The task of clearing 17 million pieces of backlogged mail was thought to be impossible. in an area of conflict.
Maj. Charity Adams was aware that the mission was crucial for the morale of World War II soldiers as well as for the standing of Black people in the eyes of the nation’s highest military officials. Tyler Perry’s most recent film, Six Triple Eight, which is currently available on Netflix, documents the actual actions of the 855 women who served in the Women Army Corps 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalionare.
The battalion’s capacity to tackle a persistent issue in the face of discrimination while also being undervalued by people around them seemed like both an impossible feat and an all too familiar situation to Kerry Washington, who plays Adams.
In an interview with NBC News, Washington stated that when these women were asked to solve this problem, it was one that many people had attempted to solve but no one was able to. In order to help bring the war to a close, they came in and, like Black women, they found a way to improve a situation that seemed hopeless. In doing so, they gave the soldiers a sense of purpose, love, belonging, and hope.
Oprah Winfrey portrays Mary McLeod Bethune, the leader of the National Council of Negro Women and a member of President Franklin Roosevelt’s Negro Cabinet, who pushed for Black women to fight in the war. Black women were accepted to the military, but they were assigned relatively minimal work and kept apart from white women. Many questioned whether removing endless mountains of mail would be successful because top military leadership believed Black people were generally inferior.
According to Washington, letter was the primary means of maintaining relationships with those you cared about in those days. FaceTiming, emailing, texting, and WhatsApp were all absent. You could hardly ever reach a landline. “Mail was it because people didn’t have cellphones,” she added. Thus, soldiers lost hope when they stopped receiving correspondence. Their sense of direction was gone.
Most people had forgotten about the unit’s efforts, including director Perry, who was unaware of the 6888th’s work until producer Nicole Avant reached out to him about taking it on.
In an interview with members of the National Association of Black Military Women last month following a screening of the movie in his hometown of Atlanta, Perry explained that he realized he could use Lena Derriecott Bell King, then 99, a member of the 6888th, to help tell the incredible story. Before King passed away on January 18, nine days before her 101st birthday, Perry had the good fortune to see her an early cut of the movie.
Perry chose Ebony Obsidian, star of his long-running Sistas series on BET, to play 17-year-old Lena Derriecott.
Obsidian was surprised about the role. She didn’t know he wanted her in his movie or that it was a genuine story when he asked her to read the script.
“When I read the script, I didn’t even consider playing Lena,” she added, accompanied by Washington.
Obsidian, whose other works include Wu-Tang: An American Saga on Hulu and the Barry Jenkins movie If Beale Street Could Talk, acknowledges that she was anxious about playing the lead but expressed her gratitude that Perry would choose her. She claimed that her mother’s encouragement and recollection of her childhood moniker, Little Soldier, convinced her to accept this challenge despite its scary nature.
“The greatest gift was meeting Lena,” Obsidian continued. Despite the fact that she was plainly 100 years old when I first met her, I feel that some aspects of her had to remain the same at the age of 17, simply because she was honorable.
Washington felt led by the genuine Adams, who passed away in 2002 at the age of 83, but she was never able to meet her.
According to Washington, she published a really lovely memoir titled “One Woman’s Army,” which I read a few times before she passed away. Parts of the memoir used to hang up in my dressing room, and I devoured it. I surrounded myself with images of her, examined old videos, spoke with people who knew and collaborated with her, and listened to previous interviews. I simply made a sincere effort to immerse myself in as much of her spirit and being as possible.
Washington claimed that after practicing one of Adams’ speeches with Perry, it was good to see the commander’s real World War II trunk outside her dressing room, complete with her clothing and scribbled notes.
However, Washington’s speech in the movie has sparked the most curiosity, even from her own children, who have questioned, “Whose voice is that?” after she showed the trailer to them. Washington put in a lot of effort with both an accent coach and her acting teacher to get that unique voice, which sounds like a strong Southern twang accented by precise Midwestern enunciation, maybe mirroring Adams’ origins in South Carolina and education at Wilberforce University in Ohio.
Back then, they lacked amplification. She claimed that it wasn’t as though she was holding a karaoke machine. Where in my body would that reside if I had the same level of authority, responsibility, and calling that she did? What effect would that have on my posture? What effect would it have on my voice? In order for these ladies to feel seen and heard by me, how would it affect my resonance and my need to be heard? I asked myself some of those questions in an attempt to determine the source of that vocal performance.
Washington and Obsidian expressed their gratitude for being featured in a movie that honors Black women’s courage, excellence, and sisterhood. According to Obsidian, the movie also demonstrates that, with the right people by your side and the appropriate support, you can overcome any obstacle.
“It’s really exciting to be part of corrective history in some ways,” Washington remarked. Our tale, which has been marginalized, is about some real heroes—not just American heroes, but heroes of democracy everywhere.
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