After being chased by submarines, others were glad to be on land. When the first contingent arrived, Adams was there to meet their ship. The Six Triple Eight’s 855 women were sent to Birmingham, England. There were also 40 Black women-the “ten percenters.” While their training was integrated, their living conditions were not. In that first officer class, there were 400 white women.

A white lieutenant had insisted and made certain that Black recruits didn’t sit with the white women on the bus headed for the camp. Growing up in Columbia, S.C., the oldest of four children of a minister and a teacher, she’d been first in many things in her life, including being first in her high school class, valedictorian, and she continued that streak in 1942, becoming part of the first officer class of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC, later simply WAC).īy the time she reached Fort Des Moines for basic officer training, she’d already gotten her first taste of racism in the Army. A feeling of optimism was in the air, and it felt like new possibilities were open for women-unless you were Black. The next year, the 19th Amendment was passed, and women were given the right to vote. Adams had been born in 1919, at a time when the U.S.

Black navy war 2 all units