The True Story of Tyler Perry's "The Six Triple Eight": How Black Women Defied Odds to Complete Key WWII Mission (Exclusive)

12/20/2024 08:00 AM

Kerry Washington stars in the movie about an all-Black unit of the Women's Army Corps, who prevailed despite facing racism and sexism

• Director Tyler Perry's WWII drama The Six Triple Eight tells the true story of an all-Black unit of the Women's Army Corps.
• They were given a seemingly-impossible overseas assignment and prevailed despite facing racism and sexism.
• The movie stars Perry's friends Kerry Washington and Oprah Winfrey.

Saving Private Ryan, Pearl Harbor, A Soldier's Story, Schindler's List. Countless films about World War II tell emotional stories from different perspectives.

But Tyler Perry notes one glaring omission. "When I look at movies that were set in this time," he says, "there hasn't been one for Black women."

They're finally getting their due. The Six Triple Eight, directed and cowritten by Perry, tells the true story of the only all-Black unit of the Women's Army Corps to serve in Europe during World War II.

Their mission was an important one but also seemingly impossible: The 855 women, led by steely Major Charity Adams (Kerry Washington, also an executive producer), were given six months to sort through a staggering 17 million pieces of undelivered mail sitting in airplane hangars so soldiers could communicate with their worried families back home. "No mail, low morale" was the motto at the time.

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One Pennsylvania teen, Lena Derriecott King — the heart of the movie — knew the anguish of waiting to hear from a loved one and the devastation of receiving horrible news: Her dear high school friend Abram served overseas and was killed in combat. King (Ebony Obsidian) fell to pieces.

"She loved him deeply," Obsidian says. Then the resilient young woman picked herself up and joined the war effort in 1943. 

"She joined the Six Triple Eight to honor him," says historian Kevin Hymel, who interviewed King for the 2019 WWII History Magazine article that Perry adapted into the movie.

Once enlisted, King met a disparate group of Black women from all around the U.S., including Major Adams, a 26-year-old from South Carolina who projected a confidence beyond her years.

But despite Adams's eagerness to serve overseas, her segregated unit — underestimated and dismissed by their White male military superiors — was forced to remain on U.S. soil. 

That is, until First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (Susan Sarandon) and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune (Oprah Winfrey) pressured Army leaders to allow Black women to show their skills.

Bethune, who had Roosevelt's ear, "was such an advocate of women's rights and knew who Charity Adams was — she knew that she could handle those responsibilities," says Hymel.

But despite the support of Roosevelt and Bethune, the women were set up for failure by military leaders after sailing to England. "They did not send us because they thought we could do it. We are here because they are sure we cannot," Adams tells her unit in the film.

"They were given zero training, poor facilities," Hymel notes of the women, who worked in dank, rat-infested buildings with no heat. Threats came from enemies and supposed comrades in arms: German bombers buzzed overhead while racist U.S. soldiers menaced the women.

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According to Hymel, one general told Adams, "I'm going to get rid of you and replace you with a White woman." He says another White soldier "scared" King by calling her the N-word at a military dance.

The poor conditions united the members of the Six Triple Eight — the unofficial name of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion — who completed their mission ahead of schedule.

"They're bonded not just from the common journey of becoming soldiers together," says Washington. "They also were united against the forces of misogyny and racism within our own armed forces. So there was an unbreakable sisterhood."

That carried over to the movie's set. One day when there was downtime, Washington and actress, producer and dancer Debbie Allen, the film's choreographer, held a live "ask me anything" session with the cast.

"We said, 'What do you guys want to know?' We talked about balancing children with career. We talked about where we found our husbands," remembers Washington, who shares three children with her husband, actor and former NFL star Nnamdi Asomugha. "We talked about everything, and that was such a gift."

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There wasn't much time for hanging out, though. Perry filmed quickly, eager to show King, one of the last surviving members of the unit, the final cut of her story. Washington marveled at Perry's "efficiency" and brisk pace: " 'Well-oiled machine' doesn't even begin to describe it," she says, smiling at the memory.

Like the women of the Six Triple Eight, Perry completed his mission, and he traveled to see King at her Las Vegas home before she died on Jan. 18, 2024, at age 100.

He showed her the film on his iPad. "We sat and watched, and she was saluting the iPad and right back in the moment," recalls Perry. "After, she cried and said, 'Thank you for letting the world know that Black women contributed.' "

The Six Triple Eight is now streaming on Netflix.