Film screening: "The SixTripleEight: No Mail, Low Morale"

Date: Thursday, June 6

Time: 6 pm film, 7pm panel discussion

Location: War Memorial Center, 3rd floor in Memorial Hall

SPECIAL GUESTS

Anna Mae Robertson, Milwaukee's surviving member of WWII's 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion

Maj. Gen. Marcia Anderson, the first African-American woman to become a major general in the United States Army Reserve

Jim Theres, The Six TripleEight director

Meg Jones, Milwaukee Journal Sentinal reporter and panel moderator

See the trailer.

Co-sponsored by the War Memorial Center and the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs

ABOUT THE 6888th

The documentary tells the relatively unknown story of the 855 African-American female members of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, a Women’s Army Corps unit also known as the “Six Triple Eight,” the only all African-American female unit sent overseas during World War II.

In February 1945, the “Six Triple Eight” was deployed to Europe to clear an estimated two-year backlog of mail for the nearly seven million members of the U.S. military, government personnel, and Red Cross workers serving in the European Theater of Operations. Commanded by then Major Charity Adams Earley, they faced racism, sexism and worked in austere conditions. Despite this environment, they cleared the backlog in Birmingham, England, in three months by working three shifts daily and processing approximately 65,000 pieces of mail per shift adhering to their motto, “No Mail, Low Morale.” The unit relocated to France to continue their work to clear the mail backlog.

In February 1946, the last of the “Six Triple Eight” returned to the U.S. and the Jim Crow laws that enforced segregation. The unit was disbanded at Fort Dix, New Jersey, without ceremony or official recognition of their accomplishments.

More than 70 years later, the Senate, in February 2018, unanimously passed SR 412 recognizing the service of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion and giving support for the 6888th monument at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Additionally, Senator Jerry Moran, (R-Kan) introduced bipartisan legislation to award a Congressional Gold Medal to the “Six Triple Eight,” while the Secretary of the Army recently awarded the unit a Meritorious Unit Commendation. Six of the original “Six Triple Eight” members, are known to be living to receive these accolades.

The event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited.

Questions: call 414-273-5533

(Information courtesy of Women in Military Service for America Memorial in Washington, D.C., which screened The SixTripleEight on March 28, 2019.)