Kerry Washington’s ‘Six Triple Eight’ shows the important role black women played in World War II

The job was deemed impossible: Done 17 million pieces of backlogged mail. In a war zone.

May. Charity Adams knew it was a mission that could not fail, not only for the morale of the World War II troops, but also for the reputation of black people in the eyes of the nation’s best military soldiers. The real-life efforts of the 855 women of the Women Army Corps’ 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion are captured in Tyler Perry’s latest film, “Six Triple Eight,” streaming now on Netflix.

For Kerry Washington, who portrays Adams, the battalion’s ability to solve an ongoing problem in the face of discrimination while being underestimated by others around them felt like both a Herculean task and an all-too-familiar scenario.

“When these women were asked to solve this problem, it was a problem that many people had tried to solve and no one could,” Washington said in an interview with NBC News. “They came in and, as black women do, they figured out how to solve a situation that seemed impossible to solve, and in doing so, they gave hope and purpose and belonging and love to the soldiers to help with to end the war.”

Mary McLeod Bethune, head of the National Council of Negro Women and a member of what was known as President Franklin Roosevelt’s “Negro Cabinet,” played by Oprah Winfrey in the film, advocated for black women to serve in the war. But while black women were accepted into the military, they were segregated from white women and given very little to do. Because top military brass considered blacks generally inferior, many doubted a successful outcome in clearing endless piles of mail.

“Back then, mail was how you stayed connected to the people you love,” Washington said. “There was no WhatsApp, no texts, no emails, no FaceTiming. Rarely could you get a landline. People didn’t have cell phones, so mail was it,” she said. So when the soldiers didn’t get mail, they had no longer hope. They had lost their sense of purpose.”

The unit’s work had been forgotten by most – even Perry, the director, was unaware of the 6888th’s work until producer Nicole Avant approached him about taking it on.

During a Q&A last month after a screening of the film on his home turf of Atlanta, Perry told the audience, filled with members of the National Association of Black Military Women, how he met Lena Derriecott Bell King, then 99, a member of 6888. , showed him that he could use her life experiences to help tell the remarkable story. Perry was also lucky enough to show an early version of the film to King before she died on January 18, nine days before her 101st birthday.

To play 17-year-old Lena Derriecott, Perry tapped Ebony Obsidian, who stars in his long-running series “Sistas” on BET.

The role came as a surprise to Obsidian. When he asked her to read the script, she didn’t realize it was a true story or that he wanted her in his film.

“I didn’t even think about playing Lena when I read the script,” she said with Washington by her side.

Obsidian, whose other credits include the Barry Jenkins film “If Beale Street Could Talk” and the Hulu series “Wu-Tang: An American Saga,” admits she was apprehensive about portraying the lead but said she was honored to , that Perry would choose her. Her mother’s encouragement and reminder of her childhood nickname, “Little Soldier,” helped persuade her “to take this on, no matter how scary it is,” she said.

“Meeting Lena was the greatest gift,” Obsidian added. “She was obviously 100 years old when I met her, but as a 17-year-old, I feel like there are certain elements about her that should be the same, that should just be noble.”

Washington never got to meet the real Adams, who died in 2002 at the age of 83, but she still felt guided by her.

“She passed, but she wrote a really beautiful memoir called ‘One Woman’s Army,’ which I read a couple of times,” Washington said. “I devoured it and I used to have parts of the memoir hanging in my dressing room. I surrounded myself with pictures of her and watched archive footage and interviewed people who knew her and worked with her and listened to old interviews. I really tried to immerse myself in as much of her soul and essence as I could.”

Washington said that finding the commander’s actual World War II trunk, containing her clothes and handwritten notes, outside her dressing room after rehearsing one of Adams’ monologues with Perry felt like an endorsement.

But how Washington speaks in the film has generated the most interest, including from her own children, who asked, “Whose voice is that?” after she played them the trailer. Achieving the distinctive voice, which sounds like a sharp Southern twang punctuated by precise Midwestern pronunciation that perhaps reflects Adams’ South Carolina upbringing and schooling at Wilberforce University in Ohio, Washington, worked hard with both an accent coach and her acting coach.

“They didn’t have amplification back then. It wasn’t like she was standing there with a karaoke machine,” she said. “So if I had the kind of responsibility and command and calling that she had, where would that live in my body ? How would it affect my posture? How would it affect my vote? How would that affect my resonance and my need to be heard by these women so that they felt seen and heard by me? Those are some of the questions I asked to help me figure out where that vocal performance came from.”

Washington and Obsidian said they are grateful to be at the center of a film that celebrates the strength, expertise and sisterhood of black women, which Obsidian said also shows that “you can overcome anything you need to overcome with it right support and the right people by your side.”

Washington said, “It’s really exciting to be a part of, in some ways, corrective history. We’re telling a story that has been pushed to the margins of some true heroes, not just American heroes, but heroes of democracy around the world. “