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“It
was raining that April morning as the train rolled into the
station at Lawrenceburg. It
was one of those day-long rains that slows the world down and
gives you time to reflect. They had been waiting to meet the train that was bringing her
back home. Home to
her final resting place, this young woman who had, in the short
span of 24 years, accomplished so much, not only for herself but
for her race and her gender.”
--From “A Pioneer in Military Leadership” by John
Trowbridge, used with permission.
Anna Mac Clarke was born June
20, 1919 in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky.
While attending Kentucky State University Anna Mac was
involved in sports, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, and the school's
newspaper, The Kentucky Thorobred.
In 1941, she
received her Bachelor’s Degree in sociology and economics, but
she was unable to find a job back home in Lawrenceburg. Educated African American women in the early 1940s had few
options, particularly in small towns where the only jobs
available to them were low-paying.
In
1942, Anna Mac Clarke joined the All-Volunteer Women's Army
Auxiliary Corps and left  for Basic Training at Fort Des Moines,
Iowa. After
she completed Basic Training, Clarke went on to Officer
Candidate School. As
a black officer at Fort Des Moines, Clarke faced segregation
such as not being allowed to swim in the pool on the base,
except during a one-hour period on Fridays, after which the pool
was purified. Yet
it was during this time that Clarke became the first black WAAC
to commander an all white-regiment.
Clarke continued to be promoted,
and became a First Lieutenant in 1943, around the same time that
the WAAC became a part of the regular military, becoming the
Women’s Army Corps. Clarke
and other African American officers stopped the Army from establishing an all-black regiment at Fort Des Moines.
She then led the first group of WAC officers onto the
Douglas Army Air Field in 1944, where she initiated an end to
segregation on the base. Soon
after, Lt. Clarke died when her appendix ruptured and gangrene
entered her body. She was buried back home in Lawrenceburg, where a historic
marker now tells her story.
(summarized from “A Pioneer in Military
Leadership” by John Trowbridge)
Read the whole text
of Trowbridge's work on Anna Mac Clarke.
Learn more about
women in the military.
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