TThe women of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the largest unit of black women to serve overseas during World War II, certainly made their mark on the war effort, processing approximately 65,000 pieces of mail per shift. From 1945 to 1946, around 850 officers and men were responsible for delivering mail from the home front to soldiers fighting in the European theater of war.

Now, for the first time in a major Hollywood production, the focus is on an operation that took place entirely behind the scenes. The Netflix film The Six Triple Eightwhich hits theaters on December 20th and is directed by Tyler Perry and features a star-studded cast. Kerry Washington plays battalion leader Charity Adams, trying to prove that black service members deserve the same respect and opportunities as white service members. Sam Waterston plays President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, while Susan Sarandon plays First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. And Oprah Winfrey plays Mary McLeod Bethune, the first black woman to lead a federal agency that informed FDR on the issues that mattered to black Americans.

The Six Triple Eight tells the story of Lena Derriecott King (Ebony Obsidian), a Philadelphia-area woman who joins the Army in hopes of becoming a nurse after her boyfriend is killed overseas. King was a real person, as was her suitor, a man from her neighborhood named Abram. In the film, King’s mother, a caterer at a local synagogue, disapproves of the match because she fears her black daughter might face discrimination if she dates a white Jewish man. After Abram goes abroad, King writes him many letters that go unanswered – a foreshadowing of her later work with the 6888 – until she finds out that he has died. In the film’s most dramatic scene, King’s colleagues find a letter Abram wrote to her that was never delivered, and Adams says the discovery made her realize why her work organizing the mail was so important.

Here’s what you should know about the real women who inspired the film and their battalion’s greatest achievements.

What it was like to be in 6888

The women of 6888 had to overcome a lot of discrimination despite having numerous top performers. Adams, a native of Columbia, S.C., graduated from high school as valedictorian and was a member of the inaugural officer class of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC).

White and black women trained together but could not sit next to each other on buses or share living quarters. The film shows black female soldiers donning gas masks in tear gas-filled rooms and climbing rope ladders as part of their training, yet are still asked to give up their seats in the theater. Such humiliations were commonplace, according to an article about the 6888 by military historian Kevin M. Hymel, which inspired the film.

When Adams was deployed, she didn’t know she would be tasked with organizing mail until a sealed envelope fell into her lap mid-flight. In the film, Bethune tells President Roosevelt that the troops trained by Adams are up to the task.

The women of the 6888th Battalion immediately went to work in a dark warehouse in Birmingham, England, that was once a school. The film shows the 6,888 women rushing to turn it into an office. Apparently, in real life, the warehouse was overrun by rats climbing over mail bags, according to Maj. Gen. Mari K. Eder The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line: Untold Stories of the Women Who Changed the Course of World War II.

“I know what this looks like, ladies,” Adams said, according to Eder’s book, “and I know what you’re probably thinking.” But we have a job to do, and we will get it done. Now let’s get organized.”

They had to deal with letters addressed to soldiers’ nicknames, not real names, such as “Junior, US Army” or “Buster, US Army.” Care packages often fell apart in transit and the battalion was responsible for packing the contents back inside.

“They are clearing the backlog faster than any civilian or military member who has been there before,” Lena S. Andrews, author of Brave Women: The Extraordinary American Soldiers Who Helped Victory in World War IIsaid TIME in 2023.

“By ensuring that all mail was delivered, she really helped maintain the morale of troops in the European theater,” said Matthew F. Delmont, author of Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Who Fought at Home and Abroad in World War IIsaid TIME in 2022.

Eder says some of the 6,888 members have found that they have more freedom in England than in the US, where everything is segregated. They made friends with locals and some even dated English men.

After the war

After organizing 17 million pieces of mail, 6888 was sent to France, where it had six months to clear a two-year mail backlog. The 6888 did it in three months. Adams was promoted to lieutenant colonel, making her the highest-ranking black woman in the U.S. Army.

After the war, 6888 did some work in Paris organizing civilian mail, and then the unit was decommissioned in 1946. King remained abroad for a time, enrolling in a design school in Leicester, England, and later living in Las Vegas, Nevada for many years.

In 2022, the battalion was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor bestowed by the United States Congress. On one side of the medal is a portrait of Adams, and on the other is a large stack of letters and packages labeled “Clearing the Backlog.” In 2023, a U.S. Army base named after Confederate General Robert E. Lee was renamed Fort Gregg-Adams in honor of the 6888s Adams and Arthur Gregg, another pioneering African American in the Army.

The Six Triple Eight Director Tyler Perry was allowed to show King the film shortly before her death. She watched it from a hospital bed. In a video he posted on Instagram, King says, “Thank you for reminding the world of the contribution of the black woman.” King died on January 18, 2024 at the age of 100.

Two decades before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the 6888th Battalion showed what black women were capable of. “We had a large group of adult Negro women who had been victims of racial prejudice in one way or another,” Adams wrote in her memoirs. “This was an opportunity for us to stand together for a common cause.”