{"product_id":"to-serve-my-country-to-serve-my-race-the-story-of-the-only-africanamerican-wacs-stationed-overseas-during-world-war-ii-9780814755228","title":"To Serve My Country  to Serve My Race: The Story of the Only African-American WACS Stationed Overseas During World War II","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe story of the historic 6888th  the first United States Womens Army Corps unit of African American women to serve overseas  While African American men and white women were invited  if belatedly  to serve their country abroad  African American women were excluded for overseas duty throughout most of WWII. However  under political pressure from legislators like Adam Clayton Powell  Jr.  the NAACP  the Black press  and even President Roosevelt  the US War Department was forced to deploy African American women to the European theater in 1945.  African American women answered the call to serve from all over the country  from every socioeconomic stratum. Stationed in France and England at the end of World War II  the 6888th brought together women like Mary Daniel Williams  a cook in the unit who signed up for the Army to escape the slums of Cleveland and to improve her ninth-grade education  and Margaret Barnes Jones  the units public relations officer  who grew up in a comfortable household with a politically active mother who encouraged her to challenge the system.  Despite the social  political  and economic restrictions imposed upon these women in their own country  they were eager to serve  not only out of patriotism but out of a desire to uplift their race and dispel bigoted preconceptions about their abilities. Elaine Bennett  a First Sergeant  joined because \"I wanted to prove to myself and maybe to the world that we would give what we had back to the United States as a confirmation that we were full- fledged citizens.\"  Filled with compelling personal stories based on extensive interviews  To Serve My Country  To Serve My Race is the first book to document the lives of these courageous pioneers. It reveals how their Army experience affected them for the rest of their lives and how they  in turn  transformed the US military forever.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45646848327733,"sku":"ByrdShop_0814755224","price":88.97,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780814755228.jpg?v=1781679130","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/to-serve-my-country-to-serve-my-race-the-story-of-the-only-africanamerican-wacs-stationed-overseas-during-world-war-ii-9780814755228","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}