Double Victory (19 page)

—Mildred McAdory

Twenty-seven-year-old Mildred McAdory was director of the Fairfield Youth Center in Fairfield, Alabama, and she was preparing for an upcoming tin can collection drive—a project undertaken by a group of black students as part of the Victory Scrap Drive.

In December 1942, scrap drives were common all over the country—often organized by students who wanted to do their part for the war effort. The country had been at war for the past year, and materials such as rubber, paper, and metal were in short supply; scrap drives were a way for citizens to collect everyday items—paper, silk fabric, rubber bands, steel,
and iron—needed for the manufacture of wartime products such as parachutes, gas masks, life rafts, bombers, trucks, and tanks. Mildred and the young people at the youth center were ready for their upcoming drive. At the end of one day, Mildred boarded a bus for her ride home. The city buses were segregated, with a black line painted across the ceiling to divide riders. White passengers sat in the seats ahead of the line, and blacks had to sit behind it. The driver of Mildred's bus had even placed a board on a seat to ensure that everyone knew his or her place on the bus.

A black couple paid their fares and took empty seats in front of the board—in the white section. All the seats in the black section were filled. The driver turned to the couple and said, “You'll have to get behind that board.” When the couple asked for a refund of their fares, the driver told them he couldn't return their money. They left the bus.

Two black men entered the bus; one of them moved the board, placing it on the floor. The driver told the man he had to sit behind the board. The man pointed to the line on the ceiling and said he was sitting behind the line. The driver called the police. When a policeman arrived, the driver pointed to three men and Mildred, indicating they were the troublemakers. The policeman ordered the men and Mildred to the police car. Mildred asked what crime she was being charged with, and the officer asked her if she knew who had moved the board. She replied that she knew nothing about it.

The policeman pointed to a seat on the bus and said, “Well, come back here and sit down before I slap you down.”

“You have no reason to do that,” Mildred replied.

“I'll knock hell out of you with the board,” the policeman said, and he took the men to the police car.

Incensed, Mildred told the bus driver, “I'm going to report you to the company for being rude to passengers—calling the police on innocent people and having them threatened.”

“Call 'em. That won't do you no good,” taunted the driver.

Mildred decided to leave the bus. As she stepped down, the driver called to the police, “Hey, take her on too.” The officer looked at Mildred and said, “Come on, girl, get in that car,” and kicked her.

When Mildred and the two men arrived at the police station, they were questioned. The police asked Mildred which man had moved the board. She repeated that she didn't know. The policeman who had been at the bus said, “She's a g-d— liar.” Put her n— a— in jail.” He kicked Mildred again, slapped her face, and punched her shoulder. She was led to a cell that held five other women. Mildred spent the night on a dirty mattress trying to ignore the roaches that scurried across the floor—it seemed there were thousands of them.

The next morning Mildred was taken to a hearing, where she was charged with interfering with an officer. The bus driver testified under oath against Mildred, who was fined 10 dollars and set free.

Mildred McAdory and the young people at the Fairfield Youth Center who had spent the day organizing the scrap drive were volunteers. Like thousands of American citizens during the war years, including many black women, they felt they could do their part to help win the war on the home front while their loved ones were fighting on the battlefronts. Why did these women volunteer to help win the war for a country that tolerated the ugliness of segregation and the cruelty of discrimination? For every black woman who did her part for the war, there would be a different answer to that question.

Office of Civilian Defense

Even before the United States joined the war, the federal government had established an agency called the Office of Civilian Defense (OCD). The OCD directed programs that existed to protect and serve citizens on the home front and to promote volunteer involvement in defense. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the work of the OCD became critical. And the need for volunteers intensified.

The OCD organized Defense Councils that formed Civilian Defense volunteer offices in communities throughout the country. The Defense Councils trained men and women as air raid wardens. It was their job to teach citizens procedures to follow in case of an enemy attack from the air. They supervised blackouts, organized people to fill sandbags, and planned for protection against fires in the event of an enemy attack. Volunteers were trained as fire watchers, auxiliary police and firefighters, nurse aides, first aid workers, road repair crews, messengers, and ambulance drivers. Plans were made to deal with emergency food and housing situations. Volunteers were trained for decontamination, bomb, and rescue corps.

Under the OCD, a block plan system was established that provided information about wartime services and programs in cities, towns, and rural areas. A chief oversaw the block plan system, which divided the city into several zones, each with its own leader. And each zone consisted of 4 to 15 sectors. Under the sector leaders were the block leaders. Each block leader had responsibility for about 15 families. People who volunteered in the block organizations dealt with the
service
rather than the
protective
phase of civilian defense—distributing information about everything from salvage collection and war savings bond drives to services for military personnel and the labor supply.
They provided information to neighbors about services they could access such as childcare programs, and they collected information that would be helpful to the war effort such as reporting the number of spare rooms available for war workers. The OCD depended on volunteer labor from ordinary citizens. Many responded to the call. Many were women. And many were black women.

All across the country black women in cities, towns, and rural areas volunteered through OCD programs. Some were housewives and farm women who participated in classes where they learned how to manage their homes under wartime conditions. Others were women who did their volunteer work after they returned home from their jobs in factories, offices, and businesses. Some women enrolled in childcare courses that consisted of 75 hours of instruction over a period of five weeks. After completion of the course, the women volunteered in daycares, nursery schools, and after-school programs to help care for the children of women who were working in war industries. All these women contributed extra hours of free labor because they wanted to do something to help win the war.

Jessie L. Terry served as “race relations adviser” for the California Council of Defense. It was her job to contact churches and organizations in the black communities and encourage members to participate in civilian defense activities. “Everywhere I go, the women are eager to volunteer for duty,” said Jessie. “Already, there are hundreds in every defense activity, and they are tremendously enthused about their jobs. Many of them have sons or husbands in the armed forces, and if you don't think these women take their services seriously, you should watch them work!”

People registered to become Civilian Defense volunteers at libraries, schools, and police stations. They were required to be
“able-bodied, self-reliant, of good character,” and between 30 and 50 years old. The Committee on Civilian Defense had set a goal of registering 150,000 volunteers in Baltimore, where black public school teachers volunteered their time to register volunteers. After registrants were organized, classes were offered to train them in their specific job duties.

After the registrants completed classes, they were given exams. If they passed the exams, they were evaluated for their “character, reputation and ability to lead other people during a crisis.” Typically the classes were segregated, and black volunteers were placed only in black communities. Sometimes black volunteers were delayed in getting into classes because officials practiced discriminatory practices—refusing to place black and white volunteers in classes together. It meant black people who wanted to volunteer sometimes had to wait until there was a group of other black potential volunteers large enough to make up a class.

By March 1942 the city of Baltimore had registered close to 600 volunteers as air raid wardens. But many more were needed. There was a need for auxiliary firefighters and police too. The city was divided into sectors and precincts. Civilian Defense regulations called for four wardens for every 500 persons in a sector. Ten sectors made up a precinct. There were 120 precincts in northwest Baltimore alone. This area of the city was predominantly black. Citizens were urged to volunteer. But because of segregation, blacks who were interested in volunteering couldn't begin classes. The Committee on Civilian Defense promised that if 20 “qualified colored applicants” registered, a class would be offered for black firefighters. In the meantime, eager black volunteers had to wait. The city's discriminatory practices interfered with the country's need for volunteers in critical wartime areas. But racism won out over wartime preparedness.

While segregation could be a barrier to blacks who tried to volunteer, it didn't stop those determined black women who wanted to aid the war effort. In Washington, DC, Blanche Bennett organized housewives in her apartment building into salvage crews. In Brooklyn, New York, two labor leaders—Dolly Lowther and Charlotte Adelmond of the Laundry Workers Union—used their organizational skills to coordinate block volunteers in the Brownsville section of the city. The Metropolitan Council of Negro Women in Manhattan, New York, trained and sent speakers to churches and other organizations to explain the confusing point-rationing system to housewives. The 80-member Women's Motor Corps raised money and bought an ambulance for the 15th Regiment of the New York National Guard.

The Atlanta University School of Social Work in Georgia was the site of a two-week institute in 1942 to train black volunteers to work in social welfare agencies. It was the first program of its kind in the nation for black citizens. The institute was conducted at the request of the OCD for the purpose of preparing volunteers to help staff social welfare offices that were seeing increased demands as a result of the war. Fifty-five black men and women completed the courses. Most were college graduates and were employed as teachers, nurses, librarians, beauticians, or clerks. During the course of the institute, participants completed 12 hours of “practical work” in the agency where they would be assigned. Upon completion of the course, they were awarded special certificates from the university.

In Chicago, Alva Bates organized the Women's Division for the Sale of War Bonds. The women set up booths in hotels and other locations around the city. Also in Chicago a Civilian Defense Corps made up of 53 women operated the Consumer Information Service in a public library. They distributed information about nutrition and tips for housewives on how to make
healthy meals as they dealt with food shortages. Ruth Pettiford headed up the only black unit of the Red Cross Motor Corps in Chicago. Members worked with the Wool Conservation Program to collect fabric from shops and homes.

The black New York Beauticians Volunteer Corps was organized in August 1942 by Maude Gadsden. By October 1943 the 250 members of the group had sold $300,000 worth of war bonds. Their goal was to reach the $1 million mark. The Harlem chapter of the Corps led the race. Katherine Burton was the top saleswoman, having sold $7,000 worth of bonds. The women set up booths in beauty shops, churches, and theaters. Citizens were encouraged to “Back the attack” with their purchase of bonds. By early 1944 the Beauticians Volunteer Corps had reached the $500,000 mark in bond sales.

Other black women's organizations and individual women contributed many hours to help finance the war. They promoted war bond drives and rallies, distributed literature, canvassed from door to door—keeping the program before the public and “combing the community for the extra small change which otherwise might be unwisely spent.”

Mattie W. Stewart, a waitress in the officers' dining room of the Bowery Savings Bank in New York City, sold a quarter million dollars' worth of bonds. As she sold lunches to the bank officers she told them she was working to promote bond sales for the sake of her son, who was a sergeant in the US Army. Her story inspired the bank officers to contribute generously to her efforts.

Dora Lewis was less successful in her early efforts. Dora was a black woman who tried to do her part for the war. When she set out to get pledges for war bonds in New York City, white residents of one neighborhood refused to sign pledges just because Dora was black. Dora reported the problems she encountered to
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The problem was reported to the chairman of the New York War Bond Pledge Drive. It was pointed out that the situation was insulting to blacks who volunteered their services to their country. When Dora's experiences were reported in a New York newspaper, pledges poured in to her. One came from the mayor of New York City—Mayor F. H. LaGuardia asked Dora to his office, where he wrote her a check.