Friday, March 12, 2010
PRINCESS ANNE – African-American women were allowed to enter the military for the first time during World War II. While training in Fort Des Moines, Iowa, the first contingent slept in segregated barracks, ate at separate dining tables and used segregated recreational facilities.
However, the women were able to persevere despite the hardships.
Dr. Janet Sims-Wood, a former assistant chief librarian in the Reference/Reader Services Department at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University, will discuss the courageous example set by the first black Women’s Army Corps unit on March 29 at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore’s Frederick Douglass Library.
Sims-Wood’s lecture, “Fighting for Freedom: Black Women’s Army Corps During World War II,” will be held in the library’s auditorium from 7-9 p.m. Her talk is part of the National Women’s History Month 2010 theme, “Writing Women Back into History!”
The event is free and open to the public. For more information call Jennifer Neumyer at 410-651-7696 or e-mail janeumyer@umes.edu.
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Candice Evans, UMES Office of Public Relations, 410-651-6669, caevans1@umes.edu
Gail Stephens, assistant director, UMES Office of Public Relations, 410-651-7580, gcstephens@umes.edu
