Kerry Washington Breaks Down the True Story Behind Tyler Perry’s ‘The Six Triple Eight’

Warning: This story contains spoilers for “The Six Triple Eight.”

“No record, low morale.”

That was the motto of the 6888th, a battalion that made history in World War II as the first and only color unit of the Women’s Army Corps to serve overseas.

The battalion’s heroic efforts are captured in Netflix’s “The Six Triple Eight,” written and directed by Tyler Perry and starring Kerry Washington as the battalion’s commander, Major Charity Adams.

The 6888th was tasked with handling a backlog of over 17 million pieces of mail, an especially important task at a time when letters were the only way soldiers could interact with loved ones.

“They inspired the soldiers to keep fighting by getting them the letters from home,” Perry said in the film’s press notes. “When it’s the only way you can communicate across the seas in wartime, it was so important that those soldiers got those letters in their hands. It was their life.”

Keep reading to learn more about “The Six Triple Eight” and the real-life events that inspired the movie, which premieres on Netflix on December 20.

Who were the Six Triple Eight?

The Six Triple Eight is a nickname for the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the only U.S. Women’s Army Corps (WAC) unit of color stationed in Europe during World War II, according to Netflix’s Tudum blog.

The battalion of 855 women consisted mostly of black service members, but also included some women of Caribbean and Mexican descent.

In February 1945, the 6888th was tasked with handling a backlog of over 17 million pieces of mail, sorting letters and parcels that filled three aircraft hangars.

It was a formidable job, especially considering that so many letters were improperly addressed or addressed to common names like “Robert Smith,” according to Buffalo Soldier Educational and Historical Committee.

The women devised an efficient system for sorting the mail and worked 24-hour shifts in Birmingham, England. They had minimal heating despite freezing conditions, and because of the threat of air raids, they worked in aircraft hangars with blacked-out windows, making visibility difficult.

In addition to the physical challenges, they faced racism and misogyny in the army. According to the battalion’s historical committee, they were not allowed to “sleep, bathe or eat in the same facilities as the other female personnel and soldiers.”

The battalion was commanded by May. Charity Adams (later Lt. Col. Charity Adams Earley), the first black woman to serve as an officer in the WAC. When the war ended, Adams was the highest-ranking black woman in the U.S. Army.

The 6888th Battalion was given six months to complete their task, but they were done in 90 days. After they completed their mission in England, the battalion was moved to France.

How accurate is Tyler Perry’s ‘The Six Triple Eight’ movie?

The film’s main characters are based on real people from 6888. Kerry Washington’s character, May. Charity Adams, was based on the battalion’s real-life leader.

Several moments from the film are taken directly from documented and real events. Washington tells TODAY.com that one of those real-life moments was when Adams was confronted by a superior officer who told her he was going to send a white officer to show her how to run his unit, to which Adams replied, “Over my dead body.”

“There are so many brave moments that happened in the script that I read in (Adams’) memoir,” says Washington, who serves as an executive producer on the film. “I think it was like a wonderful surprise to me that we really got to present this story in a way that was so rooted in truth and in their lived experience.”

Washington also says that Adams, like the film, was “threatened to be court-martialed.”

“In real life, hun was court-martial,” Washington tells TODAY.com. “But because, as she says to the chaplain (in the film), ‘I’ve learned these laws and regulations of the Army inside out,’ she was able to win her court-martial, preserve his status and position in the army. And she went on to earn several degrees on the GI Bill.”

Lena Derriecott King, played by Ebony Obsidian, was also a veteran of the battalion who helped Perry with his research.

“I met her when she was 99 years old. I didn’t know what to expect,” Perry said Hoda today 17 Dec. “I wanted to ask her about the 6888 before I started writing. When she comes down the stairs—comes down to sit and talk to me, I think, ‘Will she be in her right mind?’ Is she okay?'”

Perry said his clear interaction with King quickly washed away all his worries. “99 and sharp as a pin. She told me these incredible stories. Her recall and memory was so great that when I ran it by a historian, he was blown away that she could remember so much.”

Perry was able to show King a rough cut of the film before she died aged 100 in January 2024, and the filmmaker said she “loved it.”

“She greeted the screen. She laughed. But at the end of it, it was so powerful,” he said, according to Netflix’s Tudum. “She was in tears. She just said, ‘Thank you so much for letting the world know that we have contributed’.”

Several other characters in the film are based on real-life figures, including Oprah Winfrey’s character, civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune, as well as President Franklin Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt, played by Sam Waterston and Susan Sarandon.

While much of the film closely follows historical events, Perry revealed that he took a creative liberty towards the end of the film, where the entire battalion is applauded and saluted.

“That salute didn’t happen. It didn’t happen until many, many, many years later,” Perry told the audience at a recent screening of the film attended by TODAY.com.

“So the liberty I took at the end was to have everyone be hailed,” he continued. “They’re all applauded when they walk in because they represent all 855 to me. And you see them walk through this door into a new life, into a new future.”

What happened to Six Triple Eight?

The 6888 disbanded in 1946 and did not receive public recognition immediately after World War II. According to Washington, there were even rumors when they returned home that they were “only sent over to be concubines to the black soldiers.”

“This rumor kind of started to diminish their legacy,” Washington told TODAY.com. “So many women, when they came back, not only were they celebrated, but they didn’t talk about what they did.”

In recent years, however, the battalion’s work has been honored nationally. In 2018, a monument to the 6888th was erected in Leavenworth, Kansas, and in 2022 the battalion was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. Six of the members from the battalion who were alive at the time received the honor.

In 2023, the US Army also changed the name of the Fort Lee Army base in Virginia to Fort Gregg-Adams in honor of Lt. Col. Charity Adams and Lt. Gen. Arthur Gregg, the first black officer in the US Army to reach the rank of lieutenant general.

As of 2024, there are two remaining members of 6888.: Fannie McClendon and Anna Mae Robertson.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com