Transition from Black History Month to Women's History Month with the story of the Six Triple Eight All-Black Female Battalion of World War II

This is a post I've been preparing for a couple of weeks now, both because I wanted to put it online near the end of February/beginning of March (for the end of Black History Month and the beginning of Women's History Month). I had never heard this story until mid-February, when I saw a book about the 6888 on one of the Childrens' Book Council's feature book lists for Black History Month. I decided I wanted to read it (in the physical form, not online) which began a series of library visits to find it. It took several visits (a combination of books checked out by others, and books that are increasingly e-books rather than paper copies) but I finally located a copy at a library in the southeast metro portion of Denver.

Interestingly, though, what I also heard three different times from librarians was "So, have you watched the Netflix movie with Kerry Washington about these women?". Clearly I had not, so I set up a quick "date night" with my wife to watch it and see what we thought. It's a very good movie - no "Saving Private Ryan" or "Dunkirk", but a very interesting and engaging 2 hours of time. And that then led me to start looking up the real historical story of the Six Triple Eight, to find out what parts were true and what parts were "creative license."

For this post, I'm just going to show you pieces of what I discovered - not sure if it is a story you would include in a World War II unit, but I felt like I would use it in a segment of life on the home front. Either way, I think it is a good story to incorporate into a variety of classes (as I will suggest through this post).

I'm going to start with a segment from the National Museum of the United States Army about the story of the 6888th Battalion and the significance of their role in the bigger picture of World War II:

Links related specifically to the Six Triple Eight battalion in this post:

Link to "The Courageous Six Triple Eight: The All-Black Female Battalion of World War II" (book) by Dr. Artika Tyner on Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Courageous-Six-Triple-Eight-All-black/dp/1666334057 NOTE: I wanted to use a link to the author's own webpage, but it was having some kind of security issue and I didn't want to include a potential problem here.

Link to the "The Six Triple Eight: A True Story of the Black Woman Battalion of World War II" (book) by Tonya Abari - https://www.tonyaabari.com/childrens-books

"The Six Triple Eight: Everything You Need to Know", TUDUM by Netflix, Dec 2024, https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/tyler-perry-new-netflix-movie-six-triple-eight

Movie web page for "The Six Triple Eight" on Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/title/81590591

"And Still They Served" (lesson plan), Military Women's Memorial, April 2021, https://womensmemorial.org/collections-research/educational-resources/ (full details including resources and PPT slides) OR https://womensmemorial.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/And-Still-They-Served-Lesson-Plan2.pdf (downloadable lesson plan)

"The Story of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion and Its Representation in Film" (lesson plan), Ann Michaelsen.com, Dec 2024, https://annmichaelsen.com/2024/12/29/lesson-plan-the-story-of-the-6888th-central-postal-directory-battalion-and-its-representation-in-film/

Links to other resources related to the Six Triple Eight battalion:

"A Different Kind of Victory: The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion", National Museum of the United States Army, May 2024, https://www.thenmusa.org/articles/a-different-kind-of-victory-the-6888th-central-postal-directory-battalion/

6888th Exhibit from the United States Army Women's Museum at Fort Lee, Virginia, https://awm.army.mil/6888th%20zine%20awm%20domain/6888th%20zine%20awm%20domain/index.html (interactive flipbook) OR https://awm.army.mil/6888th%20zine%20awm%20domain/6888th%20zine%20awm%20domain/docs/6888thFlipbinder-wALL-21225.pdf (downloadable PDF version)

"The Six Triple Eight Link Roundup", Exploring History with the National Archives Special Media Division blog, Dec 2024, https://unwritten-record.blogs.archives.gov/2024/12/17/the-six-triple-eight-link-roundup/

"The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion and the Women’s Army Corps (WACs) in World War II", Rediscovering Black History with the National Archives blog, Dec 2024, https://rediscovering-black-history.blogs.archives.gov/2024/12/04/the-6888th-central-postal-directory-battalion-and-the-womens-army-corps-wacs-in-world-war-ii/

"How a Black, All-Female WWII Unit Saved Morale on the Battlefield", Smithsonian Magazine, Dec 2024, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-a-black-all-female-wwii-unit-saved-morale-on-the-battlefield-180981540/

"The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion update" (includes a lot of historical info about the unit), George C. Marshall Foundation, July 2021, https://www.marshallfoundation.org/articles-and-features/the-6888th-central-postal-directory-battalion-update/

"In the waning months of World War II, the 855 women of color who comprised the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion — 824 enlisted Soldiers and 31 officers — completed a time-sensitive mission in the European Theater of Operations. Army leadership believed their success would be key to boosting morale amongst the 7 million war-weary American service members, U.S. Government personnel, and Red Cross workers stationed throughout Europe in 1945. The mission? To label, sort, and clear millions of pieces of mail — including letters, photographs, and gifts — that had been stockpiled and left languishing in warehouses for months, even years. One general predicted it would take six months to process the massive backlog of undelivered mail, yet the battalion, nicknamed “Six Triple Eight,” managed to do it in just three.

The story of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion is a tale of adventure, hard work, and success against the odds. But it is also one of incredible resilience and perseverance in the face of deeply entrenched racial and sex inequality. Though many of the women of the 6888th joined the Army for the opportunities it offered for travel, education, and a regular paycheck, the desire for social change remained a strong undercurrent that unified the individual women into a cohesive and resilient unit. Alyce Dixon, a straight-talking former corporal with the 6888th Battalion said it most plainly as she reflected on her experience as a young woman: “We’re all human — whether black, white, red or brown, and we all have something to offer.”

The Six Triple Eight’s achievements are remarkable considering the fraught social and political climate of the time. Indeed, the women of the 6888th Postal Directory Battalion proved to be pioneers in military service during an era when racial segregation was law, and few opportunities were available to women to work outside the domestic sphere."

Now that you have a little background (and I will provide more links below), I'm going to focus on some of the materials I came across during this search - books, video, and lesson plans. Let's start with the two books:

The book on the left was just named to NCSS's Notable Trade Books in the Social Studies list earlier this week - there are no lessons specifically written to connect to this book yet, but I expect things to be developed in the next couple of years. The version on the right surprised me when I found it at the library - it turns out to be a graphic novel format (which I know attracts a lot of older students). As you can see from the table of contents I included, not only does it have good content but a surprisingly robust glossary, list of interest sites, and suggestions for additional reading.

As I mentioned above, I thought this was a really good movie - not necessarily something I would use in the classroom (who has time anymore to show a 2-hour movie?) but great for background knowledge or perhaps to feature specific clips (I have a couple of lesson plans below where the writers went that direction). Above I have linked the 2.5 minute preview for the movie - just gives you a little something to work with. Below I included a couple of pictures from the film and a cast list (just because the cameos from people like Susan Sarandon and Oprah Winfrey might catch peoples' attention who otherwise wouldn't watch a "history" movie!)

Finally, references to a couple of lesson plans I uncovered while doing research:

1) "And Still They Served" from the Military Women's Memorial - a lesson plan, primary source document activity, and Power Point slides

2) "The Story of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion and Its Representation in Film" from Ann Michaelsen (focusing on articles about AI and teaching, with free to use lesson plans)