seems certain”: Chicago Defender 1-29-1944
“It’s a man’s war no longer”: Chicago Defender 9-26-1942
She was hospitalized for a couple of months: E-mail exchange with Benjamin Phillips 9-11-2011
Chapter 2: Political Activists
but everybody said they were ace: Chicago Defender 3-6-1943
What happened next is: Time 10-26-1942; Chicago Defender 3-6-1943; Chicago Defender 10-17-1942
“the most dangerous Negro”: Chicago Defender 6-28-1941
“I want all America to understand”: Pittsburgh Courier 6-27-1942
“After this world conflict is over”: Pittsburgh Courier 6-27-1942
In Chicago, Ethel Payne: Chicago Defender 7-4-1942
In St. Louis, Thelma McNeal: Chicago Defender 8-15-1942
How Can We Die Freely: Marching Together: Women of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, 170
For five days in June 1943: Chicago Defender 5-1-1943, 6-5-1943, 6-19-1943
And E. Pauline Myers reminded the delegates: Afro American 7-10-1943; Pittsburgh Courier 7-10-1943; Chicago Defender 6-19-1943 (David Lucander, in “It Is a New Kind of Militancy: March on Washington Movement, 1941-1946,” indicated that Myers was not able to attend the We Are Americans, Too, conference because she was hospitalized. But two newspaper accounts report she was in attendance and delivered speeches. An earlier newspaper account reported her hospitalization, but also stated that she was expected to recover in time to attend the conference.)
Pauli and a friend were on their way: Documenting the American South: Oral Histories of the American South
A year before Hattie protested: Chicago Defender 4-24-1943
“time to begin training Americans”: Marching Together: Women of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, 17
The Double Victory Girls Club: Chicago Defender 12-11-1943
In December 1942, Ethel had taken: Women in Journalism Oral History Project
Anna Arnold Hedgeman was a black woman: Chicago Defender 9-16-1944
The well-organized event was supported: Pittsburgh Courier 5-2-1942
“friends of Mrs. Roosevelt”: Free Lance-Star 10-5-1944
“drive a hard bargain”: Chicago Defender 6-16-1945
Norma Green was a black army nurse: Chicago Defender 10-3-1942
In fact, there were fewer than 200: The Army Nurse Corps: A Commemoration of World War II Service, 9
Compared to about 20,000: A History of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, 270
This question came after it was learned: Chicago Defender 1-20-1945
The city hospital in Baltimore: Afro American 6-8-1943
After a while, her superintendent suggested: Western Historical Manuscript Collection University of Missouri-St. Louis, www.umsl.edu/~whmc/guides/t016.htm
It released a statement: Pittsburgh Courier 10-3-1942
Chapter 3: The Military
“I went to the coffee shop”: Pittsburgh Courier 8-11-1945
“Will all the colored girls move over on this side.”: One Woman’s Army: A Black Officer Remembers the WAC, 19
At the mess hall the black WAACs: Telephone interview with Violet Hill Askins Gordon, 4-25-2008
“with heads high”: Chicago Defender 8-15-1942
“firm of step”: Chicago Defender 8-15-1942
“breathing defiance to Hitler, Hirohito, and Mussolini”: Chicago Defender 8-15-1942
Tessie O’Bryant sent three daughters: Pittsburgh Courier 6-12-1943
Tessie Theresa, Ida Susie, and Essie Dell O’Bryant had decided to join: Veterans’ History Project of the Library of Congress, Essie Dell O’Bryant Woods
“laundries, mess units, or salvage”: When the Nation Was in Need: Blacks in the Women’s Army Corps During World War II, 74
When the day of departure arrived, Charity: One Woman’s Army: A Black Officer Remembers the WAC, 131
The entire city seemed to have been leveled: Veterans’ History Project of the Library of Congress, Essie Dell O’Bryant Woods
“We wanted the Negro WACs out”: Chicago Defender 7-7-1945
“colored boyfriends coming to call on them”: Chicago Defender 7-7-1945
“lead to general social intermingling”: Chicago Defender 7-7-1945
“Negroes got the idea that”: Chicago Defender 7-7-1945
“Welcome these Negro”: We Served America Too!: Personal Recollections of African Americans in the Women’s Army Corps During World War II, 190
“no place for them”: Afro American 8-21-1943
Other branches of the military: Our Mothers’ War: American Women at Home and at the Front During World War II, 216
“We will be the first group”: Sammie M. Rice Collection
One of the nurses, Alma Favors: Chicago Defender, 3-13-1943
Sammie continued to send: Sammie M. Rice Collection
“bedlam broke loose”: Pittsburgh Courier, 12-11-1943
“the nurses received an ovation”: Pittsburgh Courier, 12-11-1943
“We are extremely anxious to get to work”: Afro American 4-11-1944
silk from a military parachute: Veterans’ History Project of the Library of Congress, Interview Transcript: Prudence Burns Burrell
From the newspaper account: Pittsburgh Courier 6-30-1945
Before patients could be treated: Roundup 5-31-1945
“I haven’t minded”: Roundup 5-31-1945
“They just accept us”: Chicago Defender 9-22-1945
Chapter 4: Volunteers
At the end of one day, Mildred boarded a bus: California Eagle 12-18-1942 (In Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama—The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution, Diane McWhorter describes Mildred boarding a street car. And she writes that the two men were fellow members of the Southern Negro Youth Conference [SNYC].)
Dora Lewis was less successful: Chicago Defender 7-11-1942
“Every one of us, no matter where he lives”: Chicago Defender 12-6-1941
One night in September 1942 a black couple: Chicago Defender 10-10-1942
When the US Army Air Forces requested: Chicago Defender 10-18-1941
“blackout of Negroes”: Pittsburgh Courier 3-14-1942
These troubling events in New Orleans: Chicago Defender 3-20-1943
“My children are all at school”: Pittsburgh Courier 12-19-1942
“widely diversified”: Afro American 6-20-1942
“destined to be a great hit”: Chicago Defender 2-28-1942
Twelve black AWVS members: Pittsburgh Courier 10-10-1942
“This is a subversive”: Pittsburgh Courier 3-7-1942
In Salt Lake City, Utah: Chicago Defender 6-26-1943
“mixed dancing was involved”: Chicago Defender 11-20-1943
On the day of the blood drive: Chicago Defender 9-30-1944
“Is that a democratic stand”: Pittsburgh Courier 2-28-1942
“I was thrilled and proud”: Chicago Defender 12-19-1942
“There’s the b— that’s runnin’”: Negro Digest September 1944
“The expression on their faces”: Chicago Defender 7-3-1943
“At least 10,000 people were milling”: Chicago Defender 6-16-1945
“I wonder how I’ll fit in”: Chicago Defender 10-21-1944
Chapter 5: Entertainers
“You’ll have to eat in the kitchen”: Chicago Defender 10-27-1945
Throughout the war years, Hazel Scott made valuable: E-mail exchange with Adam Clayton Powell 9-3-2011
“Entertainment is always”: Hope for America http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/hopeforamerica/causesandcontroversies/entertainingthetroops/ExhibitObjects/BolsteringMorale.aspx
“It’s better to get $7,000”: Our Mothers’ War, 222
“I hope that judge”: Time 12-17-1945
“It is time that members”: Time 12-17-1945
“Now who the hell”: Chicago Defender 1-6-1945
“the exotic darling of the unit”: Chicago Defender 10-28-1944
“the bluest of blues”: Chicago Defender 10-28-1944
“five foot package of dancing dynamite”: Chicago Defender 10-28-1944
“a solid bass”: Pittsburgh Courier 1-13-1945
“sultry sweet and low voice”: Pittsburgh Courier 1-13-1945
“gal who set two continents afire”: Afro American 5-2-1942
“seared the hearts of men”: Afro American 5-2-1942
“We are in the jungles of Burma”: Afro American 12-23-1944
“We are in one of the most picturesque”: Afro American 11-18-1944
The black press reported that Ike: Afro American 6-30-1945
“Words cannot describe”: Afro American 9-15-1945
The International Sweethearts of Rhythm traveled: www.riverwalkjazz.org/jazznotes/intl_sweethearts
Traveling in Big Bertha made life easier: http://americanhistory.si.edu/webcast/jam2011_women.html
In Birmingham, Alabama: http://americanhistory.si.edu/webcast/jam2011_women.html
Anna Mae Winburn directed the Sweethearts: Chicago Defender 8-25-1945
“eating out of their palms”: Chicago Defender 12-15-1945
Nightingale of the European Theater: Pittsburgh Courier 5-15-1943
Songbird of the South: Pittsburgh Courier 5-20-1944
“Arriving in camp, all the weariness”: Pittsburgh Courier 5-20-1944
At another camp in 1943: Negro Digest December 1943
In 1901 Coretta Alfred: The Music of Black Americans: A History, 306
As the German army approached: Chicago Defender 12-18-1943
That’s why Coretta and her pianist husband: Chicago Defender 12-18-1943
“I returned to America to see my mother”: Crisis 7-37
Roberta left Bonham: “Bonham Musicians Back Future Opera Star”
They shared a passion: Chicago Defender 9-1-1945
WAC Band #2 found it difficult: Iowa Bystander 7-24-1944, Interview with Novella Cromer 10-6-2011
But by November 1944: Iowa Bystander 11-16-1944
“We don’t take Negroes here”: Chicago Defender 10-3-1942
Shortly after the war ended: Chicago Defender 7-13-1946
“My sole interest is in building”: Chicago Defender 7-13-1946
The International Sweethearts of Rhythm performed in St. Louis: Pittsburgh Courier 6-29-1946
“We have just brought to a successful conclusion”: Chicago Defender 10-20-1945
“I am sure that you will realize”: Chicago Defender 10-20-1945
The DAR blamed their actions: Chicago Defender 12-22-1945
“Why not?”: Afro American 1-5-1946
“After the war? Who knows?”: Pittsburgh Courier 5-19-1945
Epilogue
“the first lady of Maryland’s”: Baltimore Sun 7-8-1992
Settling in St. Louis, Missouri: St. Louis Post-Dispatch 1-25-1993
When she was asked to speak: Washington Post 9-3-1998
Layle’s work with the American Federation of Teachers: American Educator Winter 2000–2001
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Adams Earley, Charity. One Woman’s Army: A Black Officer Remembers the WAC. College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 1989.
Atwood, Kathryn J. Women Heroes of World War II. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2011.
Bellafaire, Judith L. The Army Nurse Corps: A Commemoration of World War II Service. U.S. Army Center of Military History, 1993.
Carew, Joy Gleason. Blacks, Reds and Russians: Sojourners in Search of the Soviet Promise. Piscataway: Rutgers University Press, 2008.
Carney Smith, Jessie, ed. Notable Black American Women. Detroit: Gale Research, 1992.
Chateauvert, Melinda. Marching Together: Women of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998.
Guzman, Jessie Parkhurst, ed. Negro Yearbook: A Review of Events Affecting Negro Life, 1941–46. Tuskegee, AL: Tuskegee Institute, 1947. www.archive.org/stream/negroyearbookrev00guzmrich/negroyearbookrev00guzmrich_djvu.txt.
Honey, Maureen, ed. Bitter Fruit. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1999.
Kersten, Andrew E. Race, Jobs, and the War: The FEPC in the Midwest, 1941–46. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2007.
Litoff, Judy Barrett, and David C. Smith, eds. American Women in a World at War: Contemporary Accounts from World War II. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1997.
McCabe, Katie, and Dovey Johnson Roundtree. Justice Older than the Law: The Life of Dovey Johnson Roundtree. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2009.
Moore, Brenda L. To Serve My Country, To Serve My Race: The Story of the Only African American WACs Stationed Overseas During World War II. New York: New York University Press, 1996.
Morehouse, Maggie. Fighting in the Jim Crow Army: Black Men and Women Remember World War II. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000.
Olson, Lynne. Freedom’s Daughters: The Unsung Heroines of the Civil Rights Movement from 1830 to 1970. New York: Touchstone, 2001.
Putney, Martha S. When the Nation Was in Need: Blacks in the Women’s Army Corps During World War II. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow
Press, 1992.
Rollins, Judith. All Is Never Said: The Narrative of Odette Harper Hines. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995.
Sarnecky, Mary T. A History of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999.
Shaw, Stephanie J. What a Woman Ought to Be and to Do: Black Professional Women Workers During the Jim Crow Era. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
Southern, Eileen. The Music of Black Americans: A History. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1997.
Sugrue, Thomas J. Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North. New York: Random House, 2008.
Tucker, Sherrie. Swing Shift: “All-Girl” Bands of the 1940s. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000.
Yellin, Emily. Our Mothers’ War: American Women at Home and at the Front During World War II. New York: Free Press, 2004.
Dissertations
Lucander, David. “It Is a New Kind of Militancy”: March on Washington Movement, 1941–1946” (2010). Open Access Dissertations. Paper 247. http://scholarworks.umass.edu/open_access_dissertations/247.
Sims-Wood, Janet. “We Served America Too!: Personal Recollections of African Americans in the Women’s Army Corps During World War II.” Graduate School of the Union Institute, 1994.
Interviews
Telephone interview with Violet Gordon, April 25, 2008.
Telephone interview with Rosemary Skipper, June 13, 2011, and August 20, 2011.
Telephone interview with Ora Pierce Hicks, June 17, 2011.
Telephone interview with Frances Hawthorne, September 29, 2011.
Telephone interview with Novella Cromer, October 6, 2011.
Journals
Ransom, Leon. “Combating Discrimination in the Employment of Negroes in War Industries and Government Agencies.” Journal of Negro Education 12, no. 3 (Summer 1943): 405–416.
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