Tyler Perry tells the incredible true story of an Army battalion of Black women who risked their lives to deliver mail to troops on the frontlines during the Second World War
With so much to divide human beings on this planet, it has become increasingly difficult to make a broad, sweeping statement that rings true for everyone. But chances are that at some point in time, we have all needed a boost in morale. In fact, to borrow from the great British author Jane Austen, one could even say that this fact “is a truth universally acknowledged.”
For some in our day and age, low morale could stem from something like a personal loss, a change in one’s financial or medical situation, or a global pandemic. For others, like those in Netflix’s newest drama, low morale is a pandemic in and of itself.
In the war epic The Six Triple Eight, multi-hyphenate filmmaker Tyler Perry joins forces with actress and entrepreneur Kerry Washington to tell the remarkable story of a group of women who dedicated themselves to boosting soldier morale during the Second World War. Tasked with a daunting and perilous duty, members of the Black women’s U.S. Army battalion, known collectively as the 6888th, risked their lives to deliver a backlog of undelivered mail to American soldiers on the front lines.
Billed by Netflix as “the inspiring story of [the Second World War]’s only Women’s Army Corps Unit of colour,” The Six Triple Eight is a period drama which focuses on “the quiet heroism of everyday individuals.” Nearing the end of the war, soldier morale was at an all-time low as battles dragged on all over Europe and several supporting efforts continued on the home front. Due to the massive loss of life and increasingly dangerous conditions abroad, much of the United States’ outgoing mail — which largely consisted of messages of hope and important news from loved ones — failed to reach its intended recipients overseas.
Aware of the ever-growing backlog, philanthropist, educator and human rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune (portrayed by Oprah Winfrey) approached then-first lady Eleanor Roosevelt (Academy Award-winner Susan Sarandon) to discuss the creation of a military unit to address the nearly 17 million pieces of mail for delivery, some of which dated back as far as three years. Thus, the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, or Six Triple Eight, was born, and Major Charity Adams (Washington) was assigned as its strong and capable leader.
The idea for The Six Triple Eight came to writer/director Perry as something he felt called to after having been approached by producer Nicole Avant (Wag the Dog), who wished to film a movie based on a Kevin Hymel article in WWII History Magazine. The article, titled “WAC Corporal Lena Derriecott and the 6888th Central Postal Battalion,” was an interview with battalion member Lena Derriecott King, whom Perry met later, in preparation for the film. Ninety-nine years old at the time, Derriecott King told Perry “that her decision to enlist was spurred by the death of her friend, a Jewish man named Abram David, on his first combat mission for the U.S. Army Air Forces” (per Backstage).
“She got really emotional, saying to me that he had died within a few weeks of being in the war,” Perry said to the Backstage interviewer. “And to see her emotion after 70-plus years,
I thought, ‘Wow!’”
Derriecott King died peacefully this past January, at the age of 100, but her memory lives on through the power of film. Portrayed onscreen by If Beale Street Could Talk actress Ebony Obsidian, the late corporal is honoured alongside 854 of her fellow servicewomen of colour for delivering millions of pieces of mail in less than three months, which was half the allotted time for the unit’s mission.
The story of the 6888th Battalion hasn’t been widely told, and even Perry was taken aback to learn about it when Avant first brought the project his way.
“I was quite embarrassed to not know that bit of history,” Perry shared via Backstage. “The very thought of that immediately piqued my interest, but it also [made me] pretty frustrated that these women’s stories had been ignored for all of these years.”
This is precisely why, Avant says, she and Perry “have a responsibility” to share this story.
“We’re very aware that we are the promise of everyone who’s come before us and sacrificed for us, physically, emotionally and spiritually,” Avant told Backstage. “Our job is to make sure that their stories and their lives are never forgotten and always celebrated.”
In addition to Washington, Winfrey, Sarandon and Obsidian, The Six Triple Eight also stars Milauna Jackson (How to Get Away with Murder), Kylie Jefferson (Tiny Pretty Things), Shanice Shantay (The Wiz Live!), Sarah Jeffery (Charmed), Moriah Brown (Raising Dion), Pepi Sonuga (Queens), Jeanté Godlock (Daybreak), Baadja-Lyne Odums (Ruthless), Donna Biscoe (Hidden Figures), Dean Norris (Breaking Bad), Sam Waterston (Law & Order), Jay Reeves (All American) and Scott Daniel Johnson (Found). Gregg Sulkin (Runaways) appears as Derriecott King’s friend Abram David.
The Six Triple Eight, streaming on Friday, December 20, on Netflix