Southern Diva

I’m sure you’ve seen the trailer of Tyler Perry’s latest movie, Six Triple 8, starring Kerry Washington. I nerded out and did a deep dive on the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion ahead of the movie premiere. I had never heard of this group of women and wanted to learn more about their stories. Here is a quick rundown.

1. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary McLeod Bethune successfully pushed to allow the admittance of Black women in the Women’s Army Corps.
2. Major Charity Adams (the woman Kerry Washington is playing) was the highest ranking female Black officer at that time. Her personal story is also amazing, she was basically a genius.
3. They were the only African American women’s unit to serve overseas during WWII.
4. There was a 6 month backlog of mail.
5. They worked 7 days a week and split work into three shifts and processed about 65,000 pieces of mail per shift. That’s about 17,550,000 pieces of mail total!
6. They created serial numbers on info cards to sort mail. Totaling about 7 MILLION cards!
7. They were expected to clear the mail in 6 months, but they cleared it in 3. Period!
8. They then moved on to do the same thing in Rouen and Paris, France.
9. They came home to crickets, nothing, nada.
10. In 2002 is when they were (finally) awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

Source: NPS.gov

If you haven’t already, watch the trailer below.

Sources: NPS.gov, Netflix