Six Triple Eight Becomes First Black Female WWII Unit to Receive Congressional Gold Medal
The only all-Black, all-female military unit to serve overseas during World War II is finally getting the flowers they’ve long deserved.
The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion—best known as the “Six Triple Eight”—was honored Tuesday with the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor bestowed by Congress. Their recognition follows decades of advocacy to celebrate the unsung work these women did to keep morale alive during wartime.
Deployed in 1945 to fix a massive mail crisis affecting American troops in Europe, the Six Triple Eight sorted through an impossible 17 million-piece backlog in just three months, half the expected time. They worked around the clock in shifts, processing roughly 65,000 pieces of mail a day in England and France, using a system of locator cards to make sure love letters and life updates reached soldiers on the front lines.
House Speaker Mike Johnson presented the medal to the family of commanding officer Lt. Col. Charity Adams Earley inside Emancipation Hall, with over 300 descendants of the battalion in attendance.
“The Six Triple Eight are great American patriots, loyal to a nation that, for far too long, failed to return the favor,” Johnson said. “And I’m glad to say that’s changing.”
Though their heroism was overlooked for decades, recent efforts have reignited awareness. A monument was unveiled in 2018, and a documentary followed. Most recently, Tyler Perry’s Netflix film “The Six Triple Eight,” starring Kerry Washington, hit screens just last year to honor the trailblazing women.
