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“I was raised well”

Ragland’s parents both died of pneumonia while she was young, so she was raised in Wilmington, Delaware by her parents’ close friends whom they knew through their church. Her adoptive parents were what Ragland referred to as a “well-to-do Black family” - her adoptive father was a businessman who owned two grocery stores, and her mother was a teacher. She remembers her childhood in 1930s Wilmington as a happy time when she was exposed to people of many ethnic backgrounds:

“I was affiliated with or exposed to all nationalities, so I was brought up in the surroundings of not knowing being segregated against. Because all races would come into the store and have accounts - because they too were poor, so Black and white, we mingled together.” (Video interview, 3:18)

Ragland also fondly remembered many of the lessons her mother taught her when she was a child. She recalls her happiest memory as being when her parents got her a red wagon as a gift - she took the wagon to grocery stores in their neighborhood and collected groceries that were going to be thrown out. She loved the sense of responsibility that this afforded her, as she felt that by doing this she was taking care of her younger brothers and helping out her mother. As she got older, her mother continued to use the power of positive affirmation to teach responsibility. Ragland recalled how when she was a teenager her mother used to tell her friends—within earshot of Mary—that “I trust Mary anywhere she goes.” In recalling the effect that this had on her, Ragland states:

“Now she didn’t trust me, because I didn’t trust myself, but I had always thought about that, if and when I was on the verge of getting into trouble - “my mother trusts me.”” (Video interview, 10:45)

In addition to teaching her daughter responsibility, Ragland’s mother also instilled the importance of maintaining a sense of dignity and poise, which turned out to be important traits for Mary later in life as she faced blatant discrimination. Her mother had taught her from an early age, “before you say anything wrong, count before you say it.”

While working in her parents’ store through high school, Mary harbored dreams of perhaps becoming an actor or a dancer, recalling that, “there were so many things that excited me that I wanted to do.” She was encouraged in her ambitions by her parents as well as the other adults in her neighborhood - her friends’ parents were teachers, lawyers, and businessmen, and one had even played professional baseball in the Negro Leagues.

Adventure and Responsibility

Mary Ragland’s sense of wonder and excitement about the opportunities presented to her in life were clearly a reflection of her mother’s sense of adventure. In fact, it was her mother’s encouragement that Mary remembers as her sole inspiration for enlisting in the Women’s Army Corps in the summer of 1944. Mary had just graduated from high school and was still several months shy of her eighteenth birthday when her mother noticed a recruiting advertisement for the WAC in the newspaper:

“My mom was reading the papers and said, “If I were young again I would do this.” Nothing [else] encouraged me, it was just that she said, “If I were young again I would do this.”” (Video interview, 11:59)

Ragland initially approached life in the WAC as an adventure, recalling that she was too young at the time she enlisted to truly grasp the history of African Americans’ struggles for participation in the U.S. military. She quickly realized, however, that as an African American soldier—and especially as an African American woman—everything she and her comrades did was being watched and judged - “we were spectacles, in more ways than one.”

In her interview, Ragland stated that she did not directly experience any blatant discrimination while in the Army, which she attributed to her own refusal to acknowledge any difference between herself and other soldiers, which encouraged others she encountered to take the same approach:

“I guess I always went up to somebody as though, “I don’t know what’s going on!” and I was accepted.” (Video interview, 43:26)

Ragland worked as a company clerk within the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, and also assisted Army Special Services entertainment programs by serving as a dancer. She remembers the 6888th as a tight-knit group of mature women who handled their responsibilities towards the Army and towards the African American community with a profound determination and seriousness. Many of her close colleagues were in their 30s and 40s and they took Ragland closely under their wings, or as she put it, "they sort of pampered me."

After they had been sent to Europe, Ragland remembers that the women of the 6888th came to see themselves as ambassadors for the African American community. British and French citizens invited them into their homes, and these first-hand interactions allowed Europeans to dispel popular myths about African Americans:

“We didn’t just train, we created relationships between the country and us. They got to know us as African Americans and they asked once, “Why do they treat you people like second-class citizens? Where you have contributed so much in the arts, sports, things like that? And [produced] people like Doctor Drew, who invented blood plasma.” We were invited to their homes, they got to find out that negative statements that were said about African American people were not true.” (Video interview, 19:36)

Ragland emphasizes the importance of Lieutenant Colonel Charity Adams Earley’s example, and the sense of dignity and respect that Earley commanded just by walking into a room. She also recalls that the women of the 6888th did not generally engage in many romantic involvements:

“We did not go to Europe for the benefit or the satisfaction of the military men. We as Black women were used to being together as a family, we were trained and brought up like that.” (Video interview, 14:40)

It was well that the women of the 6888th developed such unity, as they not only had to endure the racism of their own countrymen, they also faced the usual hazards of World War II service. Their ship that took them to Europe dodged German U-boats, while in England they endured V-1 flying bomb attacks, and in France they saw firsthand some of the evidence of the atrocities of the Holocaust.

At the end of the war the 6888th could reflect on a job well done. Ragland proudly remembered their reception in Paris, where they were feted at a first class hotel and marched triumphantly through the streets in a victory parade.

“We were proud Black women…. We were treated royally—royally—and I’ll never forget it as long as I live.” (Video interview, 26:28)

Beyond the parades and celebrations, Ragland understood what her battalion’s achievements signified in the context of a segregated and highly racist America:

“We wanted to prove ourselves. We represented our country, and we represented our organization, and all minorities - and we did a damn good job of it.” (Video interview, 32:20)

After the War - A Hunger for Life

Mary Ragland remembered being eager to get back to civilian life and experience as many things as she could. She took college classes at both Hampton University and Howard University, and while she didn’t complete a degree program, it was evident that she nurtured a life-long love of learning:

“I was just anxious for food - education was my food, trying to learn things. Maybe I didn’t finish this thing, but I learned a lot in many things.” (Video interview, 35:02)

She went to business school to train as a secretary, and at one time worked three jobs so that she and her husband could take a trip to Europe. Her civilian career took her to a wide variety of organizations, including the Department of Defense at the Pentagon, the Army Corps of Engineers, a corporate law firm, and UNICEF—not to mention a spell as a stage actor in New York.

But one of her more memorable experiences was from a job she didn’t get. She once called a company to inquire about an advertised position, and they invited her to come in for an interview. When she walked in the door, however, the receptionist shooed her away, telling her the position had been filled. Ragland then walked down to the lobby and called that same receptionist—while affecting a white woman’s voice—and was told that the job was still open. Ragland emphasized the importance of using humor to bring such injustices into the light:

“Those are the things, you make jokes out of them, but you bring it into focus so people can see how you accepted it, how strong you were, to see how foolish it was….” (Video interview, 41:55)

Ragland reflected with pride on the impact that her generation of African American pioneers had on American society:

“That’s the best thing about it - we paved the way and there have been many, many openings. Nobody goes by your color, they go by “you’re my friend, what are we going to do?”” (Video interview, 47:00)

Mary Ragland passed away External in 2010 at the age of 89.