A Behind-the-Scenes Look Readers Will Never See

Published: Fri, 10/19/18

Author Mary Cronk Farrell

Stories to Inform & Inspire

October 19, 2018

Hello ,

Today I'm on a panel of authors at the Washington Library Association Conference. We're each telling the librarians an "inside story" about our book.

This peek into our process will give them information and a unique context when they are recommending books to their readers, just one of the many factors that go into that magic of getting a book into the right hands at the right moment.

My anecdote is about men in power believing women get hysterical under pressure and don't know their own mind.

Women's Courage Labeled Hysteria

In Standing Up Against Hate I tell the story of black women who responded to Uncle Sam's call to "free a man to fight" and help win World War II.

I discovered one aspect of this story when a writer friend returned from New York City with a program from the play, Court Martial at Fr. Devens.

She told me the play was based on the real-life trial of four black privates in the Women's Army Corps.

These women went on strike, refusing to clean kitchens and scrub floors because

white WACs were never assigned such menial jobs.

Fifty-four black army women refused to go to work at Ft. Devens Army Hospital in Massachusetts. For two days they disobeyed orders, first from their lieutenant, and then from officers up the chain of command to the colonel in charge of the hospital.

Finally, the major general in charge of the entire service command arrived at the WAC barracks to impress upon the young soldiers the seriousness of the situation. He read them the 64th Article of War that prescribes the death penalty for "collective insubordination" better known as mutiny.

At that point they all went back to work. But four decided they couldn't continue under such discriminatory conditions. "I'll take the death penalty if it will help my people," said one.

The army prosecutor in the trial said he wasn't asking for the death penalty, but the women faced loss of pay, dishonorable discharge and prison time.

I ordered a transcript of the trial and that's where I discovered their own lawyer portrayed them as hysterical women who didn't know their own minds.

In their defense their lawyer asked, "How did you feel in the head? How was your brain functioning?"

He badgered a WAC lieutenant who'd witnessed the defendants being read 64th Article with questions, asking if she was crying at the time, and if not outright crying, did she had tears in her eyes. It went on for at least three legal size pages of the transcript.

This was a black male lawyer funded by the Boston NAACP, which had at first released a statement "deploring" the women's action.

In his closing argument, the lawyer, Julian D. Rainey, asked the panel that would decide the women's fate to be "indulgent," to consider that the "misguided"

women "in their immature minds each believed they were being persecuted...believed they were making a gesture for their people in a feeble way." Feeble?

At the time of this court martial hundreds of thousands of young men were being hailed as heroes for risking their lives for the the ideals of freedom and justice for all.

Yet it was unthinkable that four women might have the capacity to demonstrate the same moral courage.

News and Links

Here's an additional sneak peak at the book tour I'm planning for Standing Up Against Hate. I'll be joining two young adult novelists to talk about survival, and what tools young people might find in our books to help them confront the challenges they face.

I'll be sharing how black WACs not only survived injustice, but thrived while serving their country. Author Stephen Wallenfels' will addres surviving the wilderness outside and our demons within. Author Maureen Doyle McQuerry's historical novel shows how people gain resilience through surviving difficult family situations.

Below is our poster. And below that, check out our video. You'll be hearing more about our tour soon!

YA Survival Tour #YoungAdultbooks

Until next week...

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To find out more about my books, how I help students, teachers, librarians and writers visit my website at www.MaryCronkFarrell.com.

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