Irma Cayton Wertz Papers

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Irma Cayton Wertz, through her marriage to Horace R. Cayton, played a significant role in the Chicago Black Renaissance of the 1930s and 1940s. Irma alongside her husband helped foster the work of African American writers and artists. A Fisk University graduate, she helped Horace carry out his groundbreaking research with other scholars in the new “Chicago School” of sociology at the University of Chicago. Irma was employed as a social worker and also volunteered in the settlement house directed by Horace, Good Shepherd (later Parkway) Community Center in Chicago's South Side African American community. After the United States entered World War II she served in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC, later WAC) as a member of its first “colored” officer's class. There she worked to eradicate the army's segregationist practices. In the 1950s she settled with her second husband, Dr. William John “Jack” Wertz, in Detroit, where she spent over 50 years as a volunteer community leader in arts and education.

Born Irma Irene Jackson on May 8, 1911 in Brunswick, Georgia, she experienced military life in the segregated United States Army early. Her father, Dr. R.N. Jackson, was a physician who served during World War I as captain in the Meharry Medical Group, a segregated African American medical unit stationed at Fort Des Moines in Iowa. As a World War II WAC, Wertz later would recognize the very building at Fort Des Moines in which that group had been stationed. Irma grew up in Brunswick and attended Fisk University. After receiving her B.A. Wertz proceeded with graduate studies in social work. In 1935 she met Horace R. Cayton at Fisk while working as an assistant in the social science department. He had taken a one-year position at Fisk teaching economics and labor issues. The two fell in love and were married in November 1935 in Chicago.

By 1936 they had found housing in Chicago's renowned “Rosenwald,” or Michigan Boulevard Garden Apartments, at 47th Street and South Michigan Avenue. They lived not far from the University of Chicago where Horace Cayton was pursuing his graduate studies with Robert Park, W. Lloyd Warner, Louis Wirth, and other founders of the Chicago School of Sociology. From 1936 to 1939 Horace also was hired to direct a series of research programs carried out by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in Chicago, including sociological research in the urban African American community. He also wrote Black Workers and the New Unions (1939) and published extensively on these topics, especially the issue of residential segregation. Meanwhile Irma attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, was employed as a social worker at the Children's Placement Bureau, and handled the couple's complicated finances while managing their household. Many of Chicago's academic and artistic community found welcome there. Well-educated, Irma helped Horace organize and write his manuscripts and deal with his research projects while she shared Horace's friendship with such luminaries as Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Paul Robeson, and Katherine Dunham.

The WPA project office was located at 47th Street and South Parkway in the Good Shepherd (Congregational Church) Community Center, renamed Parkway Community Center in the early 1940s. Horace found himself more and more involved with the Center's programs in the community, and so did Irma. She especially contributed to the resident Skyloft Players, a theater company that presented works by such authors as Hughes and Wright.

Having received a Rosenwald Fellowship to study low-cost housing in Amsterdam and London, Horace set sail with Irma for Great Britain in July 1939. They dismissed signs of impending war until Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, and then found themselves nearly trapped in France. After a scramble to acquire tickets on the President Roosevelt they reached American shores at the end of September. Horace returned to his many projects and studies. In December he was chosen to administer the expanding Good Shepherd Community Center, already the largest African American settlement house in the world. This opportunity to combine scholarship and practice represented a dream come true for him, and a fertile source for his writing. Meanwhile Irma taught Red Cross first-aid classes and joined efforts to rescue Jewish refugees. Horace was soon hired to contribute to the Pittsburgh Courier on issues important to him. But his vocal attacks on America's Jim Crow while African Americans volunteered for military duty attracted the notice of the FBI. Although subsequent investigation concluded he probably was not a Communist Party member, the Caytons would continue to be victims of FBI surveillance.

In 1940, however, Irma and Horace's marriage had begun to unravel badly. Not only was he unfaithful, but his emotional state was increasingly volatile and complicated by substance abuse. Irma divorced him in October of 1940, then agreed to a remarriage in April of 1941. As the war worsened, she added Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and the Women’s Defense Corps of America to her volunteer defense agenda. In July 1942 Irma applied for acceptance into the first Officer Training School for African American women, in the new Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAACs, later WACs). As one of four African American women chosen from Chicago, she was sent to Fort Des Moines, Iowa, and began training immediately.

The W.A.A.C. was an auxiliary and not officially within the army's chain of command. However, the blatantly segregated status of the “colored” WAACs at the Fort, beginning with separate “white” and “colored” entrances to the mess hall, spurred Irma to send information about this situation to the outside world. Her husband as a Courier writer was perfectly situated to publicize it. Thereupon the Fort became a destination for curious journalists. Mary McLeod Bethune, then advisor to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, paid a visit. Slowly the Jim Crow labels disappeared—but Irma had gained a reputation that would hinder her progress in the army.

Upon graduation from officer training at the end of August 1942 Irma was transferred to WAAC headquarters in the office of WAAC director Oveta Culp Hobby in Washington, DC. But she was assigned few duties and soon requested a transfer. Sent back to Fort Des Moines to await further assignment, Irma was promoted to 2nd. Officer, the equivalent to army lieutenant. In November she was posted to Fort Huachuca in Ariz. as officer in charge of the first WAAC Post HQ Company, with her friend Lt. Violet Askins as executive officer. Fort Huachuca was home to some ten thousand African American servicemen training for duty, and the WAACs' arrival in December was met with great excitement. There was a grand military display including military band, post commander inspection, and a march of WAACs to quarters where Irma and other officers welcomed them.

Despite the superior ratings given Irma's unit she was not promoted in the spring of 1943. In August of 1943 the WAAC was incorporated into the army as the Women's Army Corps (WAC), and Irma and the others had the opportunity to re-enlist. She was named Officer in Charge of the new WAC unit.

Its African American personnel called Fort Huachuca "the plantation" because the Post Commander was a southern-born segregationist, and he saw Irma as a “troublemaker.” Segregation existed on many levels, but the primary issue was the inappropriate post assignments given to highly trained WAACs and WACs. These college-educated women had trained for work as chauffeur, truck driver, hospital lab, X-ray & pathology, physical therapy aide, bookkeeper, photographer's assistant, water & sewage analyst, map maker, cook & mess sergeant. Instead, they were relegated to kitchen work, scrubbing the quarters, and other menial tasks. Irma finally sidestepped protocol and requested an official investigation from WAC headquarters. As a result, the post commander was notified he should make appropriate WAC post assignments. Then, in mid-1944 Irma was promoted to captain. Soon after that a request came from Fort Lewis, Wash., for a WAC unit and Irma was chosen to command that group. In December 1944 she led them on the long train journey to Fort Lewis. However, her struggle for proper assignments for her WACs continued.

Irma had divorced Horace Cayton for a second and final time in September 1944. In December she married William John “Jack” Wertz, a lieutenant stationed at Fort Huachuca. After the war ended she was discharged in December 1945. She returned to Fort Huachuca, and the Wertzes traveled to Mexico. Discovering that the GI Bill would cover their college tuition in Mexico City, Irma returned to graduate school to pursue Latin American studies while Jack completed his pre-medical undergraduate work in 1948. Also in 1948 their son Jackson was born, also in Mexico City. From 1948 until 1954 Dr. Wertz completed his medical training at Meharry Medical School followed by psychiatric residencies in Fort Lewis and in Alaska, while Irma returned to Brunswick to care for son Jackson and teach in the local high school. In 1954 Dr. Wertz received an appointment to a psychiatric residency in Detroit, Michigan, and the couple made that city their permanent home.

A self-styled “professional volunteer,” Irma Cayton Wertz immediately became active in the Detroit community, serving as president of the Detroit PTA Council for a number of years and advocating for public education. At the Detroit Repertory Theatre she assumed major responsibility for fundraising and served several decades on the board, continuing her involvement for nearly fifty years until shortly before her death in 2007. Simultaneously she served in the Detroit Receiving Hospital Services League and the Hutzel Hospital Pastoral Care Service. She started her own stationery company, “T's and Totes.”

Dr. William John “Jack” Wertz served as psychiatric administrator for the state of Michigan. He died suddenly in 1975. Irma Cayton Wertz passed away on February 20, 2007 at Providence Hospital in Southfield, Michigan, survived by her son W. Jackson "Jack" Wertz.

Sources

• Hobbs, Richard S. The Cayton Legacy: An African American Family. WSU Press, 2002
• Jefferson, Robert F. Fighting for Hope: African American Troops of the 93rd Infantry Division in World War II and Postwar America. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008
• Moore, Brenda L. To Serve My Country, To Serve My Race: The Story of the Only African American Wacs Stationed Overseas during World War II. New York University Press, 1996
• Morehouse, Maggi M. Fighting in the Jim Crow Army: Black Men and Women Remember World War II. Rowman and Littlefield, 2000

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

The Irma Cayton Wertz Papers include official military documents and correspondence, Wertz's own memoir manuscripts about her WAC army experience, and nearly ninety photographs of her and her WAC compatriots at Forts Des Moines, Huachuca, and Lewis (1942-1945). The military correspondence includes her appeal to WAC Command Headquarters for assistance in getting appropriate assignments for the women in her unit. A generous clippings file provides dates and legal context for her years served in the military as well as rosters of African American unit members by name. The clippings, some from the Pittsburgh Courier, include Irma Cayton interviews or statements in which she discussed her strong feeling that it was her patriotic duty to serve in the WAAC/WAC. The few serial publications from Fort Huachuca provide further views of personnel and activities at the post. The photographs, many taken by the U.S. Army's Signal Corps at the various posts, provide a rare view of African American military history, particularly of Fort Huachuca. Some photograph subjects cannot be identified by name at this time. Memorabilia of interest include Irma Cayton's membership card to the Women's Defense Corps of America, Chicago Chapter, 1942.

Throughout the collection, particularly in both clippings and photographs, the researcher will find reference to names of African American women who went on to serve with distinction, including overseas, such as Charity Adams Early, Violet Ward Askins Hill, Mildred Carter, Mary Kearney, Harriet West, Ruth Wade, and Dovey Johnson Roundtree.

The small amount of correspondence from Irma's husband Horace R. Cayton, and their mutual friends, provides just a glimpse of her impact upon Horace's work as an academic, arts supporter, and social activist.

Many of the materials in the Wertz Papers arrived in scrapbook format. A number of photographs, letters, and small memorabilia, originally glued onto black scrapbook photo pages, could not be separated completely from the photo page or from each other. Pending future conservation activity, all these materials are available "as is" in this collection. Some of the scrapbook pages were photocopied before being disassembled, and these photocopies are available for viewing the original arrangement (Box 1, folders 58-60).

The Irma Cayton Wertz Papers are arranged into the following series:

 

Series 1: Cayton Wertz Biographical

Arranged in chronological order. See also Series 4 and 5 for documents that include Irma Cayton Wertz personal information.

Series 2: Manuscripts

Contains two memoirs by Wertz, the second an essay in a published work.

Series 3: Correspondence--general

Arranged in alphabetical order by correspondent. Mostly of a congratulatory nature, sent by friends to Wertz upon her induction into the Officers Training School, July 1942. Includes letters and telegrams from her husband, Horace R. Cayton. Please note that originals of Box 1, folders 10 and 14 are stored in Box 4 (oversize).

Series 4: Correspondence--military

Arranged chronologically. Correspondence in Box 1, folder 22 involves Wertz's attempts to get women in her unit appropriate work assignments commensurate with their ability and training.

Series 5: WAAC/WAC Military Service Material

Arranged chronologically. A variety of documents were generated by bodies within the military chain of command. Please note that they include War Department Orders No. 30 and 34, listing Wertz's name change after marriage to Lt. Wertz and her assignment to court-martial duty.

Series 6: WAAC/WAC Veterans Material

Arranged alphabetically by title. Includes reunion programs, newsletters, etc. that reference WACs documented within other Series.

Series 7: Clippings

Arranged chronologically, except for the article about Dovey Johnson Roundtree by Katie McCabe, clipped from the Washingtonian and placed first in Box 1, folder 44.

Series 8: Serials

Arranged chronologically, but layered in oversize box 4 with other materials.

Series 9: Photographs

Because many of the photographs are not identified or dated, they have been arranged somewhat arbitrarily. An attempt was made to arrange the photographs into either a "personal" or a "military" category, and then chronologically within each category. Please note that photo #8 (Meharry Medical Group scan) is stored in Box 3, out of numerical order.

Series 10: Memorabilia

Listed in alphabetical order by name of object. However, please note that by size and condition some memorabilia items are stored in Box 1, folders 55-61, and others in oversize Box 4, items 4-17.

Related materials at the Chicago Public Library include:

• Horace Cayton Papers
• Clementine Skinner Papers
• Harold Thatcher Papers
• Susan Cayton Woodson Papers

Related materials at other institutions include:

• Fort Huachuca Photograph Collection,1883-1963, U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center, U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle, PA
• National Archives for Black Women's History, Mary McLeod Bethune [Council House] National Historic Site
• National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Record Group II and III (African American military personnel)

CONTAINER LIST

Series 1: Cayton Wertz Biographical

Series 2: Manuscripts

Series 3: Correspondence – general

Series 4: Correspondence – Military

Series 5: WAAC/WAC Military Service Material

Series 6: WAAC/WAC Veterans Material

Series 7: Clippings

Series 8: Serials (see Box 4)

Series 10: Memorabilia (see also Box 4)

Series 9: Photographs

Series 8: Serials (Oversize)

Series 10: Memorabilia (Oversize)

Series 3: Correspondence – General (Oversize)