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Sweet Georgia Brown: Impact, Courage, Sacrifice and Will

Listen to this short interview during the summer of 2019
with Lawrence E. Walker on a radio station about this lost history

of African American Women that served during World War II.

Sweet Georgia Brown: Impact, Courage, Sacrifice and Will

This one hour and a half documentary is our second documentary focusing on African-American Women during World War II. The purpose of this documentary, Sweet Georgia Brown: Impact, Courage, Sacrifice and Will is to examine the consequences or changes in race and gender policies for the status of African-American Women in the military during World War II. During this era, opportunities for women in the military expanded, such as; what social, political and organization factors influenced change in racial and gender policies in the military during World War II; what were the unique factors associated with being African-American Women in the Armed Services at that time and how did this experience affects their lives. I am deeply indebted to the former member’s of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion for their willingness to be interviewed and for the study of Brenda L. Moore, and Major Chairty E. Adams books. I am sincerely grateful to Gladys Carter, Mary Copeland, Estelle Terry, Janice Taylor, Queen Esther Woods and Martha Putney for all of their contributions they made, to be filmed in the first documentary. They were generous with their time and in some cases shared their treasured scrapbooks containing photographs, official military documents with raised seals and written memoirs – Lawrence E. Walker


FILM COVER-11 copyThe book for Sweet Georgia Brown:
 Impact, Courage, Sacrifice and Will, is out now. This will be our second documentary focusing on African-American Women during World War II. The first documentary back in 1997 was titled: “To Serve My Country, To Serve My Race” based on the book by Brenda L. Moore. That documentary is a result of my interest in the subject of African-American Women who served in the military during World War II. After reading both Brenda L. Moore and Charity Adams Earley books, I felt it was time to bring this to television and create a book format so people will learn about this lost history.

To buy “Sweet Georgia Brown,” documentary make a check or money order out to Lawrence E. Walker in the amount of $30.00, this include S/H. Mail your check to: 17 Drake Road, Somerset, New Jersey 08873. And the link to the book is below:

 

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To learn more about African American Women during World War II go to these two books: One Woman’s Army: A Black Officer Remembers the WAC (Texas A & M University Military History Series, #12) Paperback by Charity Adams Earley 

41rjN6kASpL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_When America entered World War II, the surge of patriotism was not confined to men. Congress authorized the organization of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (later renamed Women’s Army Corps) in 1942, and hundreds of women were able to join in the war effort. Charity Edna Adams became the first black woman commissioned as an officer.  Black members of the WAC had to fight the prejudices not only of males who did not want women in their “man’s army,” but also of those who could not accept blacks in positions of authority or responsibility, even in the segregated military.  With unblinking candor, Charity Adams Earley tells of her struggles and successes as the WAC’s first black officer and as commanding officer of the only organization of black women to serve overseas during World War II. The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion broke all records for redirecting military mail as she commanded the group through its moves from England to France and stood up to the racist slurs of the general under whose command the battalion operated. The Six Triple Eight stood up for its commanding officer, supporting her boycott of segregated living quarters and recreational facilities.  This book is a tribute to those courageous women who paved the way for patriots, regardless of color or gender, to serve their country.

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To Serve My Country, to Serve My Race: The Story of the Only African-American Wacs Stationed Overseas During World War II by Brenda L. Moore

343507“I would have climbed up a mountain to get on the list [to serve overseas]. We were going to do our duty. Despite all the bad things that happened, America was our home. This is where I was born. It was where my mother and father were. There was a feeling of wanting to do your part”…..Gladys Carter, member of the 6888th. 

To Serve My Country, to Serve my Race is the story of the historic 6888th, the first United States Women’s Army Corps unit composed of African-American women to serve overseas.  While African-American men and white women were invited, if belatedly, to serve their country abroad, African-American women were excluded for overseas duty throughout most of WWII. Under political pressure from legislators like Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., the NAACP, the black press, and even President Roosevelt, the U.S. War Department was forced to deploy African-American women to the European theater in 1945.  African-American women, having succeeded, through their own activism and political ties, in their quest to shape their own lives, answered the call from all over the country, from every socioeconomic stratum. Stationed in France and England at the end of World War II, the 6888th brought together women like Mary Daniel Williams, a cook in the 6888th who signed up for the Army to escape the slums of Cleveland and to improve her ninth-grade education, and Margaret Barnes Jones, a public relations officer of the 6888th, who grew up in a comfortable household with a politically active mother who encouraged her to challenge the system.  Despite the social, political, and economic restrictions imposed upon these African-American women in their own country, they were eager to serve, not only out of patriotism but out of a desire to uplift their race and dispell bigoted preconceptions about their abilities. Elaine Bennett, a First Sergeant in the 6888th, joined because “I wanted to prove to myself and maybe to the world that we would give what we had back to the United States as a confirmation that we were full- fledged citizens.”  Filled with compelling personal testimony based on extensive interviews, To Serve My Country is the first book to document the lives of these courageous pioneers. It reveals how their Army experience affected them for the rest of their lives and how they, in turn, transformed the U.S. military forever.

African American Female WWII Battalion Honored 

Dozens of military officials, veterans, active duty military personnel, friends and family gathered to honor of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion of World War II.

Mailroom 2

 

The women of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion in England and in France.

http://lewfoundation.org

 

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