For the next couple of weeks, we are going to look at a truly remarkable woman, Elizabeth Bernice Barker Johnson. During WWII, Mrs. Johnson was a member of the elite “Six Triple Eight”-the 6888th Postal Service Unit who made history as the only all-African American, all-female unit to serve overseas in the European Theater of Operations.
Our story begins even further back in time, on an antebellum farm in Elkin, North Carolina where Mrs. Johnson’s father, Jesse Barker, was born on November 19, 1854. According to a 1934 article in the Chatham Blanketeer, Mr. Barker was born on the farm of Mr. and Mrs. Howell Barker of Jonesville in Yadkin County, North Carolina.
In the 1870 United States Census, Jesse Barker was listed as a 15-year-old laborer living at home with his 20-year-old brother, Benjamin and parents, Jonas and Ellen Barker. On November 6th, 1875, Jesse married Miss Carolyn McMichael in the community of Knobs in Yadkin County, North Carolina.
In the 1880 census, Jesse and Carolyn had two children, Leroy and Ada. By the 1900 census, the family had added Maggie, born in 1883; Ina, born in 1885; Ella, born in 1887; Berla, born in 1891; Effa, born in 1892; Marvin, born in 1894; and Etha, born in 1897.
On December 12th, 1914, sixty-year-old Jesse Barker married thirty-year-old Marzella Jeannette Hill, the daughter of Nathan and Harriett VanEaton Gwyn of Surry County, North Carolina. The following year, Jesse and Marzella’s first child, Joseph was born, followed by Samuel in 1918; Elizabeth Bernice in 1920; Frances Ophelia in 1922; and Margaret in 1923.
Jesse Barker went to work for the Chatham textile mill in Elkin in 1897, spending over forty years toiling away in the boiler room. His final years with the company, he worked as a custodian. According to Jesse Barker’s 1944 obituary, Mr. Barker established a record during the forty-two years that he was employed by the Chatham Blanket Company, by walking back and forth to work-fourteen miles in all-every day in all kinds of weather, and in all those years, he was absent only once, when he was down with the influenza. When he passed away in 1944, his son was serving in the Army and his daughter, Elizabeth Bernice, was in the Women’s Army Corps. After Mr. Barker passed away at the age of eighty-eight, Marzella married William Kennedy and lived until the age of eighty-one, passing away in 1966.
I wanted to provide some background about Elizabeth Bernice Barker’s parents to give an idea of the tremendous work ethic and fortitude that was instilled in Elizabeth and her siblings. Elizabeth began making history right away when she graduated from Atkins High School in Winston-Salem. Atkins was the first use of Rosenwald funds for an urban high school for African Americans in North Carolina.
On March 11th, 1943, twenty-three-year-old Elizabeth enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps at Camp Butner in Durham, North Carolina. Elizabeth joined the elite group of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion. According to the website, https://www.womenofthe6888th.org/list-of-6888th-veterans , Elizabeth was one of only twenty women from North Carolina who joined the group.
The all-female, all African American 6888th achieved great success during World War II by clearing a massive mail back log of 17 million pieces of mail in three months, despite poor working conditions and discrimination. The 6888th’s motto was “No mail-low morale” and its’ mission was to get mail to the soldiers to raise morale.
After the war was over, Elizabeth returned to North Carolina where she enrolled in Winston Salem Teacher’s College and was the first woman at the school to use the GI bill to pay for her education. Elizabeth graduated with her teaching degree in 1949 and began teaching just over the line in Patrick County, Virginia. Elizabeth’s first teaching position was at the Red Hollow School in Spencer where she taught children in grades one through seven and she boarded with the Frank Martin family.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Elizabeth’s brother-in-law, Bernard Johnson, who was taught by Elizabeth when he was a young boy. In fact, Elizabeth would go on to teach three of her future in-laws, Bernard, Robert, and Katherine. Mr. Johnson stated that Elizabeth taught many children of local families, including the Johnsons, Martins, Edwards, Reids, Penns, Scales, Sheltons, Vias, and Hairstons. Children walked two to three miles to attend the Red Hollow School which was located near the Red Hollow Primitive Baptist Church in Spencer.
Next week, we will follow Elizabeth’s teaching career to Patrick Central School and learn more about her from her former students. I want to thank Mr. Bernard Johnson, Regina Watkins Brim, Mary Frances Sawyers Davis, Lillian Penn Manns, Larry Tatum, Linda Redmond, and Gary Hill for sharing memories for this week or the coming week. If you would like to share stories about how Elizabeth Bernice Barker Johnson impacted your life, you may add your memories to the Facebook page for Patrick Central School-Stuart VA for publication or reach out to me this week at rockcastlecreek1@gmail.com or (276) 692-9626.
