In Honor of Anna Mac Clarke

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BARR. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Ms. Anna Mac Clarke. Ms. Clarke was a native of Anderson County, Kentucky and worked to desegregate our nation's armed forces during WWII. Today she is honored with the renaming of her hometown Main Street in her honor.

Ms. Clarke grew up in Anderson County and was a 1937 graduate of Lawrenceburg High School. She then furthered her education at Kentucky State College where she participated in athletics, wrote for the school newspaper, and joined Delta Sigma Theta sorority before graduating with a bachelor's degree in sociology and economics in 1941. Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor, Ms. Clarke decided to join the all-female Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC).

Upon completion of WAAC officer training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, Third Officer Anna Mac Clarke became the first African-American WAAC assigned to a command that was otherwise an all-white unit. Ms. Clarke went on to lead a unit of 144 African-American women in service at Wakeman General Hospital at Camp Atterbury, Indiana before also serving at the WAAC Headquarters in Washington, D.C. After the WAAC auxiliary units became a part of the regular army, Ms. Clarke let the first Women's Army Corps (WAC) unit onto base at Douglas Army Air Field in Arizona. When she and her unit first arrived, the base was segregated. However, Ms. Clarke stood against this injustice, refused to sit in the colored section, and raised this issue with commanding officers. In response, the commanding officer issued the following order, ``Educate properly all enlisted and civilian personnel in your respective departments to accept any colored WACs assigned as you would any white man or woman in the Army of the United States. Every consideration, respect, courtesy, and toleration will be afforded every colored WAC. No discrimination will be condoned.''

Ms. Anna Mac Clarke sadly passed away on April 19, 1944 at the age of 24 following complications from surgery. Yet, her steadfast contributions to the desegregation of our armed forces serve as an extraordinary example of courage and patriotism in service to one's country. It is my honor to recognize Ms. Clarke, as a street is renamed today in her honor in her hometown of Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. I am forever grateful for brave Americans like Anna Mac Clarke.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source