ATLANTA — Film maker Tyler Perry is telling the story of a historic all-Black women’s battalion and the difference they made during World War II.
Many of the women, who were deployed in 1945, were from Georgia.
Brenda Partridge Brown is the daughter of Willie Bell Irvin, a proud member of the 6888 Postal Directory Battalion.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
They were the only unit made up of all Black women to serve overseas in World War II.
“This lady made history and she never knew it,” Brown said.
The battalion’s mission was to sort and deliver a warehouse full of mail that had been stacked up for months.
Their motto was “no mail, low morale.”
The government said it would take six months to clear the backlog.
Their unit worked around the clock in shifts and got the job done in three months.
There was no heat, little light, and rats had settled into the warehouse, feeding on the cakes and cookies that had not been delivered.
“They were living in bad conditions, but they never complained about that,” Brown said.
They served bearing the burden of racism at home and from their white counterparts in England and France.
“It was a place she didn’t really belong if society had its way,” Brown said.
There was no fanfare when they finished their service and came back to the states.
In 2022, almost 80 years after their service, the White House recognized the members of the battalion with Congressional medals of honor.
I want them to never forget the role she played in this country,” Brown said. “History didn’t make these women, they made history.”
The movie, The Six Triple Eight, is now streaming on Netflix.
TRENDING STORIES:
- Do you have these brands of meat in your refrigerator? 10,000 pounds is being recalled
- Neighbor, cat displaced after house fire in Gwinnett County
- Woman’s body found by passerby in wooded Roswell area. Her death is being investigated as a homicide
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
©2024 Cox Media Group
