Double Victory (31 page)

Chapter 1
: War Workers

“I stood in line with the others”: Afro American
8-12-1944

Ethel was one of the many women who were eager:
Telephone interview with Florence Hawthorne, 9-29-2011

A government official from the War Manpower Commission: Time
9-21-1942

A spokesman for the agency said he had 500 openings: Afro American
9-29-1942

“While agencies struggle toward a nationwide”: St. Petersburg Times
12-21-1941

But not all businesses were ready:
Telephone interview with Florence Hawthorne, 9-29-2011

“when the imperative need of utilizing”: Chicago Daily Tribune
6-4-1942

“all had sweaty hands”: Chicago Defender
11-6-1943

“Colored women just do not have”: Afro American
12-22-1942

“Negroes could not be used”: Chicago Defender
11-23-1940

Two black women in Ohio: Journal of Negro Education,
Summer 1943

“has experienced no difficulty”: Chicago Defender
3-10-1945

“It is as toothless as a month-old baby”: Afro American
12-22-1942

When an arsenal in New Jersey: Chicago Defender
2-17-1945

Toilets became a major issue: Chicago Defender
10-16-1943

President Roosevelt became involved: Chicago Defender
12-25-1943

“They say they need food”: Chicago Defender
3-18-1944

In some cases, auxiliaries were formed: Chicago Defender
11-27-43

The wives who followed their soldier husbands: Crisis
1-1943

“It was a discouraging process”: Chicago Daily Tribune
10-11-1942

“Every cadet in all the CAP squadrons”: Chicago Daily Tribune
8-18-1944

“The most delicate job”: Afro American
3-31-1945

“For though I have witnessed two lynchings”: Afro American
3-18-1944

“Indeed, visibility in the community”: Notable Black American Women,
62

“There is a world revolution”: Chicago Defender
11-14-1942

“One thing seems certain”: Chicago Defender
1-29-1944

“It's a man's war no longer”: Chicago Defender
9-26-1942

She was hospitalized for a couple of months:
E-mail exchange with Benjamin Phillips 9-11-2011

Chapter 2
: Political Activists

but everybody said they were ace: Chicago Defender
3-6-1943

What happened next is: Time
10-26-1942;
Chicago Defender
3-6-1943;
Chicago Defender
10-17-1942

“the most dangerous Negro”: Chicago Defender
6-28-1941

“I want all America to understand”: Pittsburgh Courier
6-27-1942

“After this world conflict is over”: Pittsburgh Courier
6-27-1942

In Chicago, Ethel Payne: Chicago Defender
7-4-1942

In St. Louis, Thelma McNeal: Chicago Defender
8-15-1942

How Can We Die Freely: Marching Together: Women of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters,
170

For five days in June 1943: Chicago Defender
5-1-1943, 6-5-1943, 6-19-1943

And E. Pauline Myers reminded the delegates: Afro American
7-10-1943;
Pittsburgh Courier
7-10-1943;
Chicago Defender
6-19-1943 (David Lucander, in “It Is a New Kind of Militancy: March on Washington Movement, 1941-1946,” indicated that Myers was not able to attend the We Are Americans, Too, conference because she was hospitalized. But two newspaper accounts report she was in attendance and delivered speeches. An earlier newspaper account reported her hospitalization, but also stated that she was expected to recover in time to attend the conference.)

Pauli and a friend were on their way:
Documenting the American South: Oral Histories of the American South

A year before Hattie protested: Chicago Defender
4-24-1943

“time to begin training Americans”: Marching Together: Women of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters,
17

The Double Victory Girls Club: Chicago Defender
12-11-1943

In December 1942, Ethel had taken:
Women in Journalism Oral History Project

Anna Arnold Hedgeman was a black woman: Chicago Defender
9-16-1944

The well-organized event was supported: Pittsburgh Courier
5-2-1942

“friends of Mrs. Roosevelt”: Free Lance-Star
10-5-1944

“drive a hard bargain”: Chicago Defender
6-16-1945

Norma Green was a black army nurse: Chicago Defender
10-3-1942

In fact, there were fewer than 200: The Army Nurse Corps: A Commemoration of World War II Service,
9

Compared to about 20,000: A History of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps,
270

This question came after it was learned: Chicago Defender
1-20-1945

The city hospital in Baltimore: Afro American
6-8-1943

After a while, her superintendent suggested:
Western Historical Manuscript Collection University of Missouri-St. Louis,
www.umsl.edu/~whmc/guides/t016.htm

It released a statement: Pittsburgh Courier
10-3-1942

Chapter 3
: The Military

“I went to the coffee shop”: Pittsburgh Courier
8-11-1945

“Will all the colored girls move over on this side.”: One Woman's Army: A Black Officer Remembers the WAC,
19

At the mess hall the black WAACs
: Telephone interview with Violet Hill Askins Gordon, 4-25-2008

“with heads high”: Chicago Defender
8-15-1942

“firm of step”: Chicago Defender
8-15-1942

“breathing defiance to Hitler, Hirohito, and Mussolini”: Chicago Defender
8-15-1942

Tessie O'Bryant sent three daughters: Pittsburgh Courier
6-12-1943

Tessie Theresa, Ida Susie, and Essie Dell O'Bryant had decided to join
: Veterans' History Project of the Library of Congress, Essie Dell O'Bryant Woods

“laundries, mess units, or salvage”: When the Nation Was in Need: Blacks in the Women's Army Corps During World War II,
74

When the day of departure arrived, Charity
:
One Woman's Army: A Black Officer Remembers the WAC
, 131

The entire city seemed to have been leveled
: Veterans' History Project of the Library of Congress, Essie Dell O'Bryant Woods

“We wanted the Negro WACs out”: Chicago Defender
7-7-1945

“colored boyfriends coming to call on them”: Chicago Defender
7-7-1945

“lead to general social intermingling”: Chicago Defender
7-7-1945

“Negroes got the idea that”: Chicago Defender
7-7-1945

“Welcome these Negro”: We Served America Too!: Personal Recollections of African Americans in the Women's Army Corps During World War II,
190

“no place for them”: Afro American
8-21-1943

Other branches of the military
:
Our Mothers' War: American Women at Home and at the Front During World War II,
216

“We will be the first group”
: Sammie M. Rice Collection

One of the nurses, Alma Favors: Chicago Defender,
3-13-1943

Sammie continued to send
: Sammie M. Rice Collection

“bedlam broke loose”: Pittsburgh Courier,
12-11-1943

“the nurses received an ovation”: Pittsburgh Courier,
12-11-1943

“We are extremely anxious to get to work”: Afro American
4-11-1944

silk from a military parachute:
Veterans' History Project of the Library of Congress, Interview Transcript: Prudence Burns Burrell

A picture of a black soldier lying in a hospital bed:
Flagstaff Oral History Project

From the newspaper account: Pittsburgh Courier
6-30-1945

Before patients could be treated: Roundup
5-31-1945

“I haven't minded”: Roundup
5-31-1945

“They just accept us”: Chicago Defender
9-22-1945

Chapter 4
: Volunteers

At the end of one day, Mildred boarded a bus: California Eagle
12-18-1942 (In
Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama—The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution
, Diane McWhorter describes Mildred boarding a street car. And she writes that the two men were fellow members of the Southern Negro Youth Conference [SNYC].)

Dora Lewis was less successful: Chicago Defender
7-11-1942

“Every one of us, no matter where he lives”: Chicago Defender
12-6-1941

One night in September 1942 a black couple: Chicago Defender
10-10-1942

When the US Army Air Forces requested: Chicago Defender
10-18-1941

“blackout of Negroes”: Pittsburgh Courier
3-14-1942

These troubling events in New Orleans: Chicago Defender
3-20-1943

“My children are all at school”: Pittsburgh Courier
12-19-1942

“widely diversified”: Afro American
6-20-1942

“destined to be a great hit”: Chicago Defender
2-28-1942

Twelve black AWVS members: Pittsburgh Courier
10-10-1942

“This is a subversive”: Pittsburgh Courier
3-7-1942

In Salt Lake City, Utah: Chicago Defender
6-26-1943

“mixed dancing was involved”: Chicago Defender
11-20-1943

On the day of the blood drive: Chicago Defender
9-30-1944

“Is that a democratic stand”: Pittsburgh Courier
2-28-1942

“I was thrilled and proud”: Chicago Defender
12-19-1942

“There's the b
—
that's runnin'”: Negro Digest
September 1944

“The expression on their faces”: Chicago Defender
7-3-1943

“At least 10,000 people were milling”: Chicago Defender
6-16-1945

“I wonder how I'll fit in”: Chicago Defender
10-21-1944

Chapter 5
: Entertainers

“You'll have to eat in the kitchen”: Chicago Defender
10-27-1945

Throughout the war years, Hazel Scott made valuable:
E-mail exchange with Adam Clayton Powell 9-3-2011

“Entertainment is always
”: Hope for America
http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/hopeforamerica/causesandcontroversies/entertainingthetroops/ExhibitObjects/BolsteringMorale.aspx

“It's better to get $7,000”: Our Mothers' War,
222

“I hope that judge”: Time
12-17-1945

“It is time that members”: Time
12-17-1945

“Now who the hell
”:
Chicago Defender
1-6-1945

“the exotic darling of the unit”: Chicago Defender
10-28-1944

“the bluest of blues”: Chicago Defender
10-28-1944

“five foot package of dancing dynamite”: Chicago Defender
10-28-1944

“a solid bass”: Pittsburgh Courier
1-13-1945

“sultry sweet and low voice”: Pittsburgh Courier
1-13-1945

“gal who set two continents afire”: Afro American
5-2-1942

“seared the hearts of men”: Afro American
5-2-1942

“We are in the jungles of Burma”: Afro American
12-23-1944

“We are in one of the most picturesque”: Afro American
11-18-1944

The black press reported that Ike: Afro American
6-30-1945

“Words cannot describe”: Afro American
9-15-1945

The International Sweethearts of Rhythm traveled:
www.riverwalkjazz.org/jazznotes/intl_sweethearts

Traveling in Big Bertha made life easier:
http://americanhistory.si.edu/webcast/jam2011_women.html

In Birmingham, Alabama:
http://americanhistory.si.edu/webcast/jam2011_women.html

Anna Mae Winburn directed the Sweethearts: Chicago Defender
8-25-1945

“eating out of their palms”: Chicago Defender
12-15-1945

Nightingale of the European Theater: Pittsburgh Courier
5-15-1943

Songbird of the South: Pittsburgh Courier
5-20-1944

“Arriving in camp, all the weariness”: Pittsburgh Courier
5-20-1944

At another camp in 1943: Negro Digest
December 1943