THE SIX TRIPLE EIGHT – A True Story Everyone Needs To Know

Looking for something to watch on New Year’s Day I came across THE SIX TRIPLE EIGHT on Netflix, the streaming service released the film on December 20 after a limited theatrical release. After being blown away I instantly went into research mode where this moving, sometimes infuriating and inspiring story continued to give me the chills. I learned how the stars aligned and just how much this story was ready to be told. But before I get into the alignment of the stars, let me tell you a little about the story first.

Written and directed by Tyler Perry (THE SINGLE MOMS CLUB, DIARY OF A MAD BLACK WOMAN), based on an article called “Fighting A Two-Front War” by Kevin M. Hymel, THE SIX TRIPLE EIGHT tells the incredible true story about the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion. If you’re asking yourself why this writer is so excited to tell you about a movie about mail, don’t worry because when Tyler Perry told the films star Kerry Washington (SCANDAL, RAY, DJANGO UNCHAINED) about the project she asked him the same question. Thankfully she too heard the story and had to be a part of telling it. Joined by a talented ensemble cast, including Oprah Winfrey (THE BUTLER, THE COLOR PURPLE, A WRINKLE IN TIME), Susan Sarandon (THELMA & LUISE, STEPMOM, DEAD MAN WALKINH), Dean Norris (BREAKING BAD, TOTAL RECALL, BETTER CALL SAUL), and Sam Waterston (LAW & ORDER, THE KILLING FIELDS, THE GREAT GATSBY), Washington breathed both beauty, honor and fury into her character, a true unsung hero of WWII and a name everyone should know, Major Charity Adams.

The film follows Lena King (Ebony Obsidian) who is raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by her mother and grandmother. After her friend Abram leaves and is soon killed fighting in the war, Lena feels the pull to do something for her country and enlists in the Army. There she meets and bonds with fellow enlistees Bernice Baker (Kylie Jefferson), Johnnie Mae (Shanice Shantay), Dolores Washington (Shanice Shantay) and Elaine White (Pepi Sonuga). The Army instantly segregated the women who had enlisted and soon the group joined hundreds of others under the command of Captain Campbell (Milauna Jackson) and Major Charity Adams (Kerry Washington) in the 6888th Battalion, the only all female and all women of color Battalion in WWII.

After graduating dozens of classes, Major Adams was not only constantly facing men who didn’t think women especially African American women should be in the position she was in, she also had still never received any real orders even after asking on more than one occasion. It wasn’t until President Roosevelt ( Sam Waterston) and Eleanor Roosevelt (Susan Sarandon) joined by activist and humanitarian Mary McLeod Bethune (Oprah Winfrey) sat down with the Army’s General Halt (Dean Norris) to find out why both the soldiers and their families and friends weren’t receiving mail. It was there where it was decided that General Halt was to give orders to Major Adams and the 6888th Battalion to join the war efforts by sorting and delivering the mail. Begrudgingly Halt gave the 6888th Battalion their orders, knowing men had both tried and failed and wanting rid of Major Adams. The orders were setting her and her Battalion up to fail from the start.

The backlog of mail was alarming, it had been months since there was any outgoing or incoming mail. When Major Adams arrived there wasn’t just one, there were several gigantic airport hangers full of bags of mail. They were given 6 months and less than hospitable lodgings to complete the task. In the abandoned and destructed King Edwards School full of rats with barely any heat, the 6888th began the tedious and sometimes impossible job of sorting and distributing the mail. The terms grueling working conditions was a gross understatement. Whether it was receiving 57 thousand pieces of mail back two months in saying they were undeliverable, having a racist and downright evil Chaplin sent to spy on her or having Halt himself visiting for an inspection where he belittles and undermines Adams in front of her entire Battalion it seemed at every turn there were extraordinary obstacles for these women. Yet somehow despite all of the racism and sexism these women faced, they were more fiercely determined to serve their country and lived by their leaders motto, “No Mail, Low Morale.”

Not only is the film about these amazing women, but it’s filmmaker was surrounded by amazing women as well and not just his cast. It was Carlota Espinosa, who serves as a producer on the film, who secured the rights to the original article. She teamed up with Keri Selig and Peter Guber, also producers of the film, who developed a type of sizzle reel which was sent along to Ambassador Nicole Avant, who then brought it to Tyler Perry. Ambassador Nicole Avant, who also serves as a producer on the film, had known this story well after hearing it from her mother as a young girl. It was a labor of love from this team, a love for these 855 women of color whose story no-one knew, that gave this film its core essence. Perry quickly went straight to the source and met with Lena Derriecott King in Las Vegas, and at 99 years young she took the director down memory lane reliving the story of both herself and hundreds of other women and surprising the director by how sharp her memory was. But he still needed more to make this film a reality, and this is where I got the chills feeling as if all the stars were perfectly aligned and the 6888th Battalion both those alive and those that had passed were giving their blessing and saying it is time. Perry has said in an interview that when he was thinking about casting, Kerry Washington had just posted a picture on her social media of her dressed as a member of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, he knew she had to play Major Charity Adams. But it was on their first day of rehearsals that they too got chills, filmmakers had enlisted the help of a WWII historian to get the vehicles for the film and he had recently bought a trunk at an auction. When he brought the trunk in to Perry and Washington when they looked at the side it was Charity Adams name they saw and her items, including handwritten notes and clothing, that they found inside.

Tyler Perry being the remarkable storyteller that he is, brings viewers a moving and beautiful story that will both bring tears to your eyes and at times anger to your heart, but it’s his attention to detail that will blow you away in this film. From the moment it starts the wardrobe, to the packages full of mold half eaten by rats and piles of letters almost all illegible it’s astounding to think of the lengths that they went to for authenticity. His gift as a director speaks volumes in every frame with scenes that will frustrate you and scenes that you wish you could have witnessed in person, like the scene of 855 women marched together down a war torn street to meet Halt after a grueling sea voyage.

With an ensemble cast full of up and coming actors working alongside veteran actors you never once get a subpar performance. Ebony Obsidian shines as Lena King and brings so much depth to the not only her character, but the utter sense of loss and sadness to the hundreds and thousands of families that hadn’t received mail from their loved ones gone fighting in the war. Shanice Shantay is glorious as Johnnie Mae, a funny, stubborn and at times beautiful form or comic relief for her friends during a time I’m sure there wasn’t always much of. When you see Ebony Obsidian, Kylie Jefferson, Shanice Shantay, Sarah Jeffery, and Pepi Song together on screen, they dissolve away and their characters bring you in closer touching your heart and forcing you to not only care about these women, but promise to never forget their names. But it is Kerry Washington’s scene with Dean Norris where Major Adams breaks protocol and utters the words “Over my dead body”, words Major Adams said verbatim, that will not only leave a lasting impression but want for us all to do and be better.

In 2025 it’s hard to think that not getting mail could be the difference between having more fight left in you and not being able to muster the effort because we live in a world where contact is almost sometimes too easy. But imagine if you couldn’t say ‘hello’ or ‘I love you’ to the people you care about most for months at a time and you’re in the middle of fighting for your life. For a soldier at war, even today, not being able to speak to loved ones as often as they would like is difficult. Now imagine it’s 1945 and you are fighting nazi’s. THE SIX TRIPLE EIGHT isn’t just about history or the untold story of unsung heroes it’s a moving and inspiring lesson to never give up hope, to stand for what you believe in and what’s right and to never let anyone make you feel like you are less than because of who you are or where you come from.

Thanks to an incredible group of talented actors and filmmakers the women of the 6888th Battalion are forever engrained in my heart and their story will continued to be shared by all those who see the film. It’s a side of war you never think about and a part of WWII that most people don’t know happened, never mind who the people were that fixed a devastating problem.

During the final credits of the film, a song that perfectly embodies the film plays. “The Journey” a song written by Golden Globe, Emmy and Grammy award winning songwriter Diane Warren is preformed by H.E.R. (Gabriella Wilson). Warren had also seen the sizzle reel that had been sent to Ambassador Avant, and like everyone else involved in this film was so moved she started writing the song even before seeing the film. “The next day, I set up my keyboards and I just started playing those chords and I started singing ‘the journey’ because I felt like that just encompassed what this whole movie was and what these women went through with everybody telling them they couldn’t do it and all the hardships that they had faced.” Warren said in an interview. Determined she “had the song” she would not let director Tyler Perry rest until he had heard the song. It is the perfect way to end the film.

Lead by Major Charity Adams the women of the 6888th Battalion, working in shifts so that work was getting done 24 hours a day, delivered 17 million pieces of mail in less than 90 days. Lieutenant Colonel Charity Adams died on January 13, 2002. In 2022 the women were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. In 2023 the U.S. Army renamed Fort Lee in honor of two African American U.S. Army pioneers Lieutenant General Aurthur Gregg and Lieutenant Colonel Charity Adams, making her the only African American woman in U.S. history to receive such an honor. The film, and the women’s stories that are told in it, have left a lasting impression.

Lena Derriecott Bell King died on January 18, 2024 just days before her 101st birthday. Tyler Perry had a chance to show her the film before she passed and has said that King saluted the screen and thanked him through tears for showing the world the contribution of African American women to the war.

When these women returned from war there were no parades with floats, there was no applause or love shown to them. These women didn’t just sign up to fight for their country during a war, they fought racism and sexism and were given an impossible task and they still succeeded, together. Now almost 80 years later their applause is finally here it’s within every frame of this film and every performance from each of these talented actors. It is a must see film.

Photos and quotes courtesy of Netflix

Did you see the film? Let us know in the comment section below! Be sure to follow us on social media.