WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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-We'll be doing is sending
every registrant

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this recording after
the program is over

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so you can access it at any time

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or show it to multiple
class sessions if need be.

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So what you're going
to see now is,

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you're going to see your screen
sort of shift and change,

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and you will hopefully see me
in just one second here.

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All right.

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Good morning, everybody,
and I want to tell you,

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before we get started
with our presentation,

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below me here
is this Q&A pod,

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and it kind of works
similar to the chat

00:00:35.200 --> 00:00:37.234
that you've been using before.

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We will be dedicating
some time at the end

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for questions for me or Tanita,

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and just populate
those questions right there.

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I will be kind of
monitoring them

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during Tanita's presentation,

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and then after that,
we'll, as I said,

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save about 10 minutes at the end

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to answer everything that you
all have been typing in.

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So today, how we'll do
the program is,

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I am going to present for maybe
the first 20 minutes or so,

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giving you a brief overview
of our special exhibit

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and talking about
African-American,

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specifically African-American
women in World War II,

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showing a couple oral histories
from our collection,

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and you'll be, of course,

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answering questions,
poll questions,

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and hopefully typing
in questions for me.

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Then in the second
half of the program,

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Tanita Davis will be
joining us from California.

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The wonders of technology here.

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We're in New Orleans.

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She's in California.

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And she'll be giving
a presentation, of course,

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on her wonderful book,
"Mare's War."

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If you haven't read it yet,
I highly suggest that you do.

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It's also available for purchase
here at the museum.

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She'll be talking about some of
the research that went into it,

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her motivation
for writing this book

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and really what it means today.

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Of course, she'll be showing
some really wonderful images

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and some historical film
footage throughout.

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So to get started today, we here

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at the National
World War II Museum

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have a special
exhibit now on view

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called "Fighting
For The Right To Fight:

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African-American Experiences
in World War II."

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Now, this exhibit is on view

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until really the end
of the school year,

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so if we have any groups
that are relatively local,

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relatively nearby, please come

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and see it before it leaves here
and goes somewhere else.

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Hopefully this exhibit will also
be traveling around the country,

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so if you miss it here
in New Orleans,

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maybe you can catch it
in another museum

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around the country.

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But based on that whole idea,

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"Fighting For
The Right To Fight,"

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I love that title,
and so I thought actually today

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I would ask you your
first poll question

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about that title and kind of to
lead off our discussion today.

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So what we're going to see here
is a poll question

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come up onto your screen.

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Now we'll be answering
some multiple-choice ones later,

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but this one, I actually
wanted your input.

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So I want to hear from you all.

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Type in what you think
fighting for the right

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to fight actually means,

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and I'll give you a second
to kind of type it in,

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and then I'll broadcast
your results,

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so think about that title,

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"Fighting For The Right
To Fight."

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Okay, some good answers
coming in right now.

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As you all are typing...
Oh, good, oh, awesome.

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I'm just going to broadcast them
so you all can look at them.

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I love this description,

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"Working to be accepted
as full citizens

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in the sense of being able
to go into combat rather

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as second-class citizens
who are not up to it."

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I don't think I could
explain it any better.

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Very good.

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"Perhaps having one's views
considered for changes."

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"To be able to fight for
something you want to do

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or something that
you believe in."

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Very good, "Struggling
to join in."

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"African-American soldiers
receiving

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the same benefits
as white soldiers."

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Oh, my goodness.

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Everybody, these are
wonderful responses, exactly,

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and that's really
what our exhibit here

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at the museum is all about.

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We look at both
the African-American experience

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in the military
but also here at home

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and especially in
defense factories, as well.

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As I said, today,
we're taking a specific look

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at African-American women,

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and we'll be talking
about that in just one second,

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but these are awesome responses,

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so I hope you're using
your scroll button

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to check out what
other students are saying.

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I'm going to kind of save that
so I can check out

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all of your wonderful
responses later,

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but great job.
Exactly.

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So I'm going to move
that out of the way

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and give you a little bit of a
preview of our special exhibit.

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So you'll see some images
from right below me

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here on your screen.

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Now, if you all are studying
World War II right now,

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you know that the United States
got into the war

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at the attack
on Pearl Harbor

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December 7th of 1941,

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a surprise attack
on our Pacific fleet in Hawaii.

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The next day, the president,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt,

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asked Congress
to declare war on Japan.

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That happens.

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Three days after that,

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Germany declares war
on the United States.

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So now the U.S. is at war.

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This is the scene that we're
setting in the 1940s, 1941.

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Now, with the attack
on Pearl Harbor

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came this even greater change.

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The country wasn't
totally ready for war,

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wasn't totally prepared.

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Another good vocabulary
word for that is mobilized.

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And so that required a lot
of different groups of people

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to be involved and using

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and utilizing
all these different

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people and groups and businesses

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and whatever it may be
all across the country.

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So in 1942, President Roosevelt,
he began to issue

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these directives
to increase opportunities

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for African-American
enlistment in the military,

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but that doesn't mean,
you know, it was all equal,

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it was all fair.

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It doesn't mean that the
military wasn't segregated,

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and that brings us to another
great vocabulary term,

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so I'm going to ask you all.

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We're going to do poll questions
back-to-back-to-back here --

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What is segregation?

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Is it, "A," unfairly treating
a person or group of people

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differently from other people?

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"B," an unfavorable opinion not
based on reason or knowledge?

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"C," the action of setting
someone apart from other people?

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Or "D," an oversimplified image
of a person or group?

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This is a tough one, I think.
[ Chuckles ]

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See if you guys can...

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And I'll broadcast the
results in just one second.

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All right.

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Give you maybe one more minute
to vote here.

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Okay. I'm going to broadcast
and see what you all say.

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None of these things
that are listed here

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are obviously good things.

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They're all about prejudice
and discrimination,

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but actually,
"C" is segregation,

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the act of setting someone
apart from other people,

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and that means
that the military, as I said,

00:07:03.467 --> 00:07:06.067
was totally and
completely segregated,

00:07:06.067 --> 00:07:10.234
so African-Americans
served in all-black units.

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There were separate
training facilities all the way

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down to separate
medical supplies

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as we're going to hear in an
oral history in just one second.

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Separate jobs
for African-Americans

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in general not based on merit

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or, you know, where you deserve
to be or your training

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but solely based on race,

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and there was a tremendous
amount of discrimination

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in the military at the time.

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In many branches
of the military,

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as we're going to see
as we look through

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a couple other images of
the exhibit, African-Americans,

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they were essentially
assigned to only serve

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in these kind of logistical
roles or support roles,

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like transporting supplies
or mess attendants, stewards,

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because of this deep distrust

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the military had
for African-Americans

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in anything that they could do
to support the military.

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There were a few groups
that didn't serve

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in this sort of capacity.

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You all have maybe heard
of the Tuskegee Airmen

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or a couple Army groups
that served in combat in Italy,

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but as a whole,
African-Americans

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were relegated
to these kinds of jobs

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that, you know,
I mentioned earlier.

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Great job, everybody,
on this poll.

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Actually, that hid
the wrong thing.

00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:24.801
Let me get back
to my presentation.

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That's Tanita's.

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Let me move that one out
of the way for a second.

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All right.
So as we move forward here,

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we can see a couple more
images of the exhibit,

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and so here you can
see we developed...

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Each branch of the
military is mentioned

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with, of course, artifacts
from our collection.

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And you can see here's
another shot.

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Of course there are
oral histories

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throughout this exhibit.

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As I said, a variety
of artifacts,

00:08:50.367 --> 00:08:52.601
so here we could see a uniform

00:08:52.601 --> 00:08:55.334
from the Marine Corps
in our view

00:08:55.334 --> 00:08:58.033
and, of course,
historical film footage

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and even a video piece
that we produced,

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and a really amazing thing
that we have here, too,

00:09:04.367 --> 00:09:06.000
if I have time at the end,
I'll talk about it.

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We have Medals of Honor
from five of the seven

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African-American
Medal of Honor recipients.

00:09:12.901 --> 00:09:15.434
Now, these men did not
receive the Medal of Honor,

00:09:15.434 --> 00:09:17.834
the military's highest
award for bravery,

00:09:17.834 --> 00:09:20.200
during World War II,
but after that,

00:09:20.200 --> 00:09:22.601
and so we'll actually
talk about that at the end

00:09:22.601 --> 00:09:25.267
if we have some time
and if anybody has questions.

00:09:25.267 --> 00:09:26.934
But what I want to
turn it to now

00:09:26.934 --> 00:09:29.300
is African-American
women in the military

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because that is really what
"Mare's War" is all about,

00:09:32.868 --> 00:09:36.200
and so, you know,

00:09:36.200 --> 00:09:38.667
it's tough to be an
African-American in the military

00:09:38.667 --> 00:09:40.767
because you're being
treated unfairly.

00:09:40.767 --> 00:09:43.467
It's also tough to be
an African-American women.

00:09:43.467 --> 00:09:48.167
There was also this sort of
distrust that people were unsure

00:09:48.167 --> 00:09:51.634
if women even had a role
in the military at the time.

00:09:51.634 --> 00:09:54.801
The military was very
different than it is today.

00:09:54.801 --> 00:09:59.400
Women served in auxiliary units
of each branch of the military.

00:09:59.400 --> 00:10:01.901
So, as we see in "Mare's War,"

00:10:01.901 --> 00:10:05.467
Mare served in the WAC,
or the Women's Army Corps,

00:10:05.467 --> 00:10:06.701
and we can actually see

00:10:06.701 --> 00:10:08.934
in this next picture
some WACs right here.

00:10:08.934 --> 00:10:11.200
These are WAC mechanics.

00:10:11.200 --> 00:10:13.934
There were about 4,000
African-American women

00:10:13.934 --> 00:10:16.801
who served, for example,
in this group called the WACs.

00:10:16.801 --> 00:10:20.868
Now women in uniform, they did a
lot of different types of jobs,

00:10:20.868 --> 00:10:24.100
so, of course, here you can see
these are female mechanics.

00:10:24.100 --> 00:10:27.801
They took office jobs and
different sort of clerical jobs

00:10:27.801 --> 00:10:31.834
in the armed forces to
essentially free men to fight.

00:10:31.834 --> 00:10:34.300
They did a variety of things,
drove trucks,

00:10:34.300 --> 00:10:35.968
repaired airplanes,

00:10:35.968 --> 00:10:38.834
lab technicians,
rigged parachutes,

00:10:38.834 --> 00:10:40.234
radio operators,

00:10:40.234 --> 00:10:42.567
flew military aircraft,

00:10:42.567 --> 00:10:44.200
and as we see in "Mare's War,"

00:10:44.200 --> 00:10:46.200
and as we see some other
examples, too,

00:10:46.200 --> 00:10:49.567
women even were in charge
of sorting the thousands

00:10:49.567 --> 00:10:52.367
upon thousands
and thousands of pieces of mail

00:10:52.367 --> 00:10:55.300
that were going to the fronts
to our soldiers.

00:10:55.300 --> 00:10:59.501
So these were all critical jobs
to make the military function

00:10:59.501 --> 00:11:01.934
far, far away from home.

00:11:01.934 --> 00:11:03.567
And what I want to play for you,

00:11:03.567 --> 00:11:05.501
instead of me telling you
all about this,

00:11:05.501 --> 00:11:07.667
I would like for you
to actually hear it from

00:11:07.667 --> 00:11:09.501
a firsthand perspective,

00:11:09.501 --> 00:11:12.033
and who we're going to hear
from today at least first

00:11:12.033 --> 00:11:15.033
is a WAC named Lavenia Breaux.

00:11:15.033 --> 00:11:17.801
She actually grew up not too far
from here in New Orleans,

00:11:17.801 --> 00:11:19.834
in Slidell, Louisiana,

00:11:19.834 --> 00:11:24.734
and after the attack on Pearl
Harbor, she joined the WAC.

00:11:24.734 --> 00:11:27.601
She always dreamed of traveling,
and so she figured

00:11:27.601 --> 00:11:29.367
that this would be, you know,

00:11:29.367 --> 00:11:31.067
the military
would allow her to do it,

00:11:31.067 --> 00:11:33.767
so it'd be a great way
to see different parts

00:11:33.767 --> 00:11:35.534
of the world potentially.

00:11:35.534 --> 00:11:38.200
So, in this clip
from her oral history,

00:11:38.200 --> 00:11:40.267
which I'm about to play
for you here,

00:11:40.267 --> 00:11:44.834
she is going to talk about
segregation within the barracks,

00:11:44.834 --> 00:11:48.868
so your living quarters,
right after basic training.

00:11:48.868 --> 00:11:50.601
Now what I'll do for this clip

00:11:50.601 --> 00:11:52.467
and for all the other
clips throughout is,

00:11:52.467 --> 00:11:55.467
so you all can see
and hear everything okay,

00:11:55.467 --> 00:11:57.801
I'm going to pause
my video and audio

00:11:57.801 --> 00:12:00.067
so the streaming is cooperative,

00:12:00.067 --> 00:12:02.734
and then I'm going to
come back after that.

00:12:02.734 --> 00:12:05.534
Just as a note, these oral
histories are always

00:12:05.534 --> 00:12:08.033
just slightly quieter
than my voice, so teachers,

00:12:08.033 --> 00:12:09.968
you might want to just
turn up the volume.

00:12:13.300 --> 00:12:16.000
-The barracks that I was in,
the French barracks

00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:20.701
I was in

00:12:20.701 --> 00:12:23.868
after basic training,

00:12:23.868 --> 00:12:30.100
they had

00:12:30.100 --> 00:12:34.334
about 29

00:12:34.334 --> 00:12:37.901
or 30 of us in that barracks,

00:12:37.901 --> 00:12:40.300
and they had brought
in a company

00:12:40.300 --> 00:12:45.901
that had just come in
from basic training,

00:12:45.901 --> 00:12:53.234
and bless goodness,
the women was white.

00:12:53.234 --> 00:13:00.100
And they spread the sheet,

00:13:00.100 --> 00:13:09.634
the blankets in a rope

00:13:09.634 --> 00:13:12.601
across the middle
of the barracks,

00:13:12.601 --> 00:13:19.934
and the black women

00:13:19.934 --> 00:13:26.634
in the --

00:13:26.634 --> 00:13:29.000
laying in the back got up...

00:13:34.701 --> 00:13:37.734
and one of them said,
"Oh, we don't like this.

00:13:37.734 --> 00:13:43.901
We don't appreciate
this kind of carrying on."

00:13:43.901 --> 00:13:45.434
And the others got up,

00:13:45.434 --> 00:13:51.801
and they started
pulling blankets

00:13:51.801 --> 00:13:53.234
off of that line

00:13:53.234 --> 00:13:58.267
that was separating us

00:13:58.267 --> 00:14:00.901
from each other

00:14:00.901 --> 00:14:04.901
and pulled them down and said,
"We don't want this.

00:14:04.901 --> 00:14:11.033
We don't like it,
and we're not going to have it,

00:14:11.033 --> 00:14:13.234
and we don't want separation.

00:14:13.234 --> 00:14:15.200
You don't want to sleep
in here with us,

00:14:15.200 --> 00:14:21.534
go out there
and get under the tree."

00:14:21.534 --> 00:14:27.834
And the girl that was supposed
to be in our company,

00:14:27.834 --> 00:14:34.968
and that show you
how raw

00:14:34.968 --> 00:14:42.167
our existence was.

00:14:42.167 --> 00:14:46.667
She was to be our...

00:14:46.667 --> 00:14:49.400
-All right. So those women
hanging up that line

00:14:49.400 --> 00:14:52.767
to separate the African-American
women from the white women,

00:14:52.767 --> 00:14:55.300
and, you know, she said
those women, you know,

00:14:55.300 --> 00:14:57.968
raising up and saying,
you know, "This is not right,"

00:14:57.968 --> 00:15:01.100
and how Lavenia says that,
at least in her opinion,

00:15:01.100 --> 00:15:02.968
that was the beginning
of integration,

00:15:02.968 --> 00:15:05.434
so we're talking about
the military being segregated.

00:15:05.434 --> 00:15:08.234
We'll talk a little bit
at the end about integration

00:15:08.234 --> 00:15:10.968
and maybe the legacy
of African-Americans

00:15:10.968 --> 00:15:14.467
fighting for this right
to fight during the war.

00:15:14.467 --> 00:15:18.367
We're going to hear one more
oral history in just one second,

00:15:18.367 --> 00:15:20.501
but, of course, I'm going to
show you a couple more pictures

00:15:20.501 --> 00:15:23.234
of African-American women
serving in the military.

00:15:23.234 --> 00:15:26.367
So this is the Navy Auxiliary,
called the WAVES.

00:15:26.367 --> 00:15:27.968
That's a cool name, right?

00:15:27.968 --> 00:15:32.934
WAVES stands for Women Accepted
for Voluntary Emergency Service,

00:15:32.934 --> 00:15:34.367
and these were
the first black WAVES

00:15:34.367 --> 00:15:38.367
to be commissioned in 1944
that you see here.

00:15:38.367 --> 00:15:41.067
And probably the women
that were closest to the front

00:15:41.067 --> 00:15:43.567
were Army and Navy nurses,

00:15:43.567 --> 00:15:46.934
and you can see some Army
nurses training here

00:15:46.934 --> 00:15:49.467
and doing kind of
an early-morning workout

00:15:49.467 --> 00:15:51.567
at their base
in Australia.

00:15:51.567 --> 00:15:54.267
They were assigned to
Army hospitals

00:15:54.267 --> 00:15:57.100
throughout the Pacific Theater,

00:15:57.100 --> 00:15:59.100
and we are next going to hear

00:15:59.100 --> 00:16:01.634
from a woman named
Prudence Burrell.

00:16:01.634 --> 00:16:05.501
She is an Army nurse,
and she's going to tell you

00:16:05.501 --> 00:16:07.133
about the conditions
in the Pacific,

00:16:07.133 --> 00:16:08.801
so you're going to hear
about New Guinea

00:16:08.801 --> 00:16:12.801
and how hot and how
kind of unbearable it was,

00:16:12.801 --> 00:16:15.267
but you're also going to
hear about segregation

00:16:15.267 --> 00:16:16.300
and segregation

00:16:16.300 --> 00:16:18.400
not just, you know,
being trained

00:16:18.400 --> 00:16:20.067
and working in all-black units

00:16:20.067 --> 00:16:22.234
but even down into,
as you're going to hear her say,

00:16:22.234 --> 00:16:25.434
to the medical supplies
and to treating soldiers

00:16:25.434 --> 00:16:27.934
and sometimes how this...

00:16:27.934 --> 00:16:30.334
This doesn't make sense
in general, segregation,

00:16:30.334 --> 00:16:33.367
but especially
in combat situations,

00:16:33.367 --> 00:16:36.334
she's going to tell you
how it just didn't work,

00:16:36.334 --> 00:16:41.667
and in this next clip, you'll
hear her talk all about that.

00:16:47.501 --> 00:16:52.767
-I was sent with the 268th
Station hospital to Milne Bay,

00:16:52.767 --> 00:16:54.200
New Guinea.

00:16:54.200 --> 00:16:57.667
Well, it would rain one minute,

00:16:57.667 --> 00:17:01.267
and the next minute,
the sun would be burning,

00:17:01.267 --> 00:17:03.367
and the mud...

00:17:03.367 --> 00:17:05.734
We had to wear
high-top shoes,

00:17:05.734 --> 00:17:08.834
and 6:00,
the anopheles mosquito

00:17:08.834 --> 00:17:11.534
that carried malaria was out,

00:17:11.534 --> 00:17:14.868
so you had to have
your ankles and your wrists

00:17:14.868 --> 00:17:17.367
and your neck covered

00:17:17.367 --> 00:17:18.901
because that's where
they would bite,

00:17:18.901 --> 00:17:22.334
and you would
develop malaria.

00:17:22.334 --> 00:17:26.734
We adjusted to it because you
were busy nursing the soldiers

00:17:26.734 --> 00:17:30.767
and worried about whether we
were going to be bombed or not,

00:17:30.767 --> 00:17:35.367
so therefore you accepted
all conditions.

00:17:35.367 --> 00:17:39.300
We were an all-black unit.

00:17:39.300 --> 00:17:42.300
That's when the whole Army
was segregated,

00:17:42.300 --> 00:17:46.267
and you could not nurse
any white soldiers.

00:17:46.267 --> 00:17:50.100
Well, this soldier was down
there near our hospital,

00:17:50.100 --> 00:17:53.267
and he was injured
and began hemorrhaging.

00:17:53.267 --> 00:17:57.033
The whites brought him up there
because here was a hospital,

00:17:57.033 --> 00:17:59.534
and we told him,
"We cannot give you this blood

00:17:59.534 --> 00:18:03.334
because it's labeled,
A, Afro-American."

00:18:03.334 --> 00:18:08.267
He said, "I don't give a damn!
Don't let me die!"

00:18:08.267 --> 00:18:10.100
That's the way the blood was.

00:18:10.100 --> 00:18:12.267
Everything was segregated.

00:18:12.267 --> 00:18:16.267
The blacks were over here
and the whites over there.

00:18:16.267 --> 00:18:18.000
There was no mixing.

00:18:26.067 --> 00:18:29.801
-So segregation everywhere
as Prudence said,

00:18:29.801 --> 00:18:34.634
and actually that brings
in my fourth poll question,

00:18:34.634 --> 00:18:35.868
and I'll set this up with,

00:18:35.868 --> 00:18:37.601
we ask students
a lot of times here,

00:18:37.601 --> 00:18:41.167
we actually have a little
permanent exhibit about this,

00:18:41.167 --> 00:18:44.367
"What would you do?" in these
very difficult situations,

00:18:44.367 --> 00:18:47.300
putting yourself
in the shoes of someone else,

00:18:47.300 --> 00:18:49.334
and it's during World War II.

00:18:49.334 --> 00:18:51.334
In the case, I'm going to
ask you to put yourself

00:18:51.334 --> 00:18:53.133
in the shoes of Prudence Burrell

00:18:53.133 --> 00:18:54.968
or really any
African-American nurse

00:18:54.968 --> 00:18:57.667
who would be in
this kind of situation.

00:18:57.667 --> 00:18:59.133
What would you do?

00:18:59.133 --> 00:19:00.834
Would you... Let's see.

00:19:00.834 --> 00:19:02.868
Let me open this up here.

00:19:02.868 --> 00:19:04.300
As we can see here, would you --

00:19:04.300 --> 00:19:07.634
"A," disregard protocol and
treat that wounded soldier

00:19:07.634 --> 00:19:09.100
even though he was white?

00:19:09.100 --> 00:19:13.133
Or "B", send the soldier
to be treated elsewhere?

00:19:13.133 --> 00:19:15.200
I'll see what you guys vote for.

00:19:20.868 --> 00:19:22.000
All right.

00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:24.100
I think it's pretty unanimous.

00:19:24.100 --> 00:19:28.767
Maybe I'll give it
a couple more seconds here.

00:19:28.767 --> 00:19:32.934
Oh. No, it's actually changing.

00:19:32.934 --> 00:19:34.601
I think there's some
discussion going on

00:19:34.601 --> 00:19:36.267
in the classrooms
and probably...

00:19:36.267 --> 00:19:37.567
I know it's hard to choose one

00:19:37.567 --> 00:19:39.567
if you're watching
with an entire class.

00:19:39.567 --> 00:19:41.300
It's not really fair, right?

00:19:41.300 --> 00:19:43.734
But if I broadcast
the results now,

00:19:43.734 --> 00:19:45.334
we can see
the overwhelming majority

00:19:45.334 --> 00:19:47.868
is thinking to disregard
protocol and treat

00:19:47.868 --> 00:19:49.334
that wounded soldier.

00:19:49.334 --> 00:19:52.501
Remember, he was asking for it,
he said, "Don't let me die."

00:19:52.501 --> 00:19:56.501
And so you can imagine
having to deal with segregation

00:19:56.501 --> 00:20:00.000
and dealing with those
sorts of protocols,

00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:01.367
but it not working,

00:20:01.367 --> 00:20:04.801
especially when you're
in the midst of combat and chaos

00:20:04.801 --> 00:20:08.767
as Prudence was in New Guinea.

00:20:08.767 --> 00:20:10.701
All right.
I'm going to hide that for now,

00:20:10.701 --> 00:20:14.834
and so, of course,
there's a big legacy

00:20:14.834 --> 00:20:17.167
to this fighting
for the right to fight

00:20:17.167 --> 00:20:18.634
and fighting for double victory,

00:20:18.634 --> 00:20:21.300
so actually, behind me here,

00:20:21.300 --> 00:20:24.434
you can see this is
the double victory symbol,

00:20:24.434 --> 00:20:26.534
so double victory kind of
in the same sense

00:20:26.534 --> 00:20:28.100
of fighting for
the right to fight,

00:20:28.100 --> 00:20:30.934
victory abroad
over fascism,

00:20:30.934 --> 00:20:34.267
over Hitler, over Japan,

00:20:34.267 --> 00:20:36.100
but also victory at home,

00:20:36.100 --> 00:20:39.267
victory over discrimination
and prejudice at home,

00:20:39.267 --> 00:20:40.901
and many African-American men

00:20:40.901 --> 00:20:44.634
and women returned from
the service in World War II,

00:20:44.634 --> 00:20:47.200
some of them
sacrificing their lives,

00:20:47.200 --> 00:20:50.934
and finding the United States
kind of in the same spot.

00:20:50.934 --> 00:20:53.300
Here in the South,
there were Jim Crow laws,

00:20:53.300 --> 00:20:54.634
separate but equal,

00:20:54.634 --> 00:20:58.200
but we know that they
certainly weren't equal.

00:20:58.200 --> 00:21:01.501
There was discrimination all
throughout this country

00:21:01.501 --> 00:21:03.567
and segregation,

00:21:03.567 --> 00:21:06.133
especially here,
whether it was buses,

00:21:06.133 --> 00:21:08.567
schools, drinking fountains,
movie theaters,

00:21:08.567 --> 00:21:10.968
you all know all these things.

00:21:10.968 --> 00:21:14.033
Also, there was
discrimination in housing,

00:21:14.033 --> 00:21:15.734
discrimination in
voting practices,

00:21:15.734 --> 00:21:18.200
discrimination in unions,

00:21:18.200 --> 00:21:21.868
discrimination in many
of these defense factories

00:21:21.868 --> 00:21:24.667
here on the home front,
as well, race riots.

00:21:24.667 --> 00:21:27.868
So this is the atmosphere that
many African-American soldiers

00:21:27.868 --> 00:21:30.901
and men and women are
returning from overseas,

00:21:30.901 --> 00:21:32.267
and they simply, you know, say,

00:21:32.267 --> 00:21:33.868
"We can't stand
for this anymore,"

00:21:33.868 --> 00:21:36.434
and as we heard
Lavenia Breaux say,

00:21:36.434 --> 00:21:38.968
that was really
the beginning of integration,

00:21:38.968 --> 00:21:43.267
and many African-Americans
who served in World War II

00:21:43.267 --> 00:21:45.501
would become leaders of
the civil rights movement

00:21:45.501 --> 00:21:48.701
in the 1950s and the 1960s.

00:21:48.701 --> 00:21:51.734
When they returned to their
civilian life after the war,

00:21:51.734 --> 00:21:55.367
they could no longer accept
being second-class citizens.

00:21:55.367 --> 00:21:57.701
Another important
legacy of this story

00:21:57.701 --> 00:22:00.367
is the integration
of the military.

00:22:00.367 --> 00:22:03.634
So, remember, the military is
segregated during World War II.

00:22:03.634 --> 00:22:06.567
The integration, so in 1948,

00:22:06.567 --> 00:22:09.000
President Truman signs
an executive order

00:22:09.000 --> 00:22:11.501
to begin the integration
of the military,

00:22:11.501 --> 00:22:13.868
so the military does
look very different

00:22:13.868 --> 00:22:16.801
than 70 years ago
during the war,

00:22:16.801 --> 00:22:19.434
and units are integrated.

00:22:19.434 --> 00:22:22.234
So those are two
major legacies as we talk

00:22:22.234 --> 00:22:25.033
about African-American
experiences in World War II.

00:22:25.033 --> 00:22:28.667
And we could really do a deep
dive into this subject,

00:22:28.667 --> 00:22:31.000
but unfortunately
we only have an hour,

00:22:31.000 --> 00:22:33.534
so that's my very
quick overview.

00:22:33.534 --> 00:22:37.901
What I would love to do now
actually is welcome Tanita Davis

00:22:37.901 --> 00:22:41.634
and turn it over to her
and her presentation.

00:22:41.634 --> 00:22:43.200
You all, if you aren't familiar,

00:22:43.200 --> 00:22:45.968
Tanita is the writer
of this young adult fiction

00:22:45.968 --> 00:22:47.868
book called "Mare's War,"

00:22:47.868 --> 00:22:52.167
and, Tanita, I welcome you to
turn on your mic and webcam now.

00:22:52.167 --> 00:22:54.400
And, while you do that,

00:22:54.400 --> 00:22:58.334
I actually found your lovely
biography on your website,

00:22:58.334 --> 00:23:01.934
and I think I'd like
to read it for everybody

00:23:01.934 --> 00:23:04.734
or at least read portions of it.

00:23:04.734 --> 00:23:07.067
It starts off, it says,
"Tanita prefers to sit

00:23:07.067 --> 00:23:08.868
in the corner of a coffee shop,

00:23:08.868 --> 00:23:10.767
her hot chocolate getting cold,

00:23:10.767 --> 00:23:13.000
listening to the world
around her.

00:23:13.000 --> 00:23:15.868
Born in the well-known
California City by the Bay,

00:23:15.868 --> 00:23:18.167
Tanita was a chatty
youngest child,

00:23:18.167 --> 00:23:22.100
the last in a line of girls
all born 18 months apart.

00:23:22.100 --> 00:23:23.534
In defense of her sanity,

00:23:23.534 --> 00:23:26.567
Tanita's mother begged her
to just write it all down

00:23:26.567 --> 00:23:29.167
when Tanita wanted to share
another endless singing,

00:23:29.167 --> 00:23:32.234
dancing, or story time
performance."

00:23:32.234 --> 00:23:33.334
So I'll skip.

00:23:33.334 --> 00:23:34.667
A little later, it says,
"Most of her life,

00:23:34.667 --> 00:23:37.167
she wished she was adventurous
enough to go somewhere

00:23:37.167 --> 00:23:39.434
and to do something
different and exciting,

00:23:39.434 --> 00:23:41.634
and though it took her
until she finished her MFA

00:23:41.634 --> 00:23:43.300
at Mills College in 2004

00:23:43.300 --> 00:23:45.601
to gain her courage,
she finally took off

00:23:45.601 --> 00:23:47.634
and spent the last 5 years
living in Scotland,

00:23:47.634 --> 00:23:51.334
singing and dancing
and telling stories on paper.

00:23:51.334 --> 00:23:53.067
She had to listen
a little harder,

00:23:53.067 --> 00:23:56.434
hope to understand what
the world was trying to say.

00:23:56.434 --> 00:23:57.667
After 5 years of trying,

00:23:57.667 --> 00:23:59.868
she moved back to
Northern California,

00:23:59.868 --> 00:24:03.167
back close to the Bay
and to family.

00:24:03.167 --> 00:24:05.701
Eventually she'll set off
someplace else,

00:24:05.701 --> 00:24:09.000
but for now is enjoying
the fog and the sunshine."

00:24:09.000 --> 00:24:10.133
I love that.

00:24:10.133 --> 00:24:11.968
So I would love
to welcome Tanita.

00:24:11.968 --> 00:24:13.868
I'm wondering if...
-Here I am.

00:24:13.868 --> 00:24:15.434
-Feel free to turn
on your webcam

00:24:15.434 --> 00:24:17.734
and mic so everybody
can see and hear you.

00:24:17.734 --> 00:24:22.534
-Can you hear me?
-I think we can hear you.

00:24:22.534 --> 00:24:26.601
-Okay, great.
Hi.

00:24:26.601 --> 00:24:30.033
-Yeah, you're coming
through loud and clear.

00:24:30.033 --> 00:24:33.601
Awesome.
-Oh, the camera is not working.

00:24:33.601 --> 00:24:35.267
I can see it.

00:24:46.100 --> 00:24:47.567
-Hopefully you'll pop up.
Hello.

00:24:47.567 --> 00:24:50.501
Hopefully you'll pop up below me
in just one second.

00:24:55.300 --> 00:24:56.801
Hit...

00:24:56.801 --> 00:24:58.701
If you see, there's a little
thing that says Start Sharing.

00:24:58.701 --> 00:25:00.234
There we go.
Now I think you'll pop up.

00:25:00.234 --> 00:25:02.000
There we go. [ Laughs ]

00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:04.067
Hey, awesome.
Wonderful.

00:25:04.067 --> 00:25:06.434
Well, Tanita, I am just so...

00:25:06.434 --> 00:25:09.067
I've been looking forward
to this webinar for months.

00:25:09.067 --> 00:25:15.400
We booked this, like,
probably in the summer, right?

00:25:15.400 --> 00:25:18.300
So I just have been, as I said,

00:25:18.300 --> 00:25:20.100
counting down the days
to this program,

00:25:20.100 --> 00:25:24.534
and, after reading "Mare's War"
and just loving the story,

00:25:24.534 --> 00:25:27.767
I just couldn't wait to share it
with the audience out here,

00:25:27.767 --> 00:25:28.968
so what I'm going to do is,

00:25:28.968 --> 00:25:30.868
actually I'm going
to go away for now.

00:25:30.868 --> 00:25:32.467
I'm going to pause my video.

00:25:32.467 --> 00:25:36.133
-Everyone, I'm going to talk
about the American history

00:25:36.133 --> 00:25:38.200
that's included in "Mare's War."

00:25:38.200 --> 00:25:41.133
I'm going to show you a little
footage of that history.

00:25:41.133 --> 00:25:43.634
I'm going to discuss
why I believe the study

00:25:43.634 --> 00:25:45.167
of the past is important,

00:25:45.167 --> 00:25:46.934
read to you a little
from my book,

00:25:46.934 --> 00:25:49.033
and I have the hardback cover,

00:25:49.033 --> 00:25:53.234
so it's different from the cover
that Chrissy has, but anyway,

00:25:53.234 --> 00:25:56.934
and then we're going
to kind of open up the floor

00:25:56.934 --> 00:26:00.133
for questions
between the two of us.

00:26:00.133 --> 00:26:03.734
First, a little bit
of background.

00:26:03.734 --> 00:26:07.167
In 2004, I was finishing
at graduate school,

00:26:07.167 --> 00:26:12.801
and as part of the final
assignment was a gigantic paper

00:26:12.801 --> 00:26:14.634
which was going to be
our thesis project,

00:26:14.634 --> 00:26:18.067
and the best place, you know,

00:26:18.067 --> 00:26:19.567
if any of you have
a writerly bent,

00:26:19.567 --> 00:26:21.334
to find stories is always,

00:26:21.334 --> 00:26:24.000
you know, to begin
with your own family.

00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:26.834
Your family will forgive you
for this eventually.

00:26:26.834 --> 00:26:28.601
Anyway, my mother
always had told me

00:26:28.601 --> 00:26:31.901
that my grandmother
on my father's side

00:26:31.901 --> 00:26:35.267
had run away from home
when she was 15 or 16

00:26:35.267 --> 00:26:38.467
and that she ended up working
on an Army base in Florida,

00:26:38.467 --> 00:26:41.567
and I always thought that
there was more to that story,

00:26:41.567 --> 00:26:43.868
but we didn't know
the more to that story,

00:26:43.868 --> 00:26:46.667
and my grandmother was not
the sort of person

00:26:46.667 --> 00:26:48.601
you asked about
details of her life.

00:26:48.601 --> 00:26:50.100
She was very closed-mouthed,

00:26:50.100 --> 00:26:53.000
and she always said
that bringing up the past

00:26:53.000 --> 00:26:54.767
was basically more trouble
than it was worth,

00:26:54.767 --> 00:26:58.300
so we didn't ask,
and we respected her privacy,

00:26:58.300 --> 00:27:00.501
but after she passed away,
I thought,

00:27:00.501 --> 00:27:03.334
"You know, it couldn't
hurt to look."

00:27:03.334 --> 00:27:06.934
Ancestry.com, I think,
was having a free weekend

00:27:06.934 --> 00:27:08.634
when they had just
started their website,

00:27:08.634 --> 00:27:10.834
and they were allowing
people to come for free

00:27:10.834 --> 00:27:13.067
to search out information
on their families,

00:27:13.067 --> 00:27:15.267
and so I poked
through their records,

00:27:15.267 --> 00:27:17.934
and I found my
grandmother's name

00:27:17.934 --> 00:27:21.400
on the rolls of the Army
as having enlisted,

00:27:21.400 --> 00:27:24.667
and so it wasn't just
that she had ended up

00:27:24.667 --> 00:27:26.167
working there
after running away.

00:27:26.167 --> 00:27:29.501
She was actually a soldier,
and I thought, "Wow!"

00:27:29.501 --> 00:27:33.000
Because, you know, I didn't
actually know a lot about,

00:27:33.000 --> 00:27:35.000
you know, the history
of the American Army,

00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:36.901
U.S. Army, and didn't know that,

00:27:36.901 --> 00:27:39.767
when women were
included in the Army,

00:27:39.767 --> 00:27:45.767
and so it was actually
pretty exciting to find this.

00:27:45.767 --> 00:27:49.300
A lot of research was involved
in "Mare's War."

00:27:49.300 --> 00:27:52.567
For me, the biggest
part was images,

00:27:52.567 --> 00:27:56.501
and actually, Chrissy,
would you play the little video

00:27:56.501 --> 00:27:59.200
I have of the soldiers
working overseas?

00:27:59.200 --> 00:28:02.400
We kind of figured out
that I can't actually...

00:28:02.400 --> 00:28:04.200
I can run my slides forward,

00:28:04.200 --> 00:28:06.200
but this is what
I wanted to show you,

00:28:06.200 --> 00:28:09.167
some moving pictures
while I talk about this.

00:28:09.167 --> 00:28:10.634
A lot of research was involved.

00:28:10.634 --> 00:28:13.968
For me, looking at images
was the best part

00:28:13.968 --> 00:28:15.167
because I started to feel like

00:28:15.167 --> 00:28:20.300
I knew the people
in the pictures

00:28:20.300 --> 00:28:22.133
after looking at them
over and over.

00:28:22.133 --> 00:28:25.634
I read personal letters
in journals to find out

00:28:25.634 --> 00:28:27.267
about Army history,

00:28:27.267 --> 00:28:31.033
and I did find out that,
indeed, black women

00:28:31.033 --> 00:28:33.767
weren't any more welcome
in most branches of the military

00:28:33.767 --> 00:28:38.767
than black men until
the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt

00:28:38.767 --> 00:28:44.601
was asked to start speaking up
about women in the...

00:28:44.601 --> 00:28:47.367
allowing women to take part
in the military.

00:28:47.367 --> 00:28:52.834
And Mary Bethune actually
asked her to do so.

00:28:52.834 --> 00:28:55.901
She was an African-American
activist at the time,

00:28:55.901 --> 00:28:58.334
and it was really
close to her heart.

00:28:58.334 --> 00:29:01.934
Everybody was galvanizing
as a country to take part

00:29:01.934 --> 00:29:04.067
in supporting the war effort,

00:29:04.067 --> 00:29:06.167
and so many people
were being left out,

00:29:06.167 --> 00:29:08.400
including
African-American women.

00:29:08.400 --> 00:29:12.567
What these images are are this

00:29:12.567 --> 00:29:17.734
is actually the Army's footage
of the soldiers working.

00:29:17.734 --> 00:29:20.601
This is the Women's Army Corps,
which is what WAC stands for,

00:29:20.601 --> 00:29:22.000
Women's Army Corps.

00:29:22.000 --> 00:29:27.067
They were in Birmingham,
England, and in this dim room,

00:29:27.067 --> 00:29:29.567
and they were also very cold
a lot of the time,

00:29:29.567 --> 00:29:32.968
this was where
they were working.

00:29:32.968 --> 00:29:37.968
I found the images
really arresting.

00:29:37.968 --> 00:29:40.667
Here they were,
the Six Triple Eighth

00:29:40.667 --> 00:29:42.033
as they called themselves,

00:29:42.033 --> 00:29:43.934
Central Postal
Directory Battalion.

00:29:43.934 --> 00:29:48.801
It was a unit of 885 black
Women Army Corps members.

00:29:48.801 --> 00:29:52.067
They were charged with clearing
up this huge backlog of mail

00:29:52.067 --> 00:29:55.300
that had been sent
to military personnel overseas

00:29:55.300 --> 00:29:58.667
because undelivered mail
was hurting morale

00:29:58.667 --> 00:30:01.133
because you can imagine
these people were soldiers,

00:30:01.133 --> 00:30:02.701
they had been away
from home for months

00:30:02.701 --> 00:30:03.868
and months and months overseas,

00:30:03.868 --> 00:30:05.868
and they had heard
nothing from home.

00:30:05.868 --> 00:30:09.133
Well, the job was expected
to take 6 months.

00:30:09.133 --> 00:30:10.601
When the Army finally decided

00:30:10.601 --> 00:30:13.100
that these women
were okay to send,

00:30:13.100 --> 00:30:15.267
here they sent
all of these women,

00:30:15.267 --> 00:30:20.033
and they expected
them to get there,

00:30:20.033 --> 00:30:22.634
dig in, and do the work of,

00:30:22.634 --> 00:30:25.067
you know, looking at
all of this mail,

00:30:25.067 --> 00:30:26.934
digging it out, organizing it

00:30:26.934 --> 00:30:28.567
and getting it sent
to the fronts

00:30:28.567 --> 00:30:32.367
wherever the people were.

00:30:32.367 --> 00:30:34.901
The job was expected, as I said,
to take 6 months,

00:30:34.901 --> 00:30:38.567
but they worked around
the clock in 8-hour shifts,

00:30:38.567 --> 00:30:39.868
and they finished the job.

00:30:39.868 --> 00:30:44.667
They handled 7 million pieces
of mail in 3 months,

00:30:44.667 --> 00:30:46.767
and because they'd done
such a great job,

00:30:46.767 --> 00:30:48.400
as it always happens
when you've done a great job,

00:30:48.400 --> 00:30:49.801
there's more work to do,

00:30:49.801 --> 00:30:53.767
and so they sent them on to
France for a similar assignment,

00:30:53.767 --> 00:30:55.801
and I always imagined, you know,
I looked at those pictures,

00:30:55.801 --> 00:30:58.701
and I thought, "You know,
those women arrived in England

00:30:58.701 --> 00:31:01.400
on Valentine's Day in 1945."

00:31:01.400 --> 00:31:06.567
It is cold and dark,
and they are wobbly

00:31:06.567 --> 00:31:08.300
because they've been on a boat

00:31:08.300 --> 00:31:11.534
for I believe it was
something like 11 to 14 days

00:31:11.534 --> 00:31:13.200
to get across the Atlantic,

00:31:13.200 --> 00:31:16.534
and they had been chased
by a German submarine.

00:31:16.534 --> 00:31:20.167
They had run into winter storms,
and they marched off the ship,

00:31:20.167 --> 00:31:23.234
and the first thing that
happened was a V-1 rocket,

00:31:23.234 --> 00:31:25.801
one of the German rockets
they called buzz bombs,

00:31:25.801 --> 00:31:29.000
it exploded right as they were
marching off the boat,

00:31:29.000 --> 00:31:32.033
and they thought to themselves,
"Oh, what did we do?"

00:31:32.033 --> 00:31:35.400
They probably wondered
what they were doing there,

00:31:35.400 --> 00:31:38.300
and, of course,
the other first thing

00:31:38.300 --> 00:31:39.767
that they had to do right
when they got there,

00:31:39.767 --> 00:31:41.767
and I'll show you a little bit
of footage of that later,

00:31:41.767 --> 00:31:44.701
is that there is...

00:31:44.701 --> 00:31:47.734
They have to go
in a parade and review.

00:31:47.734 --> 00:31:50.100
Their troops had to be
reviewed by the general.

00:31:50.100 --> 00:31:52.501
These are people who have been
on a boat for a very long time,

00:31:52.501 --> 00:31:53.868
and they are very
cold and tired,

00:31:53.868 --> 00:31:55.100
and the first thing
they have to do

00:31:55.100 --> 00:31:58.334
is stand up and salute
and look good.

00:31:58.334 --> 00:32:02.400
But, you know, I loved looking
at all of these images

00:32:02.400 --> 00:32:06.000
and thinking of all of these
things because I imagine

00:32:06.000 --> 00:32:07.834
that this was what
galvanized these women

00:32:07.834 --> 00:32:10.834
into doing the best job
that they could do

00:32:10.834 --> 00:32:12.434
because you know,
here they came.

00:32:12.434 --> 00:32:15.501
There were three airplane
hangars full of mail,

00:32:15.501 --> 00:32:17.200
backlog mail,

00:32:17.200 --> 00:32:20.033
and they were dealing
with mail from people, you know.

00:32:20.033 --> 00:32:21.901
Here's World War II.

00:32:21.901 --> 00:32:24.834
There are a lot of people
from the country

00:32:24.834 --> 00:32:26.467
whose sons had gone
to the front.

00:32:26.467 --> 00:32:28.868
These are people
whose experience

00:32:28.868 --> 00:32:30.367
with sending and receiving mail

00:32:30.367 --> 00:32:32.801
was fairly limited, you know,

00:32:32.801 --> 00:32:35.300
and in the country,
you know,

00:32:35.300 --> 00:32:37.400
people didn't always
send that much mail,

00:32:37.400 --> 00:32:40.033
or if they did, it was like
sort of a once-a-year thing,

00:32:40.033 --> 00:32:41.734
and it would be figured out

00:32:41.734 --> 00:32:43.501
because they maybe weren't
sending it very hard,

00:32:43.501 --> 00:32:45.033
but they were sending letters

00:32:45.033 --> 00:32:46.601
that were addressed
to things like,

00:32:46.601 --> 00:32:48.801
"To Bobby Jr., US Army."

00:32:48.801 --> 00:32:50.868
Well, we have no last name.

00:32:50.868 --> 00:32:52.267
We have no battalion.

00:32:52.267 --> 00:32:53.667
We have no squad.

00:32:53.667 --> 00:32:56.234
So not only did we have
these three airplane

00:32:56.234 --> 00:32:57.868
hangars full of mail.

00:32:57.868 --> 00:33:01.968
We had people who may or may
not have had a last name.

00:33:01.968 --> 00:33:07.033
They had no idea how to get this
mail anywhere to the people,

00:33:07.033 --> 00:33:09.534
but these women knew, though.

00:33:09.534 --> 00:33:13.501
The soldiers knew that
their job was important

00:33:13.501 --> 00:33:16.167
because there were people
fighting and dying

00:33:16.167 --> 00:33:19.667
sometimes without ever having
heard a word from home.

00:33:19.667 --> 00:33:21.200
They needed to know
that they were loved

00:33:21.200 --> 00:33:22.467
and that they were appreciated

00:33:22.467 --> 00:33:26.000
and that they were necessary
to protecting democracy,

00:33:26.000 --> 00:33:28.467
and these are some of the things
that just came to me

00:33:28.467 --> 00:33:34.467
and were really inspiring as I
sort of pulled together history

00:33:34.467 --> 00:33:36.367
and personal family history

00:33:36.367 --> 00:33:37.801
and Army history

00:33:37.801 --> 00:33:41.400
as I wrote "Mare's War."

00:33:41.400 --> 00:33:43.834
Now, this novel is told
in alternating parts.

00:33:43.834 --> 00:33:46.901
If you haven't had a chance
to look at it,

00:33:46.901 --> 00:33:49.734
it's separated
between now and then.

00:33:49.734 --> 00:33:53.667
In the "now" sections,
the title character,

00:33:53.667 --> 00:33:55.567
Mare, is an old woman,

00:33:55.567 --> 00:33:58.133
and she's driving her
very reluctant granddaughters,

00:33:58.133 --> 00:33:59.534
Talitha and Octavia,

00:33:59.534 --> 00:34:02.968
on a cross-country trip
during their summer vacation,

00:34:02.968 --> 00:34:04.167
and let me tell you.

00:34:04.167 --> 00:34:06.334
Tali and Octavia
are not into it.

00:34:06.334 --> 00:34:08.801
I mean, they're stuck in a car
with an old woman

00:34:08.801 --> 00:34:10.834
who refuses to get
on an airplane.

00:34:10.834 --> 00:34:12.968
It's just not on.

00:34:12.968 --> 00:34:17.334
In the "then" sections,
Mare is Marey Lee.

00:34:17.334 --> 00:34:20.634
It's 1944, and she's just
run away from home

00:34:20.634 --> 00:34:23.567
to join the Women's Army Corps
during World War II.

00:34:23.567 --> 00:34:26.300
She ends up training in Iowa.

00:34:26.300 --> 00:34:27.400
Then, they move on to Georgia,

00:34:27.400 --> 00:34:28.934
and she eventually
travels by ship

00:34:28.934 --> 00:34:30.567
all the way
to Birmingham, England,

00:34:30.567 --> 00:34:34.701
and she ends her service in
the European theater in France.

00:34:36.701 --> 00:34:39.501
Let me go ahead, Chrissy, and
have you pull up the other video

00:34:39.501 --> 00:34:40.968
because this one
is just silent,

00:34:40.968 --> 00:34:45.067
and it's just basically showing
them doing the same things,

00:34:45.067 --> 00:34:48.734
but this next piece is only
a couple of minutes long,

00:34:48.734 --> 00:34:52.167
and this is the film in England,

00:34:52.167 --> 00:34:55.334
and so you'll see the guys
with different kind of hats.

00:34:55.334 --> 00:34:58.767
They're bobbies in England,
different helmets,

00:34:58.767 --> 00:35:01.868
and this is the video
of their parade

00:35:01.868 --> 00:35:04.634
when they first arrived
in England.

00:35:04.634 --> 00:35:14.334
♪♪

00:35:14.334 --> 00:35:24.000
♪♪

00:35:24.000 --> 00:35:33.701
♪♪

00:35:33.701 --> 00:35:43.367
♪♪

00:35:43.367 --> 00:35:53.067
♪♪

00:35:53.067 --> 00:36:02.834
♪♪

00:36:02.834 --> 00:36:12.501
♪♪

00:36:12.501 --> 00:36:22.200
♪♪

00:36:22.200 --> 00:36:31.901
♪♪

00:36:31.901 --> 00:36:41.567
♪♪

00:36:41.567 --> 00:36:51.267
♪♪

00:36:51.267 --> 00:37:01.000
♪♪

00:37:01.000 --> 00:37:10.701
♪♪

00:37:10.701 --> 00:37:20.400
♪♪

00:37:20.400 --> 00:37:30.067
♪♪

00:37:30.067 --> 00:37:39.767
♪♪

00:37:44.434 --> 00:37:47.968
I could kind of watch that
pretty much every day.

00:37:50.067 --> 00:37:53.601
You know, just, I would look
at the faces of those women

00:37:53.601 --> 00:37:56.534
and over and over again
in still images and videos

00:37:56.534 --> 00:37:58.434
and start to feel
like I knew them.

00:37:58.434 --> 00:38:02.100
That really just was
so much inspiration.

00:38:02.100 --> 00:38:04.701
On a personal note, my
grandmother did not go overseas.

00:38:04.701 --> 00:38:07.567
There's no record
that she left the Army base

00:38:07.567 --> 00:38:09.534
where she had done her training,

00:38:09.534 --> 00:38:12.467
but she was one of thousands
of American women

00:38:12.467 --> 00:38:14.501
who serviced as
drivers and mechanics

00:38:14.501 --> 00:38:16.067
and cooks and secretaries

00:38:16.067 --> 00:38:18.968
and teletype operators
and welders and riveters,

00:38:18.968 --> 00:38:21.167
putting together
ships and aircrafts

00:38:21.167 --> 00:38:23.968
that were used to win
the war elsewhere.

00:38:23.968 --> 00:38:25.667
I was really intrigued
by the women

00:38:25.667 --> 00:38:28.968
who worked in the war effort
and even more so

00:38:28.968 --> 00:38:31.467
by the battalion
of African-American women

00:38:31.467 --> 00:38:32.934
who served,

00:38:32.934 --> 00:38:35.467
and I thought, "Who were they,
and how did they get involved,

00:38:35.467 --> 00:38:38.033
and what special challenges
did they face far from home,

00:38:38.033 --> 00:38:42.501
and how come no one
ever told me about them?"

00:38:42.501 --> 00:38:45.834
Now, I'm going to attempt
to remember to do slides

00:38:45.834 --> 00:38:48.567
at the same time here.

00:38:48.567 --> 00:38:49.834
Chrissy taught me
how to do this,

00:38:49.834 --> 00:38:51.501
and then I promptly forgot.

00:38:51.501 --> 00:38:55.534
We have a lot of images,
information about World War II,

00:38:55.534 --> 00:38:58.767
that's part of the national
sort of American consciousness,

00:38:58.767 --> 00:39:02.367
basic man-on-the-street stuff
that you could walk down,

00:39:02.367 --> 00:39:03.968
you know, the road
and ask people about it.

00:39:03.968 --> 00:39:05.901
They could give you buzz
words about World War II.

00:39:05.901 --> 00:39:06.834
There were Nazis.

00:39:06.834 --> 00:39:08.234
There was Pearl Harbor.

00:39:08.234 --> 00:39:10.834
There was Normandy, D-Day.

00:39:10.834 --> 00:39:16.467
So there are things that people
kind of know in general.

00:39:16.467 --> 00:39:19.968
Better historians than most can
tell you about the London Blitz,

00:39:19.968 --> 00:39:24.367
the Battle of the Bulge,
Hiroshima.

00:39:24.367 --> 00:39:26.868
Most people could not tell you

00:39:26.868 --> 00:39:30.434
anything about
Executive Order 9066,

00:39:30.434 --> 00:39:33.667
which sent American citizens
of Japanese descent

00:39:33.667 --> 00:39:35.767
into internment camps.

00:39:35.767 --> 00:39:39.601
Most of them don't know anything
about the Double V campaign

00:39:39.601 --> 00:39:44.667
because that wasn't, you know,
the common part of what we know.

00:39:44.667 --> 00:39:46.567
Most people don't know
anything about the March

00:39:46.567 --> 00:39:48.100
on Washington movement,

00:39:48.100 --> 00:39:51.133
which was very early
civil rights march effort,

00:39:51.133 --> 00:39:55.000
nor they probably couldn't tell
you about Executive Order 8802,

00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:57.868
which was, as Chrissy
mentioned earlier,

00:39:57.868 --> 00:40:03.501
started to change the laws about
the national defense industry

00:40:03.501 --> 00:40:06.200
and discrimination
in those workplaces.

00:40:06.200 --> 00:40:08.667
It was, I guess, basically
the first steps

00:40:08.667 --> 00:40:13.200
to ending racial discrimination
in the workplace,

00:40:13.200 --> 00:40:16.434
and it's in part
that we don't see a lot of this

00:40:16.434 --> 00:40:20.167
in the general things
that we know about World War II

00:40:20.167 --> 00:40:24.234
is because, in part, the
entertainment media's stories,

00:40:24.234 --> 00:40:26.300
movies, still images
and all of that,

00:40:26.300 --> 00:40:27.734
only show part of the picture.

00:40:27.734 --> 00:40:30.033
We don't show the America
that was still clinging

00:40:30.033 --> 00:40:32.033
to segregation
and Jim Crow laws.

00:40:32.033 --> 00:40:34.801
We don't show the America

00:40:34.801 --> 00:40:38.267
that was terrified
of Japanese Americans

00:40:38.267 --> 00:40:45.000
and were taking their property
and their land and their money.

00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:46.234
Historically in America,

00:40:46.234 --> 00:40:50.567
we've privileged some
voices over others,

00:40:50.567 --> 00:40:54.901
but, you know, that's how
we did things in the past,

00:40:54.901 --> 00:40:58.000
but as people who are
in the present

00:40:58.000 --> 00:41:00.634
who are trying to learn from
the past and steer our future,

00:41:00.634 --> 00:41:04.200
we've got to think
about what we did before

00:41:04.200 --> 00:41:08.834
and keep from making
the same mistakes, essentially.

00:41:11.300 --> 00:41:17.367
A lot of times, people wonder
when we get to looking at,

00:41:17.367 --> 00:41:19.033
you know, the Double V campaign

00:41:19.033 --> 00:41:22.868
and looking at
African-Americans in history

00:41:22.868 --> 00:41:24.634
and, you know, looking
at how things were,

00:41:24.634 --> 00:41:28.534
how come it's so important
that we talk about this?

00:41:28.534 --> 00:41:32.601
Why is it something which we are
putting so much time

00:41:32.601 --> 00:41:34.000
and effort into?

00:41:34.000 --> 00:41:36.434
And it's not so that
we can ruin people's

00:41:36.434 --> 00:41:39.400
sort of image of
the greatest generation

00:41:39.400 --> 00:41:40.934
or our image of the past,

00:41:40.934 --> 00:41:42.367
but it is important

00:41:42.367 --> 00:41:44.267
because African-Americans

00:41:44.267 --> 00:41:45.767
are part of America.

00:41:45.767 --> 00:41:48.701
Therefore, African-American
history is American history,

00:41:48.701 --> 00:41:52.434
and we never should have
any fear for the future

00:41:52.434 --> 00:41:54.834
unless we forget
what happened in the past,

00:41:54.834 --> 00:41:57.868
and that's really
very important.

00:41:57.868 --> 00:42:00.167
So these are the types
of things that I wanted

00:42:00.167 --> 00:42:01.367
to explore in "Mare's War."

00:42:01.367 --> 00:42:03.534
I wanted to show readers
what small-town America

00:42:03.534 --> 00:42:06.501
was like for this young woman
who was,

00:42:06.501 --> 00:42:10.834
you know, coming from
a past that had,

00:42:10.834 --> 00:42:14.200
you know, discrimination
and poverty and hard work in it,

00:42:14.200 --> 00:42:16.067
and I wanted her
to have some adventures

00:42:16.067 --> 00:42:17.400
and find out about the world

00:42:17.400 --> 00:42:19.601
and begin to realize
what she had to offer

00:42:19.601 --> 00:42:24.100
as so many other women
did during that time.

00:42:24.100 --> 00:42:26.501
And so I'm going to...

00:42:26.501 --> 00:42:28.100
I knew that I would
probably talk too much,

00:42:28.100 --> 00:42:29.534
so I'm going to speed up.

00:42:29.534 --> 00:42:32.601
I'm going to read a little bit
from "Mare's War,"

00:42:32.601 --> 00:42:34.834
and this is the portion
in which Marey Lee,

00:42:34.834 --> 00:42:38.000
and this is in a "then" section,
so this is in the 1940s.

00:42:38.000 --> 00:42:40.501
This is when Marey Lee
is just learning

00:42:40.501 --> 00:42:41.834
what it means to be in the Army,

00:42:41.834 --> 00:42:45.133
and she and her cohort
are working together,

00:42:45.133 --> 00:42:48.067
and they're doing well at the
work that they've been assigned,

00:42:48.067 --> 00:42:49.467
but they're also learning
that sometimes

00:42:49.467 --> 00:42:51.167
there's some extra work

00:42:51.167 --> 00:42:53.067
that comes along
just for black women.

00:42:58.033 --> 00:43:00.534
"Saturday afternoon,
just after we get off,

00:43:00.534 --> 00:43:03.067
Lieutenant Hundley come by,
her face looking hard.

00:43:03.067 --> 00:43:05.901
She holler out like we're doing
drill, 'Peaches Carter!'

00:43:05.901 --> 00:43:07.734
'Man,' Peaches said.

00:43:07.734 --> 00:43:09.334
Now, Peaches been working
in one of the offices

00:43:09.334 --> 00:43:11.400
since she went to
commercial high school

00:43:11.400 --> 00:43:13.167
and took up short-hand typing.

00:43:13.167 --> 00:43:14.901
She says she doesn't want
to be no Army grunt,

00:43:14.901 --> 00:43:17.534
but Lieutenant Hundley has
always got another job for her.

00:43:17.534 --> 00:43:19.133
'Carter, front
and center,' she say.

00:43:19.133 --> 00:43:22.467
'We had a request for you.'
'A request, ma'am?'

00:43:22.467 --> 00:43:24.200
Peaches put her
hands on her hips.

00:43:24.200 --> 00:43:25.501
Our company just got showered,

00:43:25.501 --> 00:43:28.701
and Peaches in her
wack-issue maroon bathrobe

00:43:28.701 --> 00:43:30.767
getting ready to
paint her toenails.

00:43:30.767 --> 00:43:32.534
'I'm off duty, ma'am.'

00:43:32.534 --> 00:43:34.501
'I am aware of that, Carter,'

00:43:34.501 --> 00:43:37.067
Lieutenant say, and she act
like her face got frozen.

00:43:37.067 --> 00:43:38.367
Peaches straightened up fast.

00:43:38.367 --> 00:43:39.901
'Yes, ma'am.'
she says.

00:43:39.901 --> 00:43:43.400
Hundley does not play around
when she's got that look.

00:43:43.400 --> 00:43:45.033
'Captain Jennings
is in need of a sitter

00:43:45.033 --> 00:43:47.634
for General Craig's
twins tonight.

00:43:47.634 --> 00:43:49.868
Their regular
housekeeper is ill.

00:43:49.868 --> 00:43:52.601
He knows your work
and considers you conscientious

00:43:52.601 --> 00:43:56.467
and feels like you would like
to earn some pocket money.'

00:43:56.467 --> 00:43:58.834
Well, Peaches looked
like her jaw just broke.

00:43:58.834 --> 00:44:01.234
Her mouth hangs open,
and every girl in our company

00:44:01.234 --> 00:44:03.434
looks like she's
just been slapped.

00:44:03.434 --> 00:44:07.200
Now we know why Hundley
looks like she's about to spit.

00:44:07.200 --> 00:44:08.334
Nobody in their right mind

00:44:08.334 --> 00:44:09.834
is going to ask
any of the white girls

00:44:09.834 --> 00:44:11.400
to watch after
some general's babies

00:44:11.400 --> 00:44:13.367
after 8 hours on their feet,

00:44:13.367 --> 00:44:14.767
but they're after
the colored girls

00:44:14.767 --> 00:44:20.734
all the time to fetch
and carry and help out.

00:44:20.734 --> 00:44:21.767
'Get a load of that,'

00:44:21.767 --> 00:44:23.667
Annie Brown mutters
under her breath.

00:44:23.667 --> 00:44:25.133
'I'd shake my head.'

00:44:25.133 --> 00:44:28.000
Peaches worked hard in that
kitchen, harder than anybody,

00:44:28.000 --> 00:44:29.434
and since she don't
like to cook nohow,

00:44:29.434 --> 00:44:31.934
she's got to try twice as hard.

00:44:31.934 --> 00:44:33.534
She says cook hollered
at her all day,

00:44:33.534 --> 00:44:34.968
and she about
cut her fingers off

00:44:34.968 --> 00:44:36.801
with all the chopping she did.

00:44:36.801 --> 00:44:39.834
She's tired like we all are.

00:44:39.834 --> 00:44:42.734
Peaches lets out her breath
like a popped tire.

00:44:42.734 --> 00:44:45.033
She looks like someone
kicked her in the stomach.

00:44:45.033 --> 00:44:48.300
Her shoulders slump,
and she puts down her polish

00:44:48.300 --> 00:44:50.367
and picks up her shoes.

00:44:50.367 --> 00:44:51.767
'I'll go, Lieutenant Hundley,'

00:44:51.767 --> 00:44:55.834
I say. I can't stand
Peaches' broken-down look.

00:44:55.834 --> 00:44:58.534
Peaches cuts her eyes at me,
and I ignore her.

00:44:58.534 --> 00:45:02.834
'Peaches hurt herself doing KP.
I'll go see to those twins.'

00:45:02.834 --> 00:45:03.968
Hundley looks at me

00:45:03.968 --> 00:45:06.033
like she's trying to drill
nails in my head.

00:45:06.033 --> 00:45:09.067
'They are babies,
Boylen, children.

00:45:09.067 --> 00:45:11.434
Do you know anything
about children?'

00:45:11.434 --> 00:45:13.300
'Yes, ma'am. I helped
to raise my sister.

00:45:13.300 --> 00:45:16.934
I will take good care
of them, ma'am.'

00:45:16.934 --> 00:45:18.200
'Boylen.'

00:45:18.200 --> 00:45:19.934
'I like children,
Lieutenant Hundley,"

00:45:19.934 --> 00:45:21.167
I say standing tall,

00:45:21.167 --> 00:45:23.267
daring her to shut my mouth
for speaking up.

00:45:23.267 --> 00:45:24.968
'Peaches whipped.
We all see that.

00:45:24.968 --> 00:45:28.100
I'll go.' Peaches mutters,
'They asked for me, Boylen,'

00:45:28.100 --> 00:45:30.000
but we both know
it don't make no nevermind

00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:31.868
who goes to see
after those twins.

00:45:31.868 --> 00:45:34.100
The brass don't be
too picky about

00:45:34.100 --> 00:45:35.434
when they're asking
for a colored girl

00:45:35.434 --> 00:45:36.734
to work in the house.

00:45:36.734 --> 00:45:40.367
'I got it, Peaches,'
is all I say.

00:45:40.367 --> 00:45:42.133
Hundley stares at me
for a moment,

00:45:42.133 --> 00:45:43.868
then looks around the barracks.

00:45:43.868 --> 00:45:46.267
We all stand there
in complete silence.

00:45:46.267 --> 00:45:47.634
There is something in her face

00:45:47.634 --> 00:45:49.200
that says she's got
a lot to say,

00:45:49.200 --> 00:45:50.968
but she doesn't say it to us.

00:45:50.968 --> 00:45:52.868
I roll my stockings
up over my knees

00:45:52.868 --> 00:45:55.167
and lace up my shoes
while she watches.

00:45:55.167 --> 00:45:58.234
Annie hands me my jacket.
'This isn't right,'

00:45:58.234 --> 00:46:01.367
Lieutenant Hundley
says finally, her voice quiet.

00:46:01.367 --> 00:46:04.968
'You girls, you women
are in the Army.

00:46:04.968 --> 00:46:06.701
Someone will hear about this.'

00:46:06.701 --> 00:46:09.000
Hundley looks at the floor,
clears her throat.

00:46:09.000 --> 00:46:11.300
She straightens her
shoulders and nods to me.

00:46:11.300 --> 00:46:12.868
'Let's go, Boylen.'"

00:46:15.968 --> 00:46:17.567
LIFE magazine in the 1940s

00:46:17.567 --> 00:46:20.467
was doing huge spreads
on female service personnel

00:46:20.467 --> 00:46:24.200
and all the work that they did
to support the war effort,

00:46:24.200 --> 00:46:26.767
but I read that even
high-ranking American women

00:46:26.767 --> 00:46:29.767
could be asked as a matter of
course to do domestic work

00:46:29.767 --> 00:46:30.868
because for some Americans,

00:46:30.868 --> 00:46:32.834
it was hard to see
African-Americans

00:46:32.834 --> 00:46:36.400
as anything but janitors

00:46:36.400 --> 00:46:41.767
and maids and
seamstresses and cooks.

00:46:41.767 --> 00:46:44.400
Black Americans had to fight
to be counted as soldiers

00:46:44.400 --> 00:46:48.200
and as members of the armed
forces who were trusted,

00:46:48.200 --> 00:46:49.734
and that's what
the Double V campaign

00:46:49.734 --> 00:46:51.634
and the March
on Washington movement

00:46:51.634 --> 00:46:53.434
were about in part.

00:46:53.434 --> 00:46:55.033
African-Americans
wanted to serve,

00:46:55.033 --> 00:46:57.434
wanted to be counted,
really, as Americans,

00:46:57.434 --> 00:46:59.167
and this was a time
of tremendous strain

00:46:59.167 --> 00:47:01.100
on the idea of being American,

00:47:01.100 --> 00:47:03.801
so I wanted to show Mare
and her sister, Josephine,

00:47:03.801 --> 00:47:06.601
exploring some of these ideas,

00:47:06.601 --> 00:47:09.133
and these were also questions
that Octavia and Talitha

00:47:09.133 --> 00:47:12.467
in the "now" sections of the
book talked about, as well.

00:47:12.467 --> 00:47:14.801
As they interacted with each
other and with their history

00:47:14.801 --> 00:47:16.367
as their grandmother
presented it to them,

00:47:16.367 --> 00:47:19.868
I wanted to show that teens
growing up in World War II

00:47:19.868 --> 00:47:23.567
and teens growing up now
in the present still struggle,

00:47:23.567 --> 00:47:25.567
you know, with some of
the same ideas of who we are.

00:47:25.567 --> 00:47:27.634
What does it mean
to be an American,

00:47:27.634 --> 00:47:31.601
and what is it like to want
to do something great

00:47:31.601 --> 00:47:34.934
but be afraid that your efforts
and your interest

00:47:34.934 --> 00:47:36.801
in that will be rejected,

00:47:36.801 --> 00:47:39.200
and what happens if you fail?

00:47:39.200 --> 00:47:41.767
"Mare's War" talks about some of
the challenges of segregation,

00:47:41.767 --> 00:47:44.000
which were still in effect,

00:47:44.000 --> 00:47:49.234
and some of the issues
that people in history

00:47:49.234 --> 00:47:51.934
cared about that are issues
that we care about now,

00:47:51.934 --> 00:47:53.200
and when we study history,

00:47:53.200 --> 00:47:55.868
we see just how much people
in the past achieved

00:47:55.868 --> 00:48:02.033
based on their bravery
and their courage, basically,

00:48:02.033 --> 00:48:05.901
and their ability
to stick to something

00:48:05.901 --> 00:48:07.667
and see it through even
if they wanted to go home

00:48:07.667 --> 00:48:09.100
because I'm sure
those girls did as soon

00:48:09.100 --> 00:48:11.133
as the bombs started dropping,

00:48:11.133 --> 00:48:15.534
but I just really looked at all
of them in woe of what they did,

00:48:15.534 --> 00:48:18.601
and I took courage
from what they did,

00:48:18.601 --> 00:48:22.567
and it just gave me the idea
that I could make history, too,

00:48:22.567 --> 00:48:24.901
and the good news is,
is so can you.

00:48:24.901 --> 00:48:26.133
Chrissy, that's basically
all I've got today.

00:48:26.133 --> 00:48:28.834
-Great.
And, yeah, no problem, Tanita.

00:48:28.834 --> 00:48:30.667
I should have given you
the floor for the whole hour.

00:48:30.667 --> 00:48:33.834
That was just a, you know,
beautiful presentation,

00:48:33.834 --> 00:48:35.200
and as you said,

00:48:35.200 --> 00:48:38.000
I think the historical
film footage, you're right.

00:48:38.000 --> 00:48:42.067
I could just watch that on loop
over and over and over again,

00:48:42.067 --> 00:48:44.767
you know, just such
an intimate kind of glimpse

00:48:44.767 --> 00:48:46.968
as to what, you know,

00:48:46.968 --> 00:48:48.167
Mare would have been, you know,

00:48:48.167 --> 00:48:49.367
in the book, would have
been going through,

00:48:49.367 --> 00:48:52.968
and, of course,
real women, as well.

00:48:52.968 --> 00:48:55.000
So I know you had some slides.

00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:57.167
Actually, I'll ask
the first question

00:48:57.167 --> 00:48:59.300
as people are kind
of typing some in.

00:48:59.300 --> 00:49:02.501
You had some slides
about doing research.

00:49:02.501 --> 00:49:05.801
This was your master's thesis.

00:49:05.801 --> 00:49:07.167
How did you find all this stuff?

00:49:07.167 --> 00:49:09.934
We had this conversation where,
you know, now, today,

00:49:09.934 --> 00:49:12.033
there's a lot more
at our fingertips with,

00:49:12.033 --> 00:49:13.968
of course,
you know,

00:49:13.968 --> 00:49:15.734
so many resources
on the Internet,

00:49:15.734 --> 00:49:17.667
so many digitized collections,

00:49:17.667 --> 00:49:20.734
but what did you do to find out
all of this information?

00:49:30.801 --> 00:49:33.200
-[ Laughs ] I used books.

00:49:33.200 --> 00:49:38.200
Well, the reason there was
so much less is that, you know,

00:49:38.200 --> 00:49:40.534
here I was in 2004.

00:49:40.534 --> 00:49:43.868
There was 5 years between me
doing the research

00:49:43.868 --> 00:49:48.868
and when the First Lady
awarded the remaining

00:49:48.868 --> 00:49:53.467
surviving members
of the 6888 in 2009,

00:49:53.467 --> 00:49:56.234
and suddenly then the Army
was releasing things

00:49:56.234 --> 00:49:57.968
and digital collections
and things,

00:49:57.968 --> 00:49:59.200
so what I had to do was go

00:49:59.200 --> 00:50:01.601
through people's
personal collections,

00:50:01.601 --> 00:50:03.534
what little was on the Internet.

00:50:03.534 --> 00:50:06.367
I used a lot of journals.

00:50:06.367 --> 00:50:09.067
I used a lot of the libraries,

00:50:09.067 --> 00:50:10.667
spent a lot of time
at the library.

00:50:10.667 --> 00:50:14.100
There were things there,
but you just really had to know

00:50:14.100 --> 00:50:16.467
where to look,
and it was rabbit trails.

00:50:16.467 --> 00:50:18.701
You know, I am chasing
down a specific name,

00:50:18.701 --> 00:50:20.400
and then once I had a name,

00:50:20.400 --> 00:50:22.100
I could, you know,
sort of cross-check

00:50:22.100 --> 00:50:25.300
and look somewhere else, and it
was a lot harder than it is now,

00:50:25.300 --> 00:50:27.467
and I'm really excited about
how much is on the Internet.

00:50:27.467 --> 00:50:31.501
-Yeah. Now, as you were doing
your research,

00:50:31.501 --> 00:50:34.400
was there anything
that really surprised you

00:50:34.400 --> 00:50:35.901
about what you found out,
whether it was,

00:50:35.901 --> 00:50:38.000
I know you said,
researching your own past

00:50:38.000 --> 00:50:39.634
and researching
your grandmother,

00:50:39.634 --> 00:50:41.968
but just in general
about African-Americans

00:50:41.968 --> 00:50:44.133
and African-American women
in the military?

00:50:55.000 --> 00:50:57.701
-Well, as I said, I didn't
really know very much

00:50:57.701 --> 00:51:00.667
about the Women's Army Corps,
period,

00:51:00.667 --> 00:51:03.200
and it really was.

00:51:03.200 --> 00:51:07.267
It was a surprise not to find
that they were still segregated

00:51:07.267 --> 00:51:10.300
because unfortunately
segregation is...

00:51:10.300 --> 00:51:15.701
That went on for
forever it felt like,

00:51:15.701 --> 00:51:21.634
but I also just discovered that
even when they were overseas,

00:51:21.634 --> 00:51:26.234
even when they came into,
you know, places like France

00:51:26.234 --> 00:51:28.000
or they came into,
you know, England,

00:51:28.000 --> 00:51:29.901
where this wasn't their history,

00:51:29.901 --> 00:51:32.067
this wasn't a part
of their world,

00:51:32.067 --> 00:51:34.133
the Army and the Red Cross

00:51:34.133 --> 00:51:37.834
even tried to keep things
on a segregation basis,

00:51:37.834 --> 00:51:39.033
and they kept saying,

00:51:39.033 --> 00:51:40.567
"Well, you'll be
more comfortable this way.

00:51:40.567 --> 00:51:44.868
You'll be happier this way,"
and they were sort of having...

00:51:44.868 --> 00:51:46.601
Even though they were
having this adventure

00:51:46.601 --> 00:51:47.934
and they were being
in this new place

00:51:47.934 --> 00:51:49.601
and they were being given
all these responsibilities

00:51:49.601 --> 00:51:52.133
and doing this new thing,

00:51:52.133 --> 00:51:54.701
segregation
was sort of a top down,

00:51:54.701 --> 00:51:57.801
"I'm telling you this is what
you'll need to be happy,"

00:51:57.801 --> 00:51:59.033
and how...

00:51:59.033 --> 00:52:02.901
I read a lot in people's
personal accounts

00:52:02.901 --> 00:52:04.934
about going
and staying in a hotel

00:52:04.934 --> 00:52:09.167
and where they tried to start
segregating the hotels by floors

00:52:09.167 --> 00:52:12.801
even though they were not hotels
that belonged to Americans.

00:52:12.801 --> 00:52:17.467
They were just being rented
by the Red Cross

00:52:17.467 --> 00:52:19.200
for the service people,

00:52:19.200 --> 00:52:22.734
but they still were
very concerned

00:52:22.734 --> 00:52:26.968
with keeping this appearance
of separate but equal.

00:52:26.968 --> 00:52:29.200
One very interesting
thing I heard

00:52:29.200 --> 00:52:30.934
was that when
the women were in...

00:52:30.934 --> 00:52:35.000
Well, this is actually
I read in Charity Adams...

00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:38.234
She was the major
that we actually saw

00:52:38.234 --> 00:52:40.801
doing the review parade,

00:52:40.801 --> 00:52:42.467
is everyone saluting
her and everything.

00:52:42.467 --> 00:52:48.901
She wrote the book that I had
shown earlier in the slide show,

00:52:48.901 --> 00:52:51.534
"One Woman's War."

00:52:51.534 --> 00:52:52.801
Yeah.

00:52:52.801 --> 00:52:54.834
Thank you, "One Woman's Army."

00:52:54.834 --> 00:53:00.868
She had written in that book
that when they went to England,

00:53:00.868 --> 00:53:04.701
they actually were allowed
to break curfew at one point

00:53:04.701 --> 00:53:10.434
because there was a belief
in this small part of England

00:53:10.434 --> 00:53:13.701
where they were that
black people had tails

00:53:13.701 --> 00:53:14.934
and they came out at night.

00:53:14.934 --> 00:53:16.567
I mean, this is the most
ridiculous thing

00:53:16.567 --> 00:53:18.033
I've ever heard of,

00:53:18.033 --> 00:53:22.100
but if you have never
been exposed to someone,

00:53:22.100 --> 00:53:24.167
then you are
predisposed to believe

00:53:24.167 --> 00:53:25.801
just about whatever silliness,

00:53:25.801 --> 00:53:28.167
and so they were actually
allowed to stay out

00:53:28.167 --> 00:53:30.267
so that they could show that,
"Look. Here we are,

00:53:30.267 --> 00:53:31.868
still walking upright
like human beings,

00:53:31.868 --> 00:53:33.701
and, look, no tails."

00:53:33.701 --> 00:53:36.734
They were actually...
Even though in our own country

00:53:36.734 --> 00:53:38.367
we're still struggling
with ideas

00:53:38.367 --> 00:53:41.901
of who is an American
and what American looks like,

00:53:41.901 --> 00:53:46.501
they are still being used as
sort of, you know, missionaries.

00:53:46.501 --> 00:53:49.167
-And I like that how you even
touch on it in "Mare's War,"

00:53:49.167 --> 00:53:52.267
that relationship
that Marey Lee

00:53:52.267 --> 00:53:53.934
has with that little
British girl

00:53:53.934 --> 00:53:56.000
who initially was, you know,
like, frightened of her,

00:53:56.000 --> 00:53:58.767
but then they kind of
became chummy, you know,

00:53:58.767 --> 00:54:00.400
and they became
buds at the end.

00:54:00.400 --> 00:54:04.300
So seeing how that relationship
changes with exposure,

00:54:04.300 --> 00:54:09.334
you know, and that this is,
you know, all myth, you know.

00:54:09.334 --> 00:54:12.000
It's all ridiculous, so,

00:54:12.000 --> 00:54:14.667
and putting a personal
face to that I think.

00:54:14.667 --> 00:54:18.067
I love that little
tidbit in the book.

00:54:18.067 --> 00:54:19.901
Now, what was,
I guess, for you...

00:54:19.901 --> 00:54:23.100
This is kind of a dual
question, you know.

00:54:23.100 --> 00:54:25.634
What was the most challenging
thing that you found

00:54:25.634 --> 00:54:26.934
while writing this book
but also,

00:54:26.934 --> 00:54:29.567
then, in turn, then,
the most rewarding?

00:54:41.200 --> 00:54:43.400
-Well, it just...
This just, as I said,

00:54:43.400 --> 00:54:45.834
it was sort of like opening

00:54:45.834 --> 00:54:47.267
a present that just kept giving

00:54:47.267 --> 00:54:49.434
and giving as I kept finding,

00:54:49.434 --> 00:54:53.534
you know, images
and just, you know...

00:54:53.534 --> 00:54:55.167
I mean, we got a...

00:54:55.167 --> 00:54:57.767
You know, I had a chance to...
I lived in Glasgow in Scotland.

00:54:57.767 --> 00:54:59.801
This is where they landed
when they came,

00:54:59.801 --> 00:55:02.901
and so, you know, we sort of
wandered around the city,

00:55:02.901 --> 00:55:05.767
and I would just keep looking
at it through the eyes of,

00:55:05.767 --> 00:55:07.400
"Yeah, this is what they saw.

00:55:07.400 --> 00:55:09.334
This is what... You know,
this is where they were,"

00:55:09.334 --> 00:55:10.734
and, you know, it was brief,

00:55:10.734 --> 00:55:12.400
the time that they were there,
before they got on a train

00:55:12.400 --> 00:55:15.167
and went to Birmingham, England,
but still, it was just...

00:55:15.167 --> 00:55:20.367
I got to be the places that the
people were in, in my research,

00:55:20.367 --> 00:55:23.000
and it was so much fun
to keep...

00:55:23.000 --> 00:55:25.701
You know, I would read,
for instance,

00:55:25.701 --> 00:55:28.934
the journal of someone
who had been in the Red Cross,

00:55:28.934 --> 00:55:32.534
and they would be talking about
they were at this place,

00:55:32.534 --> 00:55:35.133
and they did this, and there
would be a situation here,

00:55:35.133 --> 00:55:38.400
and then someone else's letters
would refer to that same thing.

00:55:38.400 --> 00:55:40.033
They may not have
known each other.

00:55:40.033 --> 00:55:43.701
They may not have realized they
were there at the same time,

00:55:43.701 --> 00:55:46.767
but the commonality
of human experience,

00:55:46.767 --> 00:55:49.033
the things that
bring us together,

00:55:49.033 --> 00:55:50.701
the things that
we hold in common

00:55:50.701 --> 00:55:52.868
were so much more obvious.

00:55:52.868 --> 00:55:55.334
It didn't matter if I was
looking at the journal

00:55:55.334 --> 00:55:57.901
of a white nurse

00:55:57.901 --> 00:56:02.834
or a white serviceman
or a black, you know,

00:56:02.834 --> 00:56:06.601
person who was part of
the postal battalion who was,

00:56:06.601 --> 00:56:10.801
you know, from a farm or who had
gone to a secretarial college.

00:56:10.801 --> 00:56:12.200
It didn't matter.

00:56:12.200 --> 00:56:16.100
This war, in a dreadful way,
was kind of a unifying thing

00:56:16.100 --> 00:56:19.634
because it made Americans
Americans, you know?

00:56:19.634 --> 00:56:22.067
We came from a bunch
of different backgrounds

00:56:22.067 --> 00:56:26.801
and a bunch of different areas
of belief and opinion,

00:56:26.801 --> 00:56:34.501
and we reacted to basically
a threat in the form of Hitler,

00:56:34.501 --> 00:56:36.601
but eventually
I think that that,

00:56:36.601 --> 00:56:38.534
what we learned through war,

00:56:38.534 --> 00:56:41.167
we turned to sort of
looking at ourselves,

00:56:41.167 --> 00:56:44.934
and we reacted or continued
to react to the racism

00:56:44.934 --> 00:56:48.534
and the erroneous beliefs
that we,

00:56:48.534 --> 00:56:51.434
you know, hold ourselves.

00:56:51.434 --> 00:56:54.968
I really felt like the biggest
challenging thing

00:56:54.968 --> 00:56:57.968
was just putting it all together
because just like now,

00:56:57.968 --> 00:56:59.834
I can talk about this all day,

00:56:59.834 --> 00:57:03.200
and so cutting
the things I left out,

00:57:03.200 --> 00:57:05.267
those continue
to sort of haunt me.

00:57:05.267 --> 00:57:07.267
I think, "Oh, but I wish
I had, you know,

00:57:07.267 --> 00:57:08.434
included this or that."

00:57:08.434 --> 00:57:09.901
-Don't worry, I have
that same difficulty too.

00:57:09.901 --> 00:57:11.667
If anybody has done
a virtual field trip with me,

00:57:11.667 --> 00:57:17.033
they know that I take the entire
hour even if I'm not trying to.

00:57:17.033 --> 00:57:19.701
And I guess, since we only have
about a minute left,

00:57:19.701 --> 00:57:21.334
I would love for you...

00:57:21.334 --> 00:57:23.567
Maybe tell us a little bit
also about your other books,

00:57:23.567 --> 00:57:25.634
and aren't you coming out
with another book

00:57:25.634 --> 00:57:28.133
just in a couple months,
correct?

00:57:33.767 --> 00:57:36.267
Oh.
Oh, my gosh.

00:57:36.267 --> 00:57:39.000
Wow.

00:57:39.000 --> 00:57:43.100
-Actually, February 9th,
in a couple of days.

00:57:43.100 --> 00:57:45.067
-Thank you for doing
this webinar from that regard.

00:57:45.067 --> 00:57:48.000
My goodness.
-Yeah.

00:57:48.000 --> 00:57:49.868
Yeah.
That just happened to be...

00:57:49.868 --> 00:57:52.367
This is... [ Laughs ]

00:57:56.334 --> 00:57:59.100
Well, yeah.

00:57:59.100 --> 00:58:01.300
It's a good break from that.

00:58:01.300 --> 00:58:03.701
My brain is happy
to focus on something

00:58:03.701 --> 00:58:06.033
that I've already done well,

00:58:06.033 --> 00:58:07.400
so that's been a good thing.

00:58:07.400 --> 00:58:08.601
Yeah.

00:58:08.601 --> 00:58:12.133
I tend to write books
about families.

00:58:12.133 --> 00:58:16.334
I do enjoy history,
and I continue to read

00:58:16.334 --> 00:58:17.868
a lot of history
and dig into it,

00:58:17.868 --> 00:58:19.501
and I know someday I'll find...

00:58:19.501 --> 00:58:21.667
There's so many stories
in American history

00:58:21.667 --> 00:58:23.033
that haven't yet been told,

00:58:23.033 --> 00:58:26.334
that haven't yet been turned
into more accessible

00:58:26.334 --> 00:58:27.801
works of historical fiction,

00:58:27.801 --> 00:58:30.968
and I'm going to get back there,
and everyone keeps asking.

00:58:30.968 --> 00:58:32.367
Someday, I'm going
to get back there,

00:58:32.367 --> 00:58:35.434
but in the meantime,
there's lots to talk about...

00:58:35.434 --> 00:58:37.367
-Awesome.
-...and I'm always happy

00:58:37.367 --> 00:58:40.400
to write stories
about American families,

00:58:40.400 --> 00:58:42.133
and that's one
of my big interests.

00:58:42.133 --> 00:58:43.734
-Well, Tanita,
now that we're...

00:58:43.734 --> 00:58:45.634
Well, officially
it's 1:00 Central Time,

00:58:45.634 --> 00:58:47.834
so 11:00 a.m. by you.

00:58:47.834 --> 00:58:51.234
As I said, I tend to take
the entire hour and sometimes,

00:58:51.234 --> 00:58:53.267
as other people know,
maybe a little longer than that,

00:58:53.267 --> 00:58:57.701
so I try to respect people's
time in the lunch hour here,

00:58:57.701 --> 00:59:00.400
but I just wanted to say
thank you so much

00:59:00.400 --> 00:59:03.000
for sharing your story
with us today,

00:59:03.000 --> 00:59:06.501
and, I mean, I felt like
I certainly learned a lot,

00:59:06.501 --> 00:59:08.734
and I loved reading
"Mare's War,"

00:59:08.734 --> 00:59:10.701
so I hope the rest of
the audience does, as well.

00:59:10.701 --> 00:59:12.701
Thank you so much
for your time today.

00:59:23.234 --> 00:59:26.000
-Well, thank you, and I just
really appreciate everybody

00:59:26.000 --> 00:59:28.267
who came out,
and it was fun

00:59:28.267 --> 00:59:29.767
to see all the lists of names.

00:59:29.767 --> 00:59:32.300
-Well thank you, Tanita,
and thank you, everybody.

00:59:32.300 --> 00:59:34.767
I'm going to transition kind of
into one more area,

00:59:34.767 --> 00:59:36.033
so you see our screen shift,

00:59:36.033 --> 00:59:39.634
and we're going to go
away at least visually.

00:59:39.634 --> 00:59:41.667
What is going to pop up
on your screen,

00:59:41.667 --> 00:59:43.868
if you're still hanging
out for a little bit,

00:59:43.868 --> 00:59:47.801
is you'll see this kind of
rolling slide presentation

00:59:47.801 --> 00:59:50.634
of some future programs
we have coming up here.

00:59:50.634 --> 00:59:52.701
So we do these student webinars

00:59:52.701 --> 00:59:54.367
periodically throughout
the entire school year.

00:59:54.367 --> 00:59:57.100
As you know, they're free,
and we have a couple more

00:59:57.100 --> 00:59:58.300
coming up

00:59:58.300 --> 01:00:00.334
in the remainder
of the school year.

01:00:00.334 --> 01:00:02.567
As the slide will
hopefully change,

01:00:02.567 --> 01:00:03.968
so maybe it will cooperate.

01:00:03.968 --> 01:00:06.968
Let me tell you,
in April, on April...