Campaign 2020. Watch our live coverage of the president ial candidates on the campaign trail and make up your own mind, cspans campaign 2020, youre an filtered view of politics. Welcome to the 16th annual roosevelt reading festival. My name is Kirsten Carter and im her head of the archives department. We are pleased to host such Wonderful Group of authors this year, one of our favorite events. If you enjoy this event and would like to support the library we encourage you to become a member and you can do that online anytime or by signing up at the table in the hallway today. Let me remind you how the festival works. We are going to have another speak now for 30 minutes followed by a 10 minute question and answer period and then i will walk the author out to the front of the Visitor Center to sign books and you can purchase the book in our new deal bookstore and meet the author and discuss the book even more. O today is Sandra Bolzenius teacher and historian. For two decades she lived abroad first as a soldier in the United States army serving in germany and later as a teacher in International Schools in europe, africa and asia. She earned her doctorate in history at Ohio State University where her focus on gender, africanamerican history, gender and africanamerican history led to the publication of her book glory in their spirit how 4 black women took on the army during world war ii. Sandra bolzenius is active in the Grassroots Movement move to amend and bill of rights efforts to protect ohios natural resources. Her travel, studies and activism reflect her interest in the dynamics of gender, race, class and public policy. [applause] hello, betty. Ready for a story . So first i would like to thank the Roosevelt Library and the National Archives for this opportunity to share the experiences of a Womans Army Corps. Im especially pleased to acknowledge here at hyde park another of Eleanor Roosevelts achievements and contributions to this nation. This one, not particularly wellknown. The first lady was a champion of the Womans Army Corps or the wac, i will be using the acronym. Her interest in the success of africanamerican wacs. Her husbands contributions to this end were less personally directed yet immensely important. In 1940, president Franklin Delano roosevelt signed a memorandum detailing the policy of equal treatment of military personnel. Regardless of race. Upon establishment of wac two years later this policy carried over to the new female personnel. Thereby providing a place for black wacs who were serving in a segregated military to assert their rights. Franklin, you have no idea what you started. And eleanor, i think you did. Can you all hear me . Glory in their spirit how 4 black women took on the army during world war ii tells the story of one of the most wellpublicized Court Marshals of the war, the 1945 strike in massachusetts. For years when i mentioned this project the most common response i got was i didnt even know black women were in the military and world war ii. Frankly im not sure i did either at least before embarking on this project. Fascination of americans including this one with the groundbreaking achievements of women as long failed to recognize that women often translate to white women. This was certainly how americans interpreted it in the 1940s when the nations military services plunged into global war, turned 2 women to help alleviate their severe personnel shortages. Following the armys lead the navy, marines, coast guard and your core created their own womens forces so none of these initially accepted black wacs. Only the wac did, a compromise, i argue that the War Department offered civil rights leaders whose demand for integration of the armed forces they firmly rejected. This afternoon i will introduce the wc strike and folding it in narrative form as i do in the book. The characters and plots provide context to explore Army Personnel policies and how they led to the strike, courtmartial and Public Interest in the case was at the time it was a sensational trial. I will conclude with brief thoughts on why it is so little known today. I promised you a story which i will begin in 1944 with the four women at the center of the courtmartial. Alice young was middleclass washington dc resident with a wellpaid government job. Because she also had training as a nurse recruiters assured her the army needed her as a medical technician. Johnnie murphy had clerical skills, no job and because of soldier since simon an oriole, trapped in a cleaning job, mary green saw the offer specialized training as an escape from domestic service. All four of these women would have been family with the wac recruiting campaign. They were intensive and prolific and they were pleading with women to do your part, joined the wac now, theres an urgency to this. They also would have noticed that these calls to duty featured white women exclusively. Nevertheless they saw the wac as an extraordinary opportunity. Young, murphy, morrison and greene were among the 6500 black women it took a total of 140,000 wacs to elicit to help the war effort during the war. They want to help the war effort, and demonstrate their patriotism and skills learned in the army, advance their postwar employment prospects. How then did these four women eager to do their part become defendant in a courtmartial . The subtitle of the book offers a concise response. Young, murphy, morrison and greene had challenged the army. We will go into more detail. It also makes for a good place for the top. These women had enlisted to fill specialized jobs like medical technician, clerical workers, drivers or any of the hundreds of other army trained skills the wac advertised. Instead for these types of assignments at one of the posthospitals, black wacs clean that another, the relegation of the letter to menial labor was common across the country. Consequently so was the resistance of these women to discriminatory treatment. The strike at fort devens was the most publicized protest but by no means the only one. Conflicts were inevitable. Africanamerican view their inclusion in the military and the armys new policy of equal treatment of black personnel signs of a gender and racial progress in the country. In contrast the War Department considered these temporary emergency measures, recruited black men in large numbers as it always did in a crisis and for the first time in its history and listed women. Because it felt it had no other choice. It did so to win the war, not advance status of its citizens. As a result of the War Departments policy for personnel sought to maintain the status quo even as it heavily relied on subordinate citizens, as well as promised africanamerican soldiers equal treatment it continued to racially segregate them, prohibit them from positions overweight troops and relegate the majority to menial labor. Similarly while it accepted women in the military, it funneled them into a separate and temporary core that was supposed to dissolve after the war. It also limited its members to assignment deemed appropriately feminine. Furthermore when the War Department drafted directives for africanamericans it did so with black men in mind. Likewise directing wacs it did so with white women in mind. Apparently the War Department leadership assumed its policies would overlap to cover black wacs. Rather than overlap, however they often exclude them. For example the motor pool at fort devon held Training Programs for black soldiers, male soldiers and others for white wacs but as alice young discovered when she requested a transfer to the motor pool there were none for black wacs. As a result the motors commander do not youngs request for transfer. He also rejected any notion that discrimination was a factor. After all the motor pool offered training to africanamericans and offered training to women. Where is the discrimination . The army prided itself on its uniform treatment of its increasingly diverse personnel, black wacs regularly slip through the cracks of its policies. In this manner military policy mirrored civilian laws which likewise overlooked black women. Lets take factory work for example. Roosevelts new deal legislation during the Great Depression did not mention race yet its Labor Protections primarily benefited the white men that white managers overwhelmingly hired. In 1941 civil rights leaders use their emerging clout to pressure roosevelt to create the fair Employment Practices committee. The a vpc presents contractors from discriminating against black workers but it was silent on gender discrimination. To comply factories mainly hired black men. Wartime civilian shortages brought white women to factory floors. Black women also applied for these jobs but were not taken on, very rarely i should say, 1942 in detroits industrial factories fewer than 100 worked in these factories, 100 black women. Black female women fell through the cracks. Despite the invisibility of black women in state policies and the historically appalling treatment of black men in the military africanamerican women had reason to expect better opportunities and greater respect in the wac than they had as civilians. I will mention three. First, as previously noted the War Department agreed to a policy of equal treatment regardless of race. Second the shortage of wacs inessential noncombat military occupations was so heavily publicized that the women knew their services were greatly needed and they were greatly needed. The military didnt take advantage of it but they were greatly needed. Third, the army claimed to be fighting against tyranny, and starting modicum of hope that it would not tolerate tierney in its forces. These factors emboldened thousands of black women to enlist. Rhetoric did not always match reality. Certainly circumstances differed around the country yet most black wacs at some point during their time in the service experienced the same types of discrimination that young, murphy, morrison and greene encountered. When these women arrived in fort des moines, iowa the wac was under pressure to meet mounting personal requests from commanders. To expedite the process it quickly trained and transferred them to assignments. At least this was the case for white wacs. Soon, few commanders requested black recruits, most of them languished for months at fort des moines. Young, murphy, morrison and greene arrived at different times during the spring and early summer of 1944, did not receive transfer orders until late october, months later. As part of a 100 person detachment the army sent them to work under the command of colonel walter crandell, administrator of the hospital. Unbeknownst to them he had thought this transfer tooth and nail. First insisted he didnt need them. Later he warned his superiors that with black men on post, the presence of black women would surely lead to, in his words, social problems. With forts overflowing with unassigned black wacs, were talking of thousands of different times were the white wacs would be sent elsewhere the War Department was not having any of this. It ordered him to put in the requisition. How he employed the women was left to him, clearly intending to marginalize these troops that he did not want the requested wacs without military skills so he could place them in the cadre as orderlies in the hospital. Members of that attachment arrived at fort devon excited to at last begin their training and their assignments. Imagine their surprise then when ushered into jobs that consisted of cleaning wards and waiting on staff medications which assuming this is temporary, after all they are listed based on certain agreements the new arrivals inquired about their training while diligently carrying out their current tasks. They really cleaned up the place, recalled their supervisor Sergeant Harold wicks. In the 1940s 70 of employees worked in service jobs. Roughly the same proportion of fort devons black wacs assigned to cleaning duties and this was the case with all wacs, 70 of them worked as orderlies at some point during their service, so yes, these women did an excellent job scrubbing floors, which is the women increasingly suspected, their officers assumed they were naturally best suited to do. The womens hopes of other opportunities were dashed two months after their arrival which crandall noticed alice young taking a patients temperature. According to witnesses he bellowed that black wacs were not here for that purpose. They were here to do the dirty work. He later contested the phrasing but not the meaning. The orderlies morale plummeted. Several other incidents in the next two months further demoralized the women, this included the demolition of three new arrivals, all army trained surgical technicians to orderly duties. Tragically another was the attempted suicide of a member of their detachment. A month later three others attempted the same. But theres no problems with the detachment. The explosive situation came to a head on march 9, 1945, after yet another incident at last convinced the women that nothing would change unless they took a collective stance. That morning they launched a strike to protest treatment that was incongruent to the military policies that had encouraged their enlistment. I will mention this was not planned in advance. It happened overnight and thats what happened. The soldiers knew a strike, or mutiny in military terms involved great risk. The black press regularly reported similar actions by black men in uniform and the years and decades of prison sentences occurred for resisting Racial Discrimination. After 5 months of menial labor it was hard to refute morrisons admission that women were working like dogs and it was time to take decisive action. Not all were ready for this. According to private Lorraine Overton upon waking up that morning, she remarked you all strike while i sleep. Most of the others, though not initially sure what to do chose to join the strike. It was a matter of cooperation that of all the girls refused to go to work that was up for me to stay with them. Nearly all of those on duty at the hospital refused to return to their orderly jobs under the same conditions. That is until the general of their command of the First Service command, they finally got their officerss attention presented them with a choice, report to work or face a courtmartial. Privates young, morrison and greene opted for the courtmartial. So did murphy who forcefully declared i would take death before i would go back to work. Arrested and held incommunicado, there was no way of knowing their actions had sparked a national firestorm. Outside the confinement area news of the strike spread rapidly in the black and mainstream presses. Unusual for the time. Mary mcleod calhoun, a member of the president s black cabinet and founder of the National Association of colored women demanded an investigation as did several members of congress. Other civil rights organizations, especially the naacp contacted highlevel officials about the case and worked with local members who rallied behind the defendants. Scores of ordinary citizens, male and female, black and white, minibar rising the secretary of war and president roosevelt with inquiries about how the armys treatment of these women could volunteer to serve when the country was in such great need. Others were furious over the dirty work remarks and others reminded their leaders the nation was waging a war to oppressed here any. Are we going to be as cold and inhuman in our practices as hitler as one white women wrote . The president called wacs directed to the white house to discuss the matter. Element roosevelt also sought an appointment, only to be referred to her assistant. With the vast majority of civilians following the case supporting women the naacps chief attorney Thurgood Marshall considered its potential in taking on segregation in the military. This case obviously hit a nerve legible time when courtsmartial of black personnel claiming Racial Discrimination were as routine as they were ignored outside of africanamerican communities, this one stood out. These defendants were both black and female, the case laid open fresh and thorny contexts, the most contentious issues of the war, women in the military, racial segregation and the war for democracy. In the extensive War Department investigation of the strike the army wholly denied discrimination at fort devon, it just didnt happen, the fact that 75 of black wacs were orderlies compared to 70 of white wacs would suggest otherwise but not many white personnel in 1940s. Instead they pointed to the poor army test scores as confirmation that black wacs did not qualify for skilled assignments. Officers described the women as sullen, surly, lazy, often late and usually complaining. Hardly the character of a model wac. A number of them spoke of having a tendency to play the race card when they did not get their way. These were the usual complaints leveled against black wacs across the United States so lets see how they stack up at fort devon. First the test score, the womens army test scores were low as was the funding where 70 of africanamericans lived. As an aside black soldiers had better funded schools in the north typically outperforming southern white recruits. Any case back at fort devons the detachments overall scores were engineered to be low. Crandall had requested personnel with no training so he could isolate them in menial jobs. His reassignment of the three surgical technicians to orderly duty substantiates this intention. Black wacs complained about their job at fort devon, but they were increasingly tardy to wo