In Flaming Letters

<b>A treasury of poetry and prose from an unsung trailblazer of Black literature</b> <p/> Lucia M. Pitts (1904-1973) was an African American writer and Army veteran whose story has never been told. Her poetry including love lyrics of striking sensuality and honesty was admired by Langston Hughes Countee Cullen and Dorothy West. Her work first appeared during the Harlem Renaissance influenced by Harriet Monroe's <i>Poetry</i> magazine and blues singers Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. A native of Chicago's Bronzeville Pitts challenged discrimination and segregation throughout her remarkable life both as a member of President Franklin Roosevelt's Black Cabinet and as the first African American woman employed at the War Department. Then in 1943 Pitts joined the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion the Army's only all-Black all-female battalion which later received the Congressional Gold Medal. <p/> Pitts's own account of her service with the Six Triple Eight however has remained unpublished until now. This volume brings together a biography of Pitts her complete military memoir and one hundred of her finest poems.