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I've been out and about enjoying small moments of beauty as the temperatures grow warmer. Of course, I'm snapping photos which I've included below in the News and Links section.

In today's featured story, the women of the WWII 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion featured in my book Standing up Against Hate were awarded their Congressional Gold Medals this week.

​​​​​​​American Women’s Army Corps Captain Mary Kearney and Commanding Officer Major Charity Adams inspect the unspecified first arrivals to the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion at a temporary post in Birmingham 15th February 1945.  National Archives photo.

Mary Kearney graduated with the first class of officer candidates in Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps in 1942. Like many black Americans, she enlisted in the segregated Army following the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the US declaring war on Germany, Italy and Japan.

She knew she would face prejudice and unequal treatment in the army, just as she has lived it at home. After graduating from Howard University, she aspired to be a teacher but the best work she could find was as an elevator operator in Bridgeport, Connecticut where she'd grown up. 

“They wanted to get the respect of being a black person in their own country. They wanted to fight segregation, they wanted to have full rights, and they wanted to live their life as it was intended by the Constitution,” her niece told CT Public News.

In early 1945, the 6888th became the only black women's unit be posted for overseas duty. They were assigned the painstaking work of matching pieces of mail to the names of servicemembers posted all over Europe.

In Birmingham, they were confronted with six airplane hangars filled with Christmas packages alone that had been returned to the UK from the continent because it was impossible to deliver them during the Battle of the Bulge. 

“All of the speeches and greeting we heard as we got started reminded us that we were important to the success of the war; morale could not be maintained without mail from home,” Major Charity Adams remembered later. 

There was an address card for every member of the armed forces. Thousands of soldiers shared the same names, such as 7,500 Robert Smiths. These had to be differentiated by serial number (Aoooooo1) (Aooooo21). Plus Bob, Rob, Bobby, Robby, Bert…etc.

The 6888th broke all records for redirecting mail. Three eight-hour shifts averaged more than 65,000 pieces of mail. Long-delayed letters and packages reached battle casualties and soldiers who had been moving too frequently for mail to catch up with them.

Captain Mary Kearney was one of the last members of the postal battalion to return to the US when their work was finished. She later became a major in the United States Army Reserve, and a librarian at the New York Public Library. 

You can hear more about her life from her niece Dr. Sheila M. Kearney on the NextUs818 Podcast here...

I highly recommend sheet pan eggs with fresh asparagus.

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