The Veterans We Forget
A selection of books that helped me see the full contribution of Black veterans
For my debut novel, Women of the Post, inspired by the under-told stories of the 855 Black women of the Six Triple Eight Central Postal Battalion, the most challenging part of my research was imagining the personal and intimate lives of Black women during World War II. An additional challenge, which I wrote about recently, was learning what more we could do to honor the legacy of these special veterans and the debt that we owe Black veterans as a nation, over on Medium.
Part of how history gets lost, I imagine, is that the details of life that matter, the pieces of experience that make us human, need to be seen and sanctioned. Because Black women’s joys and our loves have generally been invisible, so are the relationships that define our lives, the intentionality of the choices we make in order to be seen. If I had my way, I would have read only Black women’s stories of living their lives throughout the war as part of my research for Women of the Post, but America’s most accessible archives are missing these narratives, so I had to invent some. This Veteran’s Day, I’m particularly grateful for the service of the authors who crafted the books pictured above.
One Woman’s Army: A Black Officer Remembers the WAC by Charity Adams Earley
Immortal Valor: The Black Medal of Honor Winners of World War II by Robert Child
Each of these books is deserving of its own in-depth review, but I don’t have the kind of memory that would allow me to do justice to each one. I can tell you, though, that One Woman’s Army was the foundational text for much of the detailed descriptions in my novel of Major Charity Adams’ family life, her interactions on and off military installations around the world, and the dignity with which she rose to any occasion, regardless of how menacing the interaction. There is one line in her memoir where she describes her interaction with a recruit who comes to the WAC believing she is a white woman but has not learned from her family that she is actually Black — this real life fascinating detail was the seed for the character in my book who flourished into Mary Alyce Dixon.
The details of what was possible for the women of the Six Triple Eight based on primary interviews with some of the women who served and meticulous research by Brenda L. Moore was the true gift to me of To Serve My Country, To Serve My Race. So much of the chronology of what the 6888th Battalion would have been experiencing not far from the battlefields of World War II was informed by learning of the bravery that Robert Child and Matthew Delmont capture in their books. Half American, in particular, at least had a mention of WACs, though few other books I could find while writing the book did. I offer this less than comprehensive list of the books that offered me the spine of my personal tribute to the Six Triple Eight as a starting point, but I would love to hear some of your favorite books that center Black veterans, especially if they are narratives about Black women.
I loved your book Women of the Post!!Thank you for writing about these veterans!