Author Event - The Hello Girls by Elizabeth Cobbs
National Archives at Kansas City
Kansas City, MO
On Thursday, March 22 at 6:30 p.m., the National Archives will co-host Elizabeth Cobbs author of The Hello Girls in collaboration with the National World War I Museum and Memorial. This free program will be held at the National World War I Museum and Memorial, 2 Memorial Drive, Kansas City, Missouri.
This is the story of how America’s first women soldiers helped win World War I, earned the vote, and fought the U.S. Army. In 1918, the U.S. Army Signal Corps sent 223 women to France. They were masters of the latest technology: the telephone switchboard. While suffragettes picketed the White House and President Woodrow Wilson struggled to persuade a segregationist Congress to give women of all races the vote, these competent and courageous young women swore the Army oath. Cobbs reveals the challenges they faced in a war zone where male soldiers welcomed, resented, wooed, mocked, saluted, and ultimately celebrated them. They received a baptism by fire when German troops pounded Paris with heavy artillery. The Army discharged the last Hello Girls in 1920, the same year Congress ratified the Nineteenth Amendment granting the ballot. When the operators sailed home, the army unexpectedly dismissed them without veterans’ benefits. They began a 60-year battle that a handful of survivors carried to triumph in 1979. Reservations are requested for this free program.
All events listed in the calendar are free unless noted.