Beloved,
Blessings and Peace...I was traveling on the 'A' train going uptown frm Brooklyn and caught a glimpse of our sister across the platform fully dressed army National Guard with beret in her left hand and her young son's hand in her right hand. The thing that grabbed my attention was that it was September 11 and there were more police presence than usual. National Guard were located through New York City at many different locations. Nevertheless here was our sister, a African American woman with a child, a daughter and mother taking her young son to school or safety before she took her position on the first line.
I was moved at that moment to the outer realm while recognizing the presence of another one of our women holding it down. I was inspired to write a piece called "First On Line". Then I searched for some historical knowledge and found out about the 688th Central Battalion. This was the first all African American female unit to ship overseas. The 800 women of the battalion served in England and handled mail for the entire Europen theater of operations.
I copied a story about Dores Moore who was one of the African American women who served in that Battalion to share with you. This article was written by Valerie Cunningham.
( 1919 -- 1993 )
At the end of the school day, I'd come home and I'd do my homework, then my two things would be reading and the radio. I was a loner, shy. I had girlfriends at school but at home I didn't. All my friends were white. I'd see them at school but after school they'd go their way and I'd go my way. I can't remember ever having a black girlfriend. The Glee Club always sang at graduation, so I decided I was going to do that. I got in the Glee Club and sang at baccalaureate. There wasn't any interracial dating back then, that I know of. My brother taught me to dance for graduation, so he could take me to the prom.
I was in the first WAC unit to go overseas. We were the 688th Central Postal Battalion. All black women. We went over on a French passenger ship. It was huge. They also had the soldiers and the Red Cross nurses on there. We landed in Glasgow, Scotland and came on down to Birmingham, England. When we got there, all the English chicks had the black men! Later, I had a boyfriend. I guess it was who comes first. It was no problem. About two years later, we went across the English Channel and were stationed in France. We had a ball! I had a chance to go to Switzerland and we went to Paris and the Left Bank. I was in Paris on D-Day.
I went to Atlanta and I worked at the Toccoa County Child Welfare Board...while I was working on my master's. After I got my MSW, I worked for Family Services in Louisville, Kentucky. I was the only black in the agency. I noticed I didn't have any white clients, only black clients. I sashayed down to the office and I says, "I'm coming here to do social work. You're not going to say when a black client comes in, this is for you. I'm just taking all clients." So it was the first agency that had a mixed case load, white and black clients.
Mother was sick and my sister had her own family to take care of so I came back to take care of her. I joined the staff of the Children's Aid Society in Manchester, New Hampshire in March 1 959...served as a social worker with a major responsibility for providing intake services to new clients for the Central and Manchester regional offices. I had a nice apartment right downtown Manchester, near the agency. I drove to my house in Portsmouth on weekends and then back to Manchester for the week. On January 16, 1981, I retired with twenty-two years.
by Valerie Cunningham
