The True Story Behind Tyler Perry’s ‘The Six Triple Eight’, Explained

Tyler Perry’s movie The Six Triple Eight is about the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion and its heroism during World War Two. The 6888th was a unit of 885 Black Women’s Army Corp (WAC) and was the only all-Black and all-female group to serve overseas. Their task was to deliver millions of pieces of undelivered mail to military personnel to boost morale in the later days of the war.

The Six Triple Eight, distributed by Netflix, stars Kerry Washington as Captain Charity Adams, the woman in charge of the 6888th, with Oprah Winfrey, Sam Waterston, and Susan Sarandon contributing to the cast. The movie explores the accomplishments and adversity faced by the 6888th and shows how the unit didn’t just achieve its goals but exceeded every expectation along the way.

The true story of The Six Triple Eight is compelling and moving alike. It highlights the fact that there are no small tasks in wartime, but also exposes a relatively unknown aspect of history.

The 6888th Was Sent to Europe in February 1945

Made up of nearly 900 women, the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion boarded a ship traveling from the United States to Scotland on February 3, 1945. The women, all Black, had undergone basic training in Georgia and were already members of the Women’s Army Corp, the female branch of the U.S. Army. After arriving in Glascow, Scotland, the group was transported to Birmingham, England. There, they were presented with three airplane hangars full of undelivered mail.

Despite the late stage of the war, military officials had decided that mail delivery was essential for overall morale. Thanks to the advocacy of Mary McLeod Bethune (played by Oprah Winfrey in The Six Triple Eight), the women in the 6888th were assigned to locate recipients, sort and process letters and parcels, and clear out the hangars that contained millions of pieces of undelivered mail.

Bethune was a member of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s (Sam Waterston) so-called “Black Cabinet.” As a friend of Eleanor Roosevelt (Susan Sarandon) and advisor to President Roosevelt, Bethune advocated for the inclusion of Black people in the WAC. Bethune was also key in recruiting Charity Adams (Kerry Washington), the future leader of the 6888th, to join the WAC.

The Women of the 6888th Developed Their Own System for Handling Mail

Once in Birmingham, a white officer tried to instruct the 6888th “how to do it right,” to which Major Charity Adams replied, “Sir, over my dead body, sir!” According to Retired Brigadier General Wilma Vaught,

“The general put her up for court-martial but later dropped it, and they became friends. He later apologized.”

The 6888th established a system using serial numbers placed on information cards to identify recipients by last name. This resulted in seven million cards by the time they cleared the backlog of mail. The women of the 6888th endured rat-infested, cold surroundings and worked 24 hours a day in three shifts. Each shift tracked and processed roughly 65,000 pieces of mail. Bombs dropped from the surrounding skies, distracting and terrifying in the words of Corporal Lena Derriecott:

“You could hear the German buzz bombs coming over… You could hear in the distance when one had hit.”

The sounds and threats of war were not the only dangers faced by the 6888th. Racism and sexism alike were constant. In the words of Anna Tarryk, a veteran of the 6888th,

“We had to fight the war on three fronts: first we had to fight segregation, second was the war, and third were the men.”

The 6888th Was Then Sent to France

The 6888th had been given six months to sort and process millions of pieces of mail in England. They accomplished this in just three months. They were sent to Rouen, France, to handle more mail despite the fact that the war had nominally come to an end. On V-E Day in May, the women of the 6888th celebrated alongside others in France.

The situation with the mail in France was no different from what it had been in England, but the 6888th worked in more hospitable surroundings. Set up in a monastery, the women were able to decorate it a bit since it wasn’t as dank and dark as their previous workplace. With respect to the mail, it had “been held up for months… that was two or three years old,” the 6888th faced new challenges from language differences, however. That said, it was only five months until they were done. After that, they were relocated again to Paris.

In France, the 6888th enjoyed their off-hours by venturing into different villages and visiting locals. They had been afforded kindness by many English people they met, but in France they formed recreational sports teams and were treated to accommodation at a luxurious hotel in Paris. Mary Ragland described what it was like in France:

“People were so positive… They asked, ‘Why does your country treat you so badly when black people have contributed so much to the country and the culture?’ It was embarrassing having them ask that.”

Slowly, as the war came to a close and the mail dwindled down, members of the 6888th were sent home. The last of the unit was disbanded in February 1946. Stream on Netflix.