Sweet Georgia Brown

While there have been a number of nonfiction and narrative films detailing the African-American experience in the U.S. military during World War II, the role that black women played in the nation's wartime efforts has been mostly overlooked. Lawrence E. Walker's documentary provides a welcome consideration of how these patriotic Americans ignored the indignities of the Jim Crow era in order to serve the nation. The inclusion of any women in the military was initially greeted with skepticism by the Pentagon brass and the Washington power brokers, and the idea of black women in uniform created even more uncertainty. Of the military branches, the U.S. Army was most inclusive of African-Americans via its Women's Army Corps (WAC), while the Navy and Coast Guard had fewer black women volunteers and made relatively little effort to recruit them. Racial segregation kept black women away from their white counterparts, and it wasn't until the winter of 1945 that black WACs saw overseas service when the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion arrived in England to coordinate mail deliveries for Allied soldiers. Walker combines rarely-seen newsreel footage and photographs of African-American women in service during the 1940s together with spirited interviews of surviving veterans and excerpts from a memoir by Major Charity Adams Earley, the highest ranking African-American woman in the wartime U.S. Army. Serving up an invigorating celebration of forgotten heroes, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)