The Six Triple Eight Tells the Heroic Story of the 6888th Battalion

Nicole Avant and Tyler Perry share their journey to bring history to the screen.

By Anne Cohen
Oct. 11, 2024

https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/the-six-triple-eight-true-story

When producer Nicole Avant was growing up, one of the most remarkable feats of courage during World War II wasn’t taught in school. “I first heard about the 6888th Battalion when I was a young girl,” Avant told Netflix. “My mom told me about Major Charity Adams, but I didn’t know the full story.”

In early 1945, the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion — the first and only Women’s Army Corps unit of color to be stationed in Europe during World War II — was deployed to England to take on a seemingly impossible mission. Their task? Sort through, catalog, and prepare for delivery a backlog of more than 17 million pieces of mail to US soldiers fighting abroad and their loved ones back home, often mislabeled or without a complete address. The task was Herculean, and the conditions arduous. As well as the terrors of war, the 855 women of the 6888th, led by Major Adams, faced segregation and sexism within their own military, carrying out their important work in derelict buildings lacking adequate light and heat. They were given six months to complete the task. They did it in 90 days, bringing missives of hope to the front lines.

Still, their own inspiring story has remained largely untold — until now. With their new movie The Six Triple Eight, Avant and writer, producer and director Tyler Perry seek to bring long-deserved attention to the sacrifice and patriotism of the brave women whose tireless efforts helped raise morale and win the war.

The film has been a labor of love for Avant, a commitment Perry recognized with a surprise dedication to the life, service and memory of her parents, Clarence and Jacqueline Avant, who she credits with nurturing her interest in history. “I saw my mom’s name [at the end] and it was so emotional for me,” Avant said. “My mom really loved history and would be so proud that this story was finally being told.”

“My parents would’ve loved The Six Triple Eight because they [were] big believers in passing the baton, and they always believed that you can’t teach people about passing the baton if they don’t understand the baton itself and they don’t understand the history that’s behind the baton that they’re passing on,” she added.

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That desire to live up to her parents’ example meant that, when the opportunity to make a movie about the 6888th came across her desk, she didn’t hesitate. The project started when producer Carlota Espinosa secured the rights to Kevin M. Hymel’s 2019 WWII History Magazine article “Fighting a Two-Front War.” She then sent the article to her friend and producer Keri Selig, who brought Peter Guber and his Mandalay Entertainment on board. With no script or director yet attached, they developed a sizzle reel to show Avant, who immediately championed the project.

Her first call was to Perry, a filmmaker she was confident could give this tale its due. “Tyler Perry is the best writer, producer, director all wrapped up in one that I knew that could tell this story,” she said. “Tyler loves history even more than I do. He appreciates African-American history and our part in the story of America.”

Yet even for Perry, the exploits of the 6888th came as a revelation. “I was like, ‘Nicole, wait, what? This is a true story?’” he told Netflix. “The level of passion she had behind it, she got me excited right away.”

Perry immediately dove into the research, looking for any remaining members of the unit that he could contact. Just one day after speaking to Avant about the project, he flew to Las Vegas to meet Lena Derriecott King, a veteran of the 6888th Battalion, who is played by Ebony Obsidian in the film. “She was 99 at the time, so sharp, so bright,” he recalled. “Seeing the passion in her eyes when she talked about what that time meant, I thought, ‘Here’s my way in to tell the story.’ ”

Lena’s character is our guide to the world of the 6888th. Alongside her fellow recruits, she trains under the command of Major Charity Adams, portrayed with grit and grace by Kerry Washington. “Kerry was my first choice always,” Avant said. “She is so strong, and she’s confident, she’s kind and she’s empathetic. She respects and honors women of color in history and always wants to celebrate the story of an underdog.”

With so much rich material to pull from, Perry described writing the script as a race against the clock. “The Six Triple Eight poured out of me from the time I started writing the first sentence,” he said. Part of that urgency was driven by his desire to show King the finished product. Though she passed away in January 2024 at the age of 100, she was able to see a rough cut of the movie. “She loved it,” Perry said. “She was saluting the screen. She was laughing. But at the end of it, it was so powerful. She was in tears. She just said, ‘Thank you so much for letting the world know that we contributed.’ ”

For both Perry and Avant, that is the ultimate goal. “I want audiences to feel what I felt when I sat with Lena, when she was telling me the story, the pride that I felt in her, and all of these women,” Perry said.

“The women of the 6888th Battalion represent the best of America,” Avant said. “They represent strength. They represent courage. They represent bravery. But they also represent humanity. They represent the energy in all of us that wants to quit, but never does. They understood that they may not ever receive any accolades for the fruits of their labor, but they didn’t do it for themselves. They did it for the greater good. And that is why I have such respect for this battalion and these women, and I’m so excited to tell the story.”

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The Six Triple Eight premieres on Netflix on Dec. 20.