The first Black woman officer in the Women's Army Corps and commander of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, Charity Adams Earley, paved the way for Black women in the military. Growing up in the south, Adams experienced the hardships of segregation. Adams was born in Kittrell, North Carolina on December 5, 1918, but grew up in Columbia, South Carolina. Her father was ordained as a Methodist minister and her mother a schoolteacher. Charity was the oldest of four children and she started elementary school as a second grader. During her last year in elementary school, she, along with other students in her class were tested for early advancement to high school. Earley and twelve others passed the test for high school. However, her parents did not allow her to move up early, because she has already several grades ahead of her peers. She graduated from Booker T. Washington High School as valedictorian in 1934.
Graduating top of her class enabled her to gain a scholarship, so that she could attend Wilberforce University in Ohio. Adams majored in Mathematics, Physics, and Latin, and minored in History. She became a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Women’s self-government association, and Delta Sigma Theta sorority. Towards the end of her studies at Wilberforce University, Earley also took courses in education, so that she could teach after completing her degree. Adams graduated with her B.A in Arts in 1938. After graduation, she returned to Columbia where she taught mathematics at the local high school while studying part-time for a M.A. degree in vocational psychology at the Ohio State University.
For Charity Adams, as for millions of other Americans, the events of 1941 changed their lives. In Europe World War II was well under way, with Hitler so sure of success that he boldly invaded Russia in June; in December, Japan announced both its alliance to Germany and its intention of grabbing Eastern Asia by smashing the American fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor. President Franklin Roosevelt’s immediate declaration of war paradoxically brought black men a range of employment possibilities far greater than those they had previously found in post-Depression America. Those hoping for job opportunities found generous choices in the military, for new War Department policy had recently been revised to bring the numbers of Black volunteers into line with the proportion of African Americans in the general population. At the same time the War Department planned an active campaign to attract women.
In 1942, the United States was expanding its military forces as it went to war with Germany and Japan. Adams was encouraged to apply for a position in the newly formed Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps. Adams enlisted in the United States Army's Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), later known as the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) in July 1942. Although she was completely unfamiliar with Army life and was uncertain of the new service, Adams saw the military as an antidote to the “certainty of the dullness and rigidity” of continuing to teach. In the WAC, volunteers had to meet a range of physical, educational, and character requirements. Black servicewomen were also restricted in number, limited by the Army policy of a 10 percent quota. The initial Black recruits came highly recommended, and many were handpicked by educator and civil rights leader Mary McLeod Bethune.
This judiciousness was necessary in that all the WAAC recruits were under intense scrutiny. Would they be able to stand up to the rigor of Army training? Would they be of any meaningful use to the Armed Forces? Beginning with the first Officer Training Class, American servicewomen were keenly aware that the world was watching. For the 39 Black candidates, this sense of observation was amplified, and the expectation that they would fail fueled their drive to excel. Adams was the first within a first. She was commissioned on August 29, 1942. he first Black officer to receive a commission in the WAC. At the time, the U.S. Army was still segregated, so she was placed in a company with fellow female Black women officers and stationed at Fort Des Moines. She still faced discrimination, but was not afraid to speak up and fight for desegregation in the Army. Near the end of 1942, she was assigned to be the training supervisor at base headquarters.
When promotions for the first class came in December 1942, Adams and three other Black WAACs from the first class were promoted to Captain. Adams commanded Company 8, which for a time served as the reception center for African American WAACs. Striving for perfection, she developed an intense inspection method for her basic training company. Despite the highest standards and excellent training, opportunities were still scarce for Black WAACs as post commanders were reluctant to employ Black personnel. Adams worked hard at transforming civilians into soldiers and maintaining the appearance, morale, and self-confidence of her troops. In September 1943 she was promoted to the rank of Major, making her the highest-ranking Black female officer at the facility.
Despite the highest standards and excellent training, opportunities were still scarce for Black WACs as post commanders were reluctant to employ Black personnel. In early 1944, Adams was reassigned as the Training Center control officer in charge of improving efficiency and job training. She also had other responsibilities, such as surveying officer (finding lost property) and summary court officer. One of the first battles Adams fought for equality was when the Army proposed segregating the training regiment. When she was told she would head one of the segregated regiments, she refused. On another occasion, when a general stated, "I'm going to send a White first lieutenant down here to show you how to run this unit," then Major Adams responded, "over my dead body, sir." The general threatened to court-martial her for disobeying orders. She then began to file charges against him for using "language stressing racial segregation" and ignoring a directive from Allied headquarters. The general saw what he was up against and decided to drop the matter, and so did Adams.
When the Red Cross tried to donate equipment for a new segregated recreation center, Adams refused it because her unit had been sharing the recreation center with White units. Adams worked hard at transforming civilians into soldiers and maintaining the appearance, morale, and self-confidence of her troops. When the opportunity came to lead a group of WACs overseas, Adams felt excitement at the idea of another first, but she was reluctant to leave Fort Des Moines, the Training Command that she helped establish and had called home for two years. However, she would not be left behind. In the fall of 1944, Adams was chosen to command the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion. The 6888th, known as the Six Triple Eight, was the first and only African American WAC unit to go overseas during the war. In December of 1944, Charity Adams was selected to serve as their commanding officer.
Her most prominent role was leading the first Black women unit of the army on a tour of duty overseas during World War II. Arriving overseas, they were again under constant observation. They faced life threatening conditions soon after they set sail for Europe. On their week long trek across the Atlantic Ocean they survived brushes with German U Boats. While Adams had been told she was the commanding officer, weeks went by and she had yet to receive her official orders; on March 2, 1945, she issued her own, assuming command of the 6888th. The first contingent of the 6888th arrived in Glasgow, Scotland on February 14, 1945. The second group arrived on April 1, bringing the battalion to its full strength of 855 women. They were stationed in Birmingham, England. Adams encouraged her battalion to socialize with White men coming back from the front and even the residents of wherever they were stationed. She wanted to create comradeship between enlisted personal and ease the tensions of racism. Many of the men were reluctant to do so at first, but gradually some of them did.
The women also began to socialize with the citizens and broke through prejudices on both sides. Major Adams was put in charge of a postal directory service unit. Another part of her job included raising the morale of women. Adams achieved this by creating beauty parlors for the women to relax and socialize. Three months after they arrived, they were moved to Rouen, France, then to Paris. Once the exhausted women arrived in England there was no time for relaxing and settling in. They were hurriedly assigned to their quarters and directed to their posts. Their assignment was to sort and redirect the delivery of the millions of backlogged letters and packages that had all but ceased to be delivered before their arrival. Not hearing from your loved ones was detrimental.
Quickly something had to be done. The WAC was aware that the lack of mail to the frontline was lowering the morale of soldiers. The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion's (nicknamed “Six Triple Eight,”) motto was "No Mail, Low Morale." Before the 6888th, mail delivery was intermittent at best. The morale of the soldiers was waning because they had no connections outside the military. They had their work cut out for them, but Maj. Charity Adams worked hard to keep her unit motivated and organized. Adams’ unit was given six months to complete the task. Adams had several issues to deal with at her Birmingham base if she wanted her battalion to function efficiently. The first hurdle was the 6888th Headquarters; it was dimly lit with roaches and insects and plagued by the damp and cold of the English winter. This discomfort made it difficult for her WAC's to cope with months of accumulated mail caused by a personnel shortage.
Her second problem was the mobility of the troops; they were often on their way to somewhere else before their mail could catch up with them. She quickly divided her 800+ women into five companies working three around-the-clock shifts. Then she organized lists to categorize the activities of each military service, to trace elusive recipients, to distinguish between people with common names, and to try different destinations for companies on the move. The hardest part for the unit was returning mail when it was addressed to a servicemember who died. Yet, thanks to their system, they were able to process approximately 195,000 pieces of mail per day. Despite the frigid conditions, the 6888th, under the command of Major Adams, was able to sort and distribute all the mail and packages backlog in Birmingham in only three months- half the time it was expected to complete the work.
In May of 1945, shortly after the death of President Roosevelt, Adams and the rest of the 6888th were transferred to facilities in Rouen and Paris, France. With a much-reduced staff, they tackled their duties again, organizing mail which had gone undelivered. Their work here was just as daunting as in England. Earley estimated that the unit handled approximately 65,000 pieces of post per day. When asked about her trailblazing achievements, she responded, "I just wanted to do my job". In France, the Six Triple Eight worked alongside French civilians and German prisoners of war. For her work in the WAC, Earley was promoted to lieutenant colonel on December 26, 1945. The FIRST Black woman to become Lieutenant Colonel. This rank was the highest possible promotion for any women in the WAC. Having completed their mission, the last of the unit returned home in February 1946. In March 1946, she requested to be relieved from active duty.
Upon her discharge from the military, The National Council of Negro Women Inc.", presented Earley with a scroll of honor for distinguished service to the military. She picked back up where she left off in her studies at Ohio State. Charity completed her master’s degree in psychology from Ohio State University and worked for the Veterans Administration in Cleveland, Ohio. She moved to Nashville, Tennessee and was the director of student personnel at Tennessee State University. She then moved to Georgia and became the director of student personnel and assistant professor of education at Georgia State College. Charity Adams married medical student Stanley A. Earley Jr in 1949, and the couple moved to Zurich, Switzerland while he completed medical school.
In Zurich, she attended Minerva Institute for ten months to learn to speak German and then began taking psychology courses there. In her second year, Earley also studied at the Jungian Institute of Analytical Psychology, but she did not pursue a degree. The couple returned to the U.S. in 1952, and settled in Dayton, Ohio. Most of her post-war life was devoted to community service in Ohio. She served on multiple boards including the Dayton, Ohio, American Red Cross chapter, and the board of the Dayton Power and Light Company. She volunteered for United Way, the United Negro College Fund, the National Urban League, and the YWCA. Charity also co-directed the Black Leadership Development Program (BLDP), which provides community leadership training for African Americans. Admitting that sometimes she was a 'token' woman or Black, she also said that she was highly qualified for all the positions she held.
Segregation remained the official policy in the U.S military throughout World War II, but individual protests like Earley’s contributed to a growing chorus of voices calling for a racially integrated military. President Harry S. Truman finally abolished segregation in the armed forces in 1948 when he signed Executive Order 9981. Lt. Col. Adams-Earley’s story is one of perseverance, excellence, and trailblazing achievement. In 1989, Charity published a book about her military experiences, "One Woman's Army: A Black Officer Remembers the WAC". Adams's story begins with her youth in segregated South Carolina, the oldest of four children who described themselves as “PKs,” or “Preacher’s Kids.” Adams spent most of 1995 and 1996 speaking with different interest groups and students about the events of World War II and the role of women, specifically black women, in the military. As the first Black female officer in the WAC and a leader of the historic 6888th Battalion, her contributions is an inspiration to all. Before her death on January 13, 2002, in a ceremony held in Washington, D.C. in 1996, the Smithsonian National Postal Museum honored Earley for her work with the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion.