In other divisions, such as the Navy, Black women were excluded almost entirely, and the Army Nurse Corps only allowed 500 Black nurses to serve despite thousands who applied. Cooke, an historian at Drexel University, whose documentary, Invisible Warriors: African American Women in World War II, highlights African American Rosie the Riveters.īlack women were encouraged to become WACs because they were told they wouldn’t face discrimination. “Bethune was lobbying and politicking for Black participation in the war and for Black female participation,” says Gregory S. Civil rights activist and educator Mary McLeod Bethune, a personal friend of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and a special assistant to the war secretary, handpicked many of them. As documented in the military's official history of the 6888th, Black women became WACs from the beginning. WACs attracted women from all socio-economic backgrounds, including low-skilled workers and educated professionals. READ MORE: Pearl Harbor Attack: Photos and Facts The Women’s Army Corps-originally created as a volunteer division in 1942 until it was fully incorporated into the army by law in 1943-became the solution. With American men serving abroad, there were countless communications, technical, medical and administrative roles that needed to be filled. When the United States entered World War II after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, there was no escaping the fact that women would be essential to the war effort. Campbell.inspect the first contingent of Negro members of the Women's Army Corps assigned to overseas service.',

Serving Our Country by Brenda L. Moore