Double Victory How African American Women Broke Race and Gender Barriers to Help Win World War II

Cheryl Mullenbach

eBook - 2013

“Allow all black nurses to enlist, and the draft won't be necessary. . . . If nurses are needed so desperately, why isn't the Army using colored nurses?” “My arm gets a little sore slinging a shovel or a pick, but then I forget about it when I think about all those boys over in the Solomons.” Double Victory tells the stories of African American women who did extraordinary things to help their country during World War II. In these pages young readers meet a range of remarkable women: war workers, political activists, military women, volunteers, and entertainers. Some, such as Mary McLeod Bethune and Lena Horne, were celebrated in their lifetimes and are well known today. But many others fough...t discrimination at home and abroad in order to contribute to the war effort yet were overlooked during those years and forgotten by later generations. Double Victory recovers the stories... more