Theften the books are on officers and theyre on the very wacs who served, but few on black enlisted women so i wrote about the four women that here, theyre part of the 6,500 contingent of black war, who enlisted in the pioneers of the wac and they had the same reasons that other for joining. They wanted to learn new skills. Inck women were engaged service occupations, cleaning, laundry work and they wanted to otherure that they had skills to give them opportunities after the war. Also were very interested in helping to advance democracy at home beingl as female. American, and and coming up, tell me about the four women. The four women involved, to the this is an incident at fort evans in massachusetts. There were 100 women in this detachment. Nearly all of them were orderlies. Orderlies given the assignment the hospitalse of at fort devons. Assigned thisre position. They came in to have skilled jobs. Had hoped to have any other job, except cleaning time. At the same thing with ana morr
Of history and comparative american studies at oberlin college. We are glad to claim her as one of our own, receiving her ph. D. From uv. She will speak on i wore the uniform of blue making the case for africanamerican enlistment. I have the very difficult task of going after gary. I would like to thank you for inviting me and for will for for all of my traveling snafus and being so gracious. And to thank liz, whos my former adviser, and Gary Gallagher, whos also a dear mentor of mine, for not only having me here at the conference but also for years and years of mentoring that dont seem to end. Im going to talk about im going to begin with the battle that gary does not think is important. Because it is in North Carolina. To be fair, i dont think many people think that the battle of new bern is incredibly important or significant, so i dont think hes alone. Nor am i arguing that the western theater is more important than the eastern theater. I just want to throw my hands up and say that
So ill get us rolling. Were going to have a pretty informal discussion here where well throw out some questions that have occurred to all of us as weve been listening to these wonderful talks and the first question i will throw out, i think, i trust has occurred to many of you in the audience, and that is its really aimed primarily at gary and christopher, and that is are your two interpretations garys with the emphasis on centrality of the theater on the east and then west. Are they at odds or reconcilable . Im happy to have you go first. Set the tone. I think its all in the definition of the word is. I actually dont disagree with gary on a lot of points. The war was. Without the Virginia Campaign and without the successes that grant brought to it, that stalemate could have continued longer. Im not certainly exactly what sherman could have done had grant not had the successes that he had by bringing a different type of war fair. My point is not to critique garys emphasis on the east i
Absolutely. Anything else . Where are we a time . Well, i think its probably time to move on to the the book signing. If people interested in having me sign the book, i would love to do that. And of course, we have another wonderful talk coming up, too. So thank you. Today id like to welcome a good friend jill watts. And she is. Shes conducted Much Research here at the library, and shes a Professor Emeritus of history at california state university, san marcos, where she teaches courses on black history and social and political history. United states. Shes written extensively, including hattie mcdaniel, black ambition, white hollywood, mae west, an icon in black and white and god. Harlem, usa, the Father Divine story, which has its own sort of local connections, in a way, jills book, the black homeowner, about which shell be speaking today, is the black cabinet the untold story of africanamericans in politics during the age of roosevelt. And shes recently served on the external Advisor
So thank you. Today id like to welcome a good friend jill watts. And she is. Shes conducted Much Research here at the library, and shes a Professor Emeritus of history at california state university, san marcos, where she teaches courses on black history and social and political history. United states. Shes written extensively, including hattie mcdaniel, black ambition, white hollywood, mae west, an icon in black and white and god. Harlem, usa, the Father Divine story, which has its own sort of local connections, in a way, jills book, the black homeowner, about which shell be speaking today, is the black cabinet the untold story of africanamericans in politics during the age of roosevelt. And shes recently served on the external Advisory Committee for our special exhibition, black americans civil rights and the roosevelts 1932 to 1962, which i encourage you all to go see jill speak 30 minutes or so and then shell take questions from the audience and. We sure are happy to have you here