Decades After Serving In World War II, The First All-Black Women’s Battalion Is Being Honored

With the first Black woman nominated to the Supreme Court winning the hearts of millions of Americans with her measured and capable handling of the intense grilling by the Judiciary Committee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson demonstrated the resilience modeled by generations of women – some of whom have only recently been recognized.

President Joe Biden announced earlier this month that the African American women of the 6888th Battalion, nicknamed the “Six Triple Eight,” will receive the Congressional Gold Medal honor for their service during World War II. The women served in the Women’s Army Corp and sorted mail for soldiers in Europe. They were led by Major Charity Adams who graduated in 1938 from Wilberforce University where she majored in Latin, physics and mathematics. Adams became the leader of the only all-Black, all-female battalion sent overseas known for their motto, “No mail, low morale.”

Mary McLeod Bethune played an instrumental role in the formation of the 6888th; she urged First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to find a way for Black women to serve. And members of the Black Press used their influence to create the Battalion.

When the women arrived in England in the winter of the 1945, the hangers where they worked were not heated. They were persevered despite the environment and the enormity of the task they faced. There were reportedly more than 17 million pieces of mail – simply waiting to be sorted and delivered. Some of it had been there for two years.

The women started a system using index cards with names and similar names distinguished by military serial numbers. They worked in three shifts, seven days a week during which they handled an estimated 65,000 pieces of mail per shift. Their assignment was to manage the mail for four million members of the military and civilians.

Officers considered the lack of mail delivery detrimental to morale. With a commitment to doing their part to win the war, The 6888th completed the assignment in England by October, and the women were then transported to Roen, France. After they cleared the mail there, they were sent to Paris where they lived in hotels – a great improvement in their living conditions.

But by the end of 1945, the ranks of the Battalion had dwindled with only 588 women remaining of the 850 who started; many of them transferred back home. A few months later in February 1946, they returned to the United States and the following year the Battalion was disbanded.