Charity Adams Early: Teacher and Leader of Women

Charity Adams Early inspecting her troops.

In this blog entry we continue to examine Savannah State University (SSU) as part of Savannah’s intellectual capital. In the last two blogs we have studied two remarkable men who taught at SSU. Now it is about time we discuss a woman. The woman is Charity Adams Earley (5 December 1918 – 13 January 2002) the first African-American woman to be an officer in the Women’s Auxiliary Corps (WACS). She served in World War II as the commanding officer of the first battalion of African-American women to serve overseas.
Charity Adams Earley was born on December 5, 1918 and grew up in Columbia, South Carolina. Her parents were well educated and encouraged her reading and education from an early age. Because of this early encouragement she entered school as a second-grader and graduated high school two years early as valedictorian of her class. 
After her graduation from college, she taught math and science in a junior high school in Columbia, South Carolina. In the summers she continued her education at Ohio State University. World War II would change the trajectory of her life and make her the leader she would come. She enlisted in the Women Army Corps (WACS).
After time spent in training and later as a trainer in March 1945 she was assigned as the Commanding Officer of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion. The battalion was stationed at Rouen and Paris, France. They delivered mail to over seven million soldiers during the course of their time in France during World War II.
When asked about her efforts Adams responded simply, "I just wanted to do my job".  Although, discrimination was everywhere in the Army she was not afraid to speak up and fight for desegregation in the Army. When the Army proposed segregating the training regiments, even though she was told she would head one of the segregated regiments, she refused. This stand was influential in the Army deciding against creating separate regiments.
On one occasion, a general suggested, "I'm going to send a white first lieutenant down here to show you how to run this unit". Not yet a colonel, Major Adams responded, "Over my dead body, sir." The general shocked by her attitude threatened to court-martial her for disobeying orders. She filed charges against him for using "language stressing racial segregation" and ignoring a directive from Allied headquarters. The General seeing she was unwilling to bow to his ‘illegal’ command dropped the matter.
 She decided to leave the service in 1946 when she was called to serve at the Pentagon. Continuing her education she earned a master's degree in psychology from Ohio State University. She taught at Miller Academy of Fine Arts, was the director of student personnel at Tennessee A&I College. She became the director of student personnel and assistant professor of education at Georgia State College (later Savannah State University).
She left Savannah State University after getting married to Stanley A. Early who lived in Zurich, Switzerland training to be a doctor. She moved to Zurich to be with him and to study. She learned German at the Minerva Institute this allowed her to attend for University of Zurich. Earley also studied at the Jungian Institute of Analytical Psychology, but she did not pursue a degree.
She returned with her husband to the United States. They lived in Dayton, Ohio. She was the founder of the Black Leadership Development Program (BLDP) which seeks to educate and train African Americans to be leaders in their communities. She later formed Parity Inc. to facilitate the BLDP’s training program.
Adams received many honors and awards, including a Woman of the Year from the National Council of Negro Women in 1946, a Service to the Community Award from the Ohio State Senate in 1989. In 1987, Adams was listed on the Smithsonian Institution's 110 most important historical Black women, was inducted into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame in 1979 and the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame in 1993. She was also inducted into the South Carolina Black Hall of Fame and named citizen of the year by The Montgomery County Board of Commissioners in 1991. In 1997, Adams was included in the BellSouth African-American History Calendar.
She received honorary doctorates from Wilberforce University and the University of Dayton in 1991.
Before her death on January 13, 2002, the Smithsonian National Postal Museum honored Earley for her work with the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion. In a ceremony held in Washington, D.C. in 1996, the institution recognized Earley’s achievements in World War II.
Adams never stopped her education or her role as an educator. One can only imagine in her short time at Savannah State University how she influenced and encouraged many of the women students of their own power to change themselves for better and to change the world.
In my next blog we will conclude series on Savannah State University’s contributions through the years as a citadel for Savannah’s intellectual capital.

The following two articles are some of the research I used in writing this article:
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MLA - Spring, Kelly. "Charity Earley." National Women's History Museum. National Women's History Museum, 2017. Date accessed.
Chicago - Spring, Kelly. "Charity Earley" National Women's History Museum. 2017. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies

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