Information on African American Women in military service during WWII. Includes some footage from Record Group 111 (Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer) Series ADC (Moving Images Relating to Military Activities) that featured black WACs, including Major Charity Adams.

Read this blog post by Lisa Taylor is about Mary Putney, an officer in the Women’s Army Corps, and Rose Marie Grosshans Noël, the first female Gunnery Sergeant to be awarded the Purple Heart.

Biography and resources on Charity Adams Early, the commanding officer of the first unit of WAC African Americans to go overseas. Her unit was the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion.

Cathay Williams, enlisted as a male, William Cathay, in the United States army at St. Louis, in the Thirty-eighth United States Infantry Company A, Capt. Charles E. Clarke commanding.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt agreed to reopen the Navy to African-American women in October 1944. Not since World War I had African-American women been permitted to serve. A white only service, the WAVES—Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, or, essentially, the women’s reserve branch of the Navy—selected the two most capable African-American recruits: Harriet Ida Pickens and Frances Eliza Wills, two highly accomplished women of New York City.

"We Can Do It! proclaims Rosie the Riveter, a cultural icon of World War II. Rosie represented the women who worked in factories and shipyards during World War II, many of whom, black workers included, produced munitions and war supplies. This blog post by Dr. Tina L. Ligon, Archivist at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland, gives information on black women in the workforce during World War II.

On July 26, 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order, 9981 establishing the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services, committing the government to desegregating the military. This lesson plan and list of resources from the Harry. S. Truman Library and Museum.

This resource page compiles in one place resources of women in the military from the National Archives, and also provides links to other resources

Read this article by Rudi Williams on book by Martha S. Putney and the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion. Reprinted from the magazine World War II Dispatch, v. 3, no. 1, pp. 28-29.

The National Association of Black Military Women (NABMW) is an association of women located throughout the country who are veterans or current members of the United States Armed Forces. It was founded in 1976 under the former name of "The Black WAAC, WAC, Women in Service."

In October 1944 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt agreed to reopen the Navy to African-American women. Not since World War I had African-American women been permitted to serve. Roosevelt’s order also produced a breakthrough: the commissioning of the Navy’s first two African-American female officers.

The Naval History and Heritage Command collects and preserves documents, artifacts, photos, oral histories, and art that best represent the history of the U.S. Navy. Use this search "African American WAVES" to find materials related to firsts for African American Women in the Navy.

The Navy announced its decision to welcome blacks into the WAVES on Oct. 19, 1944. Harriet Ida Pickens and Frances Elizabeth Wills were the first African American women who accepted the Navy’s invitation. By the war’s end on Sept. 2, 1945, 70 enlisted black WAVES joined Pickens and Wills. One of them, Chief Yeoman Edna Young became one of the first enlisted women sworn into the regular Navy on June 6, 1948.

This reference information paper (RIP) describes records about African American military participation in World War I, World War II, and the Korean War held at the National Archives’ facilities in Washington, DC, and College Park, MD.

History.com article about the army unit known as the “Six Triple Eight." The 6888th Central Postal Battalion was the first African American battalion of the WAC to serve overseas. From February 1945 to March 1946, the women of the 6888 Central Postal Directory Battalion distributed mail in warehouses in England and France.

This site serves as an information platform to recognize the black women who served in the Army Nurse Corps during World War II at Tuskegee Army Air Field.

Lecture, Thursday, October 6, 2016. Professor Brenda L. Moore of the State University of New York at Buffalo discusses her book, To Serve My Country, To Serve My Race: The Story of the Only African American WACs Stationed Overseas during World War II.

Article with history of women's service, excellent references, in Journal of general internal medicine, 2006 Mar; 21(Suppl 3): S5–S10.
Available in PubMedCentral from the U. S. National Library of Medicine.

The U.S. Army War College Library compiled Women in the Military: A Selected Bibliography to highlight some of the accomplishments and challenges faced by servicewomen. Materials from 2005 to 2009.