Enemies in Love
NB: This is an example of how the micro-history of ordinary people can subvert all our stereotypes about animus based on race, ideology, religion and identity. Worth reading. DS.. A love story between a 23 year-old black Army nurse and a 19 year-old white German POW during World War II? You couldn't make
that story up - and Alexis Clark didn't. The former editor at Town
& Country is an adjunct professor at Columbia University's School
of Journalism. I spoke with her about her new book, Enemies in Love,
and what she learned about hidden Army history and the human heart...Below is an edited
version of our conversation.
What was the
inspiration for this book, what got you rolling?
I was really
interested in the military after I found out that I was a distant relative of
Colonel Charles Young. He was the highest ranking African-American in the army
until his death in 1922. So I just started delving into African-Americans who
served in the military. And I discovered a book called G.I.
Nightingales, and it was about World War II nurses. There was a very brief
chapter about black women who served in the Army Nurse Corps. That's when I first
learned about Elinor Powell, and a little sentence that said she met and later
married a German prisoner of war in Arizona. I was like, "Wait
a minute. I need to unpack this."
Who was Elinor
Powell, and where did she come from?
Elinor Elizabeth
Powell was from a prominent African-American family from Milton, Mass — a
progressive suburb outside of Boston. Her family was one of the few black
families to settle there. Her father had served in the Great War.
So basically, when she joined the Army, she was going in her father's footsteps
serving her country. There weren't really any stories of egregious
racism in Milton — Elinor was largely shielded from that. She had white
friends, and went to white schools, and had a great childhood. So she thought
she was doing her patriotic duty enlisting to serve in the war.
What happened
when she was assigned to an intake base in Arizona?
That was at Fort
Huachuca, about an hour and a half outside Tucson. And it was her first
encounter with Jim Crow. The military at the time was entirely segregated, and
Arizona functioned under Jim Crow. So this was her first experience seeing
"Whites Only" and "Colored" signs. It was this great irony
— she is serving her country, fighting a war against fascism and racism — and
here she was on the receiving end by her own country! She realized that
she couldn't even get served at certain restaurants; she would be wearing her
military uniform and they wouldn't serve her. Or in some instances, they would
tell her, "Well, we'll bring you the food around back..."
She must have
been outraged. Did other black soldiers feel the same way?
When I was doing my
research, I would read various letters that black soldiers wrote to the NAACP,
complaining that here they are serving their military and they're in train
stations and they see German POWs use the dining rooms with American guards.
But they didn't have access. And that was also a shock to the
Germans, because in most of their cases, they hadn't traveled to the United
States and they did not encounter African-Americans at home.
So how did
Elinor and her future husband, Frederick Albert, meet?
They met at a prisoner
of war camp in Florence, Arizona. The closest city was Phoenix, which is about
an hour and a half away. Frederick was a great cook and a baker, and so his
assignment was to work in the mess hall. So when the nurses entered for their
meal, he spotted Elinor and he said it was like he was under a spell. He walked
right up to her and said, "You should know my name. I'm the man who's
going to marry you."
Whoa! Just like
that?
Yes! And he wasn't the
only one — she felt it, too. The attraction became stronger and
stronger. Eventually they had a relationship. Then the war ended, and it was
obvious Frederick was going to be shipped back to Europe at some point; he
couldn't stay at Camp Florence forever. But Frederick and Elinor
had a plan. They decided that they should conceive a child, because
that was going to be the easiest and quickest way for Frederick to be able to
return to the United States, because he would have to support a child. And
that's exactly what happened. So before he was deported, they conceived a
child. And then he returned to Germany, and she returned home to Milton,
pregnant and unmarried.
I'm sure that
was hugely popular with her family!
Well, her father had
died a few years before that, but her mother was very proper and she was not
happy at all! She thought Elinor was being conned — that Frederick just wanted
sex or a green card. But eventually he got permission to return, and they
planned a small wedding.
Was that the
beginning of their Happily Ever After?
Not exactly. When Frederick
moved to the United States to marry Elinor and then start a family together,
they struggled. They moved to Boston. They tried to find apartments, find work.
As a mixed couple, no one wanted to live next to them; it was hard to get a
lease. It was hard for him to find employment because he was German. (Remember,
this was right after the war.) And Elinor knew that he was from a wealthy
family, and she feared that he would regret his decision.
So at some
point, the whole family went to Germany, because they thought that would be
easier?
Yes. Frederick's
father had done well after the war, and Frederick was positioned to take over
his father's engineering firm. And that's what they did. But it was
not easy on Elinor. People were pointing, taunting her when she was
walking down the street. She remembers that a man dropped his groceries when he
saw her and the fruit just rolled down the lane. He couldn't believe it! She
said she felt like an animal in a zoo.
How did she fare
with his family? After all, she was black and American, and this was a country
where a lot of people believed in Hitler's Master Race theory....
His mother was very
unkind. She didn't speak fluent English, and she showed her displeasure by
screaming at Elinor in German often. Frederick would watch his
mother berate his wife, but he didn't do anything. He was not an
aggressive man. He knew Elinor was very unhappy; they realized Germany wasn't
going to work. So they returned to the United States.
They started off in
Morton, a suburb of Philadelphia. And they couldn't enroll their son in the
school that's in their neighborhood -- the principal suggested
the colored school nearby. So Elinor pitched a fit and approached the
NAACP. At the time, she had to go ahead and put her son in school. But I did
see a newspaper clip, and eventually they desegregated the school that they
wanted her son to originally attend.
Did the family
stay in Morton?
The family moved a
lot, trying to find a place that would accept them. Finally
they find a community called Village Creek, in South Norwalk, Conn. Frederick
got a job at Pepperidge Farms, the baking company. And it literally was a
neighborhood that said it's a prejudice-free zone. So mixed couples, Jewish
couples, artists, gays, you name it - they were welcome there.
And that's where they
settled. The only thing that was difficult is that Elinor and
Frederick really didn't bring up race with their children. So the boys had
identity problems. Their older child had to undergo a lot of
hardship because of their decision to be together, despite the fact that
society was against them.
What did you
learn from researching and writing this book?
I learned that black
women served this country during World War II. And I learned about their
struggles to be even admitted into the Army Nurse Corps. With
that came a strict quota, even though there were nursing shortages. Even though
President Roosevelt threatened to draft nurses in January 1944
and 1945, the Army rejected thousands of qualified black nurses! They wanted to
enlist and they weren't able to. That was another piece that I found
illuminating about the role that blacks have played in the military. And then
you have this 'Love Conquers All' story between Elinor and Frederick — twenty
years before Loving v. Virginia was decided by the Supreme
Court.
