Adams, Charity (1917–2002)

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Adams, Charity (1917–2002)

African-American military officer. Name variations: Charity Earley. Born Charity E. Adams, Dec 5, 1917, in Kittrell, North Carolina; died Jan 13, 2002, in Dayton, Ohio; graduate of Wilberforce University.

Was the 1st black commissioned officer in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps and commander of the only battalion of black women to serve overseas during WWII; retired as a lieutenant colonel (1946) and turned to teaching.

See also memoir One Woman's Army: A Black Officer Remembers the WAC (1989).

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