Asserting Citizenship: Black Women in the Women’s Army Corps (wac)

Abstract

Military service has long been seen as one of the few routes available to African American men to demonstrate their rights to full citizenship. In 1942, the Women’s Army Corps (wac) opened this path for black women. More than 6,500 black Wacs served during the Second World War, yet, marginalized while in uniform and later overshadowed in narratives of black servicemen and white servicewomen, they and their unique experiences remain largely unknown outside of academia. This article examines the multiple subordinate positions to which the United States Army confined black Wacs, as black female soldiers, during the first years of the corps; investigates the army’s gender and racial policies and their civilian and military roots; and forefronts the actions of black Wacs who, by challenging their subordination, laid claim to their full rights as soldiers and as citizens.