For decades, stories of U.S. women during World War II and their contributions to war efforts have been folded under one image: that of a jumpsuit-wearing Rosie the Riveter who, invariably, is white. Meanwhile, the impact of women of colour — and particularly of Black women on the same factory and shipyard lines — is often minimised or ignored.
That’s true of the stories of enlisted servicewomen, too. During World War II, nearly 350,000 women, roughly 6,500 of whom were Black, served across all five branches of the U.S. military. Many went overseas, and some 432 died. Yet, their stories rarely get as much airtime as Rosie’s more marketable (and literal) illustration of 1940s’ girlboss-ery.
Tyler Perry’s new film on Netflix helps correct the record, on both accounts. Premiering in select cinemas and on Netflix this December, The Six Triple Eight movie is inspired by the true story of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, a predominantly Black, all-women unit led by Major Charity Adams Earley (played by Kerry Washington).
Starring Oprah Winfrey and Kerry Washington, a new trailer for the series has just dropped.
Together, the 855 women of colour who made up the 6888th took on the mission-critical task of restoring morale at a pivotal point in the war. How? By fixing a years-long backlog of mail — think 17 million undelivered letters and packages — that had failed to make it to American soldiers on the warfront. Making quick work of a herculean task, the women successfully completed their mission in half the allotted time, despite poor working and living conditions made worse by discrimination.
As quickly as the 6888th worked to help the Allied powers win World War II, society would move a lot slower to recognise them. It wasn’t until March 2022 — nearly 80 years after the battalion’s mission — that President Joe Biden signed PL 117-97, or the “Six Triple Eight” Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2021, into law. That made the 6888th the only women’s military unit to receive the United States’ highest civilian honour.
Now, the latest film by Tyler Perry is set to bring the battalion’s story to a wider audience on Netflix with the help of performances from Washington and a star-studded cast. Below, we’ve rounded up everything to know about the upcoming movie and the real events and people that inspired it.
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When is The Six Triple Eight coming out on Netflix?
The Six Triple Eight will be shown in select cinemas on December 6th before streaming widely on Netflix starting December 20th, per Netflix’s blog.
What is The Six Triple Eight about? The true story behind the movie
The Six Triple Eight tells the story of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion — the only predominantly Black Women’s Army Corps unit to be stationed in Europe during World War II — and draws many of its facts from reporting done for a 2019 WWII History Magazine article.
Deployed to Europe in February 1945 (and narrowly missing an attack by German U-boat to get there), the 6888th had a host of challenges ahead. Not least of these was the unit’s assigned mission: To clear a massive backlog of undelivered mail, successfully getting it in the hands of weary American soldiers overseas when morale was needed most. By this point, though, the women of the 6888th had just as many challenges behind them.
A few years before, in 1941, American women had campaigned for the right to serve their country as enlisted military personnel. Dovey Johnson Roundtree — who would go on to become one of the first Black woman officers in the U.S. — and Civil Rights legend Mary McLeod Bethune (played in Tyler Perry’s new film by Oprah Winfrey) partnered with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (played by Susan Sarandon) and Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers to draft the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) resolution. In 1942, it was passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
With the WAAC — changed simply to the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) in 1943, giving its members the same classification as soldiers — formed, white and Black women had both gained the right to serve the U.S. as members of the military, including overseas. Yet at first, Black women watched as only their white WAC peers were sent abroad, despite Black servicewomen’s interest and America’s need. It took more campaigning from Bethune and support from the First Lady to change that, with the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion forming in that activism’s wake.
Standing at 855 members, Black women made up the significant majority of the battalion. (Note: The 6888th is often referred to as having been “all-Black,” but its historical committee has since clarified that the unit included at least two non-Black Latina women, and possibly more.) And while most Black military units were commanded by white officers at the time, the 6888th carried the unique distinction of being entirely staffed by women of colour, including at the top.
Its commander, Major Charity Adams (later Major Charity Adams Earley), was the highest-ranking Black woman officer during World War II. Despite being just 26 at the time, with the 6888th, she’d earn the title of trailblazer as the first Black woman to command an overseas battalion in the U.S. Army. Under her leadership, the 6888th completed intense training in the U.S. before being deployed to England (and, later, France) to complete a mission not yet known to them. Upon arrival, they were told of the backlog of 17 million pieces of undelivered mail, with the expectation it would take the group six months to clear them all.
The 6888th got to work, organising under the motto “No Mail, Low Morale” and devising a round-the-clock system of sorting mail in eight-hour shifts, seven days a week. Conditions were hard, and discrimination was rampant. They worked in cold, dirty, and rodent-infested warehouses with blacked-out windows, and the living quarters — featuring outdoor showers in the dead of winter — weren’t much better. After a Major Adams-led boycott of the unit’s segregated facilities, the women ultimately decided to run their own food hall and hair salon, powering ahead at their mission all the while. Despite conditions, they were able to clear about 65,000 pieces of mail per shift, finishing the mission in just three months instead of six.
Perry’s upcoming film — which he was inspired to come onboard for as writer, director, and co-producer after meeting with one of the unit’s now-deceased former members, Lena Derriecott King (played by Ebony Obsidian) — will tell much of this long-ignored story. Speaking to Netflix, Perry said he’d been able to show King, who died in January 2024 at the age of 100, a rough cut of the film before her passing.
“She loved it,” Perry told Netflix. “She was saluting the screen. She was laughing. But at the end of it, it was so powerful. She was in tears. She just said, ‘Thank you so much for letting the world know that we contributed.’”
Who else is in the cast of The Six Triple Eight?
You’ll see a lot of familiar faces in this new Tyler Perry film on Netflix about the women of the 6888th. In addition to Washington, Winfrey, Obsidian, and Sarandon, who hold down starring roles, look out for:
- Milauna Jackson
- Kylie Jefferson
- Shanice Shantay
- Sarah Jeffery
- Pepi Sonuga
- Moriah Brown
- Jeanté Godlock
- Jay Reeves
- Jeffery Johnson
- Baadja-Lyne Odums
- Donna Biscoe
- Gregg Sulkin
- Dean Norris
- Sam Waterston
Does The Six Triple Eight have a trailer?
Yes, it does. You can watch the official Netflix trailer below:
This article originally appeared on Teen Vogue.
