Double Victory (5 page)

Youths over 16 who joined the association took flight training at the Coffey School, but all recruits studied subjects related to aviation in classes scheduled on Monday and Thursday evenings. Students were on call for guard duty at the airport during the day. New enrollees automatically became members of the National Airmen's Association of America and took part in the association's activities, which included entertaining black members of the army air corps when they visited Chicago.

In August 1944, Willa claimed that black youths who were members of the CAP were being discriminated against by the national organization. The all-black Chicago squadron was the only group in the state not invited to the annual summer camp. Willa said she was told that “no provisions were available for Negro cadets.”

“Every cadet in all the CAP squadrons looked forward to this event,” Willa said. “I feel keenly about this discrimination,
prejudice, and disappointment directed toward the youth of my race.” She added that black cadets had selected aviation as the branch of service in which they preferred to serve their country and that many of them had older brothers who had distinguished themselves in the air and some of them had “paid the supreme sacrifice.”

Spreading the News

Willa Brown wasn't going to stand for the discrimination she saw in the aviation industry. She wanted everyone to know of the injustices she witnessed, and she knew where to go to make people aware of them.

Black Americans learned about the experiences of women like Ethel Bell, Hattie Combre, and Burneda Coleman and heard the charges of discrimination made by Willa Brown through the black press. During the war years, black female journalists did all they could to bring the stories of other black women to the attention of newspaper readers. As with many other areas of society in the 1940s, newspaper ownership and readership was segregated by race. Black-owned newspapers were widely read in black communities. Readers learned about upcoming events sponsored by community organizations and women's clubs. They read about what was happening at their children's schools. And they followed the movements of black troops in the war. It was through the newspapers that black people learned about events in Washington that would have an impact on their lives. Black newspapers were a source for information that they couldn't get from white newspapers—in which the accomplishments of black citizens were ignored.

Lula Jones Garrett, Rebecca Stiles Taylor, Diana Briggs, Venice T. Spragg, and Bettye Murphy Phillips were journalists who
devoted their careers to improving the lives of black women. And they were passionate about their work.

Lula Jones Garrett reported for the
Afro American,
a black newspaper that had been in existence since 1892. She wrote news articles and editorial columns. In her column “These Versatile Women” she highlighted the lives of famous black women in entertainment and the arts. Her “Lipstick” column was a lighthearted look at women's lives, sprinkled with a little advice: “The most delicate job any wife has is to feed her husband the proper dose of flattery.” But Lula was not confined to “soft” news—articles about hair, makeup, and fashions. She also wrote “hard” news—articles about black women in the workforce and in the military. In the winter of 1944 she wrote a series of articles about how black women lived and worked in the Women's Army Corps (WAC). And in her book review of the popular book
Strange Fruit
she wrote, “For though I have witnessed two lynchings, I had not until today, understood the look of unhuman blood lust on the face of a lyncher.”

Lula Jones Garrett was a reporter and columnist for the
Afro American.
National Park Service; Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site; National Archives for Black Women's History/Photo Courtesy of the Afro-American Newspapers Archives and Research Center

Newspaper publisher Charlotta Bass published the
California Eagle
in Los Angeles.
Courtesy of the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research/Photographer George M. Cutler Jr.

Charlotta Bass was a businesswoman who made a living from journalism. Not only did she do the dayto-day reporting for the
California Eagle
, but she also owned the paper. Charlotta used her newspaper as a vehicle to demand rights for black citizens in Los Angeles. She used her editorial column “On the Sidewalk” to make her opinions known and to call readers to action. She encouraged readers to write to politicians about racial injustices and to become involved in their communities. In the 1930s she led a move to boycott businesses that would not serve or hire black people in the Los Angeles area. She sent telegrams to President Roosevelt to demand action against racial injustices in Los Angeles. When a white columnist from another paper attacked black newspapers she called him “one of the biggest skunks in the history of American journalism.” One of Charlotta's biographers wrote, “Indeed, visibility in the community characterized nearly all of Charlotta's actions through the 1940s.”

Female journalists were highly visible on the pages of the
Chicago Defender
, a black newspaper, during the war years. Rebecca Stiles Taylor, Venice T. Spragg, and Diana Briggs wrote about issues that affected women's lives.

Rebecca Stiles Taylor started her career as a junior high school English teacher in Savannah, Georgia. Her work led to her involvement in the women's club movement. Black women's clubs in the 1940s were instruments of social and political change. And Rebecca was a vital part of several clubs at the local, state, and national levels. During the war years she wrote a weekly column, “Activities of Women's National Organizations,” in which she kept readers up to date about women's organizations across the country. In her column late in 1942 she issued her opinions about the role of women in the 1940s, “There is a world revolution…. Woman shall pitch in to take her proper place in the stern business of running—not the world—but the community in which she lives.”

Venice Spragg reported on women's issues at the national level. In her column “Women in the National Picture” she reported on happenings of the National Council of Negro Women, the National Association of Colored Women, and the National Negro Congress. She kept readers up to date about legislation in Washington that affected the lives of black women. She recommended readings from professional publications such as the
Journal of Educational Sociology.
Venice encouraged black women to take every opportunity to get more education. She wrote, “One thing seems certain, the educated woman will continue to come to the fore.”

In her feature article “Women Power in War” in September 1942, Diana Briggs reminded readers, “It's a man's war no longer. Today women power is playing an increasing role in every factory and every battlefront.” Diana's weekly column, “In a
Man's World” highlighted Chicago women who were making headlines in a “man's world.” She profiled Esther Woods, Sarah Harris, Gwendolyn Parkman, Mildred Anderson, and Juanita Jackson in “Gals Take Over Bikes and Keep Wire Buzzin'.” The women had been hired by Western Union to deliver telegrams on the South Side of Chicago, where they would replace men who had left for the war. Wearing Western Union uniforms, the women rode through the streets on bicycles delivering messages to homes and businesses. They came from a variety of backgrounds. Juanita Jackson had been a high school student, and Mildred Anderson had worked in a sculptor studio before going to work for Western Union. Sarah Harris had tried to get a job as a telegraph operator but learned that job “was closed to Negro girls.” The women enjoyed their jobs but said one difficult part of the job was avoiding dogs who tried to chase them.

Diana Briggs profiled “Peaches, the Cabbie,” in her column in March 1942. Lois Mae Davis—“Evanston's only female cabbie”—started driving a cab in 1939 after checking with the chief of police to make sure there was no law on the books that outlawed black women cabbies. The chief said, “I don't see any law against it.” By August 1940 she was in business. When she tried to get the men cabbies to allow her to receive calls at one of the cabstands, the men refused. When one agreed to her request, the other men went on strike. So Peaches had to take calls at her house. Soon the “lady cabbie” was in demand.

Bettye Murphy Phillips of the
Afro American
was a journalist with one of the most envious assignments a journalist could get in wartime—war zone correspondent. And she was the
first
black female overseas war correspondent. Late in 1944 she rode a military transport plane for over 26 hours from New York to Scotland and then had a two-hour flight to London. Shortly after her arrival in London, she heard the air-raid sirens and headed for the nearest cellar. That was her introduction to wartime London.

Bettye Murphy Phillips was the only black woman war correspondent sent overseas in World War II, 1945.
Courtesy of the Afro-American Newspapers Archives and Research Center

And for a woman who made her living using the English language, the peculiarities of the British version of English were intriguing. In one of her first articles she wrote about unfamiliar terms used by the British—“torch” for flashlight, “underground” for subway, “pub” for tavern, “cinema” for movie, “tram” for streetcar, and “married but not churched” for a love affair without benefit of marriage. But Bettye hadn't come to England to report on the oddities of the English language.

Before leaving for the war zone Bettye had said she hoped to do the job of a regular correspondent. But she also planned to
get into “some places where a man can't go.” She wanted to see how the soldiers were faring in London and Paris and learn what they were thinking. She wanted to discover what England and France “think of our boys.” Bettye was able to do what she had hoped—but it was from a hospital bed in London. Soon after her arrival she was afflicted with paralysis of her left side. She was hospitalized for a couple of months and then sent back to the States. But her hospital stay didn't stop her from reporting. She sent “dispatches” from her hospital bed based on reports brought to her from visitors to her bedside.

Some of those visitors were black soldiers who were eager to talk to a woman from back home. They “tell me their troubles, ask my advice, inquire what I think about people back home,” she wrote. Most had been injured in France and were recovering in the London hospital before being sent home or back to the war zone.

One of her visitors was Seaman Alexander (Jake) Williams, a 17-year-old sailor whose ship had been torpedoed by enemy subs in the port of Antwerp, Belgium. He described to Bettye how he had been asleep when the attack occurred. He was forced to abandon ship and jump into the icy waters. After about 30 minutes in the water, he and his shipmates had managed to get to a lifeboat, and they were later picked up by an Allied ship. The sailor was in the hospital undergoing treatment for a spine injury. Bettye reported that Jake said while he was in the water he pictured his mother's face when she got the telegram reporting that he was dead. Happily, that was one telegram that was never sent.