Invisible Warriors: African American Women in World War II
with Gregory S. Cooke and Jeremiah Ellis

History Revealed Series
Thursday, April 14, 2022
7:00 pm

In partnership with the Ramsey County Historical Society and the Roseville Library

Live presentation on Zoom
Register in advance for this meeting: Zoom Registration Link
Registration is limited. You will receive a confirmation email after registering.
For questions, please email [email protected]

Invisible Warriors: African American Women in World War II, share the untold story of 600,000 Black women – “Rosie the Riveters” – who worked in factories and government offices during WWII, including here at the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant (TCAAP). Prior to the war, nationally more than 80 percent of employed Black women were locked in life-stifling jobs as sharecroppers and domestics, according to Invisible Warriors creator and World War II historian, Gregory S. Cooke.  After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, many women quit their jobs as domestics.

Jeremiah Ellis will talk about some of the women who worked at TCAAP, and Greogory Cooke will share the making of his film,  Invisible Warriors: African American Women in World War II in a brief discussion. After the discussion, attendees are invited to view a special screen of the entire film of Invisible Warriors, about 60 minutes long.

The film Invisible Warriors shares the stories of women in the Philadelphia area who became “Black Rosies.” One of the women featured in the film, Ruth Wilson, left her job as a domestic and received training at Bok Technical High School before working as a sheet metal specialist at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Wilson helped build the aircraft carrier, USS Valley Forge.  For Wilson, the job paid significantly more, but it was also about patriotism, helping her country win the war. “I did something to help the cause, and I was doing something to help the boys. It just made me feel special.”  “Wilson’s resilience and determination typified the spirit of Black Rosies as they sought brighter futures for themselves and family members in a country dominated by systemic racism and gender discrimination,” according to Cooke.

The Invisible Warriors: African American Women in World War II screening is sponsored by the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota.

The Ramsey County Historical Society, in partnership with the East Side Freedom Library, the Ramsey County Roseville Library and other community organizations, will present a series of programs and events during 2022 that will center on the experiences of indigenous people, African Americans, and immigrants in Ramsey County from the 1800s through the current day, Making Minnesota: Natives, Settlers, Migrants, and Immigrants. These programs focus on the too often lost, erased, forgotten or misrepresented histories and stories of Ramsey County and the state of Minnesota. We expect these presentations to enrich and complicate our understanding of the development of the county and the state that we call home.