Last updated: July 31, 2023
Place
Fort Devens Historic District
CC BY-NC-ND, https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:02871k81t
Quick Facts
Location:
Devens, MA
Significance:
former Army base and site of historic strike against racial discrimination by Black members of the WAC
Designation:
National Register of Historic Places
Fort Devens Historic District marks the site of a significant former Army base in central Massachusetts. Established during World War I, it served as an induction and training facility for most new troops from New England and northern New York. In 1945, it was the site of a historic strike by African American members of the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) in protest of racial discrimination.[1]
Creation & Early Years
After the United States entered World War I in 1917, the federal government scrambled to set up 32 new training camps for Army and National Guard recruits. Named after Union Army Brigadier-General Charles Devens, the new “cantonment” facility in Massachusetts processed thousands of troops from New England and northern New York.
The base had originally been intended as a temporary facility. During the 1920s, the buildings began to deteriorate. Congress proposed closing the site entirely in 1930. Local congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers, however, successfully lobbied for it to remain open, citing the economic benefits for the surrounding rural region. Over the next ten years, the Army developed Fort Devens into a permanent post.
During World War II, Fort Devens trained troops from throughout New England for a variety of roles. The site featured an airport and a large hospital complex.
The Black Wac Strike at Fort Devens, 1945
While most troops at Fort Devens were white and male, the site also employed Black male troops and, briefly, both Black and white members of the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). Black women joined the WAC in segregated units between 1942 and 1945, making up about 4% of the total force. Respected educator and Black clubwoman Mary McLeod Bethune had fought for Black women to be admitted into the Army. She championed the WAC as a venue for them to advance their careers and prove their worth in a racist society.
Unfortunately, the 6,500 Black women who joined the WAC encountered segregation, discrimination, and racist slights throughout their time in the Army. For many of them, the biggest problem was the unequal treatment they received in assignments and job duties. The WAC advertised specialized training and career opportunities for women that would challenge them and prepare them for work after the war’s end. White recruits got the chance to train as hospital technicians, cryptographers, radio operators, and meteorologists, among many other jobs. Army authorities primarily assigned Black Wacs, however, to menial duties as janitors, laundresses, or dishwashers. Being pigeonholed into domestic labor was a common frustration for Black women workers. Many of them had unfairly been denied well-paying defense jobs despite President Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1941 executive order banning discrimination in war work.
Black Wacs had to carefully choose when and how to resist this treatment. In the spring of 1945 at Fort Devens, 54 of them did just that. For the five months they had been assigned to the base, the women had been working as hospital orderlies. They laundered bedsheets, emptied trash, and scrubbed floors at the fort’s large medical complex. Meanwhile, their white counterparts quickly moved on to training as hospital techs and nurses. Black Wacs were issued blue hospital smocks, while white Wacs donned the stylish uniforms that the Army showcased in its recruitment materials.
After authorities brushed off their complaints, the women decided to act. On March 9, they staged a walkout. Their commanding officers threatened them with court-martial for insubordination. Fifty of them decided to return to work, but four others—Privates Anna Morrison, Mary Green, Alice Young, and Johnnie Murphy—refused. They were arrested.
The women’s court-martial became a media sensation. The Army maintained that it did not discriminate based on race. The mainstream press and white public were split, with some sympathizing with the women and others accusing them of disloyalty. The Black press and civil rights organizations, however, rallied around the Wacs. When Alice Young’s parents heard she had been arrested, they telegraphed:
“Dear Daughter, have heard the news. Sorry it had to happen yet we glory in your spirit and are with you one hundred percent.”[2]
The outcry only grew when the women were convicted and sentenced to a year’s confinement with hard labor and dishonorable discharge. Thurgood Marshall, the lead attorney for the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund, announced that he would take on their appeal. Anxious to calm the storm, War Department authorities decided to dismiss the charges against the women and revoke their sentences. They returned to duty at Fort Devens.
The Army removed some of the officers who had supervised the Black Wacs and ignored their complaints in the weeks leading up to the strike. It also created a training program for Wac orderlies. Military authorities did not, however, resolve the overall problems of job discrimination against Black servicewomen.
Though the Wac strikers’ efforts are not as well-known as those of some Black male soldiers who resisted racist treatment, they were a crucial contribution to the growing struggle for Black civil rights during World War II.
Later Years, Closure, & Redevelopment
Fort Devens remained an active-duty base until closure in 1996. As of the early 2020s, it functions are a Reserve Forces Training Area. The Massachusetts land bank, a state agency that lends and develops properties for community development, owns much of the area formerly encompassed by the base. It has overseen redevelopment, including the adaptive reuse of some military buildings. Fort Devens Historic District is located in Devens, MA. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 10, 1993. It is bounded by Antietam and El Caney Streets on the north, west, and south and by Jackson Street on the east. The district includes several Georgian Revival-style buildings, including dormitories and administrative offices. Most structures are arranged around a central parade ground, Rogers Field.
Notes
[1] This article follows standard conventions when referring to the Women’s Army Corps and its members. The abbreviation WAC refers to the Corps, while the terms “Wac” and “Wacs” denote individual members.
[2] Quoted in Bolzenius, 83.
Sources
Bolzenius, Sandra. Glory in Their Spirit: How Four Black Women Took On the Army during World War II. Vol. 129. University of Illinois Press, 2018.Delmont, Matthew F. Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad. New York: Viking, 2022.“History.” Fort Devens Museum, http://fortdevensmuseum.org/history/. Access July 19, 2023.Jones, M.E. “Devens military history not forgotten as disposition draws nearer.” Sentinel and Enterprise (Fitchburg, MA), Mar. 3, 2023. https://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/2023/03/03/devens-military-history-not-forgotten-as-disposition-draws-nearer/. “World War I Training Camps.” Cengage, Encyclopedia.com. https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/world-war-i-training-camps.
Article by Ella Wagner, PhD, Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education. This article was funded by the National Council on Public History's cooperative agreement with the National Park Service.