Collection: Lt. Col. Charity Adams Earley: The Highest-Ranking Sister Who Waged War on Two Fronts
(Displayed Item(s): WW2 Era Summer Khaki Women's Army Corps (WAC) Uniform, Original Era Lt. Col. Insignias, US Lapel Insignias, WAC Lapel Insignias, Eagle Crest Hat Emblem & Hobby Hat)
Before there were generals who looked like us, before America admitted that Black women could lead with brilliance and strength, there was Lieutenant Colonel Charity Adams Earley: a soldier, a scholar, and a symbol of Black excellence in uniform.
As a Black American historian, museum curator, revolutionary and lover of our people, I present this truth: Charity Adams was not just fighting fascism overseas; she was fighting white supremacy within the U.S. Army itself. And she did it with dignity, discipline, and a fire that could not be extinguished.
Born in 1918 in Kittrell, North Carolina and raised in Dayton, Ohio, Adams was a woman of deep intellect and unshakable pride. She graduated from Wilberforce University, an HBCU rooted in resistance, and when she joined the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) in 1942, she entered a military system that tried to make Black women invisible.
But our Sister Charity didn’t shrink.
In 1945, she became the commander of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion: better known as the “Six Triple Eight.” This all-Black, all-female unit was sent to Europe during World War II to do what others could not: sort and deliver 17.5 million of backlogged letters and packages that had been sitting for two years, depriving troops of vital morale and news from home.
Charity led 855 Black women through cold warehouses and racism, through gender bias and military bureaucracy and under her leadership, they cleared a massive two-year backlog in just three months. No excuses. No complaints. Just Black brilliance in action.
When a white general threatened to “send a white officer to show her how to lead,” Adams responded, “Over my dead body, sir.”
That was the spirit. That was the stance. That was Black womanhood in command.
She was the first African American woman commissioned as an officer in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, and by war’s end, the highest-ranking Black woman in the entire Army. But the significance of her story is not just in her rank; it’s in the legacy she left behind for generations of Black women in the military, in leadership, and in spaces that never expected to see them thrive.
This artifact (An authentic WWII WAC Summer Uniform) is a piece of that legacy. A testimony of a woman who wore combat boots and carried a community. She led with grace, defied white male authority, and proved that Black women don’t just follow history: we make it.
“Lt. Col. Charity Adams Earley walked into war with dignity, daring to lead in a system designed to deny her. She didn’t just deliver mail: she delivered justice.”
- Dr. Tracy P. Washington (Curator, United Crowns Mobile Museum of Black History & Culture)