The True Story of Tyler Perry’s ‘The Six Triple Eight’ (Exclusive)

• 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 task and prevailed despite racism and sexism.
• The film stars Perry’s friends Kerry Washington and Oprah Winfrey.

Saving Private Ryan, Pearl Harbor, A soldier’s story, Schindler’s List. Countless films about the Second World War tell emotional stories from different perspectives.

But Tyler Perry notices a glaring omission. “When I look at movies that were set during this time,” he says, “there hasn’t been one for black women.”

They finally get their due. The six triple eight, directed and co-written by Perry, tells the true story of the only all-black unit of the Women’s Army Corps that served in Europe during World War II.

Their mission was important, 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 record, low morale” was the motto back then.

A teenager in Pennsylvania, Lena Derriecott King—the heart of the film—knew the anguish of waiting to hear from a loved one and the devastation of receiving terrible news: Her dear high school friend Abram was serving overseas and killed in action. King (Ebony Obsidian) fell to pieces.

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

“She joined Six Triple Eight to honor him,” says historian Kevin Hymel, who interviewed King in 2019 WWII History Magazine article that Perry adapted for the film.

Once recruited, King met a diverse group of black women from across the United States, including Major Adams, a 26-year-old from South Carolina who projected a confidence beyond her years.

But despite Adams’ eagerness to serve overseas, her segregated unit—undervalued and dismissed by their white male military superiors—was forced to remain on American 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 demonstrate their skills.

Bethune, who had Roosevelt’s ear, “was such an advocate for women’s rights and knew who Charity Adams was—she knew she could handle those commitments,” Hymel says.

But despite support from Roosevelt and Bethune, the women were set up for failure by military leaders after sailing to England. “They didn’t send us because they thought we could do it. We’re here because they’re sure we can’t,” Adams tells his unit in the film.

“They got no training, poor facilities,” Hymel notes of the women, who worked in damp, rat-infested buildings with no heat. Threats came from enemies and supposed comrades-in-arms: German bombers buzzed overhead, while racist American soldiers threatened the women.

According to Hymel, a general told Adams, “I’m going to get rid of you and replace you with a white woman.” He says another white soldier “intimidated” King by calling her the N-word at a military dance.

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

“They’re not just bonded over the shared journey of becoming soldiers together,” Washington says. “They were also united against the forces of misogyny and racism in our own armed forces. So there was an unbreakable sisterhood.”

It was carried over to the set of the film. On a down-time day, 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 want to know?’ We talked about balancing kids with careers. We talked about where we found our husbands,” recalls Washington, who shares three children with her husband, former NFL star Nnamdi Asomugha. “We talked about everything, and that was it a gift.”

There wasn’t much time to hang out, though. Perry quickly filmed, eager to show King, one of the last surviving members of the unit, the final part of her story. Washington marveled at Perry’s “efficiency” and quick pace: “‘Well-oiled machine’ doesn’t even begin to describe it,” she says, smiling at the memory.

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

He showed her the movie on his iPad. “We were sitting and watching and she said hi on the iPad and right back in the moment,” Perry recalls. “Afterwards she cried and said, ‘Thank you for telling the world that black women contributed.’ ”

The six triple eight now streaming on Netflix.