Top Photo: Major Charity Adams and Captain Mary Kearney inspect the first contingent of the 6888th to arrive in England on February 15, 1945. Courtesy of the National Archives NAID: 531249

Charity Adams, the first Black woman US Army officer and commander of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, left behind an extensive record of her incredible service. In 1989, she published One Woman’s Army, reflecting on her journey into service. Adams's story begins with her youth in segregated South Carolina, the oldest of four children who described themselves as “PKs,” or “Preacher’s Kids.” She was valedictorian at Booker T. Washington High School and received a scholarship to Wilberforce College in Ohio. After graduation, Adams returned to South Carolina to teach math and science, but found it unchallenging and began to take summer courses for an advanced degree. 

In June 1942, she was tapped for an opportunity that would change her life. Having been recommended by the Dean of Women at Wilberforce, Adams received an invitation to apply for the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), which had formed a month earlier. Although she was completely unfamiliar with Army life and was uncertain of the new service, Adams saw the military as an antidote to the “certainty of the dullness and rigidity” of continuing to teach. 

In the WAAC, volunteers had to meet a range of physical, educational, and character requirements. Black servicewomen were also restricted in number, limited by the Army policy of a 10 percent quota. The initial Black recruits came highly recommended, and many were handpicked by educator and civil rights leader Mary McLeod Bethune.

This judiciousness was necessary in that all the WAAC recruits were under intense scrutiny. Would they be able to stand up to the rigor of Army training? Would they be of any meaningful use to the Armed Forces? Beginning with the first Officer Training Class, American servicewomen were keenly aware that the world was watching. For the 39 Black candidates, this sense of observation was amplified, and the expectation that they would fail fueled their drive to excel.

Adams was the first within a first. At the August 29, 1942, graduation from Officer Candidate School at Fort Des Moines, she became the first Black officer to receive a commission in the WAAC. Traditionally, graduates are presented alphabetically by roster, as listed in the graduation program. Adams should have been the first overall to be commissioned, but a decision was made to deviate from standard practice and instead present the graduates by platoon; the African American women were the 3rd Platoon of the 1st Company. 

Charity Adams is listed first in her class in the WAAC graduation program. Gift of the Monuments Men and Women Foundation Collection, 2018.076.1525

Adams and other WAAC officer graduates moved into housing on Officer’s Row at Fort Des Moines. They began their task of training incoming WAAC companies. As the WAAC force gained strength, companies were assigned to posts around the country, including Black WAACs who were assigned to Fort Huachuca, Arizona. Despite segregation, Adams was “determined to see that any troops I commanded would have every opportunity that was afforded others.” When promotions for the first class came in December 1942, Adams and three other Black WAACs from the first class were promoted to Captain. Adams commanded Company 8, which for a time served as the reception center for African American WAACs. Striving for perfection, she developed an intense inspection method for her basic training company. 

Charity Adams points at a WAAC recruiting poster in 1943. Courtesy of the New York Public Library 

Despite the highest standards and excellent training, opportunities were still scarce for Black WAACs as post commanders were reluctant to employ Black personnel. Adams worked hard at transforming civilians into soldiers and maintaining the appearance, morale, and self-confidence of her troops. 

Captain Charity Adams drills her company at Fort Des Moines in May 1943. Courtesy of the National Archives

On September 1, 1943, the WAAC became the WAC (Women’s Army Corps), a regular part of the US Army rather than an auxiliary force. At the end of the month, Adams was promoted again. Now Major Adams, she maintained her belief in the mission of producing the best trained women’s units despite continuous challenges to her command. When the opportunity came to lead a group of WACs overseas, Adams felt excitement at the idea of another first, but she was reluctant to leave Fort Des Moines, the Training Command that she helped establish and had called home for two years. However, she would not be left behind. She helped to screen each WAC selected for overseas duty and they left as a group, now known as the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, for Fort Oglethorpe, the overseas training center. Adams and her friend and fellow officer Captain Abbie Noel Campbell received orders to go to Washington then proceed directly to Europe, secret orders in hand. Arriving overseas, they were again under constant observation. Adams later wrote, “Again we were among U.S. military personnel who could not believe Negro WAC officers were real.”

Major Charity Adams and Captain Mary Kearney inspect the first contingent of the 6888th to arrive in England on February 15, 1945. Courtesy of the National Archives NAID: 531249

Adams and Campbell arrived in London on January 28, 1945, and right away began preparing for their troops to arrive. After a harrowing weeklong ocean convoy on the SS Île de France, the first contingent of the 6888th arrived in Glasgow, Scotland to meet their commanders. Their station was in Birmingham, England, where they were tasked with the seemingly impossible challenge of sorting and routing mountains of mail that had been piled high in warehouses. While Adams had been told she was the commanding officer, weeks went by and she had yet to receive her official orders; on March 2, 1945, she issued her own, assuming command of the 6888th. The second group arrived on April 1, bringing the battalion to its full strength of 855 women. 

They set to work at their task and under Adams’s command, they became a cohesive self-sufficient outfit absolutely devoted to their mission. They cleared the mail backlog in Birmingham much quicker than expected, racing through 17 million pieces of mail in the first three months of their overseas assignment. And then it was on to France. Adams arrived in Paris on V-E Day and was joined in Rouen by her WACs shortly thereafter. There they worked on the same task as in Birmingham, processing the mail, but this time alongside French civilian workers. After clearing the second backlog, the 6888th went briefly to Paris. Having completed their mission, the last of the unit returned home in February 1946. Shortly after, the 6888th was disbanded. Adams had already arrived home, having requested release from active duty.  She did not want the assignment offered to her at WAC Headquarters in the Pentagon. As she later recalled, “…I decided to go home and get on with my life.” Prior to her discharge, on December 26, 1945, Adams was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, the highest possible rank for a WAC.

The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion parades at the marketplace in Rouen on May 27, 1945. Courtesy of the National Archives NAID: 531431
 

Adams returned to college to finish her master’s degree at Ohio State University then worked in academic administration. In 1949, she married fellow Army veteran Stanley A. Earley Jr. The couple settled in Dayton where they raised two children, and he practiced medicine. Throughout her life, Adams remained a dedicated civic and community leader, educating and inspiring African Americans to be leaders in their communities.