Adams Earley, Charity Edna

Impact on the world

Became the first African American woman commissioned as an officer in the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps in 1942, then commanded the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the only organization of Black women to serve overseas during World War II, which cleared a massive mail backlog in England and France that had been undermining troop morale.

Life & background

A graduate of Wilberforce University, Adams was among the first class of Black women admitted into the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps in 1942, becoming the first African American woman commissioned as an officer in that branch. She went on to command the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, known as the 'Six Triple Eight,' which deployed to England and later France from 1945 to 1946 as the only organization of Black women to serve overseas during the war, working in unheated warehouses to process a years-long mail backlog of millions of pieces that had been damaging troop morale, completing the job in a fraction of the time military leadership had expected. She later wrote a memoir, 'One Woman's Army,' documenting her experiences confronting both racial and gender discrimination within the military, and the battalion's contributions went largely unrecognized for decades until a 2019 monument and a 2022 Congressional Gold Medal honored its members.

Sources

1. Library of Congress (African American Women in the Military); HISTORY.com (the Six Triple Eight)