Tyler Perry has tackled several genres over the years, but it took the real-life story of the only Black female World War II battalion to inspire him to delve into historical drama for the first time.
“The Six Triple Eight,” which was partially filmed in Chattanooga, is now in limited movie theaters and arrives on Netflix on Friday. “Scandal” star Kerry Washington plays Charity Adams, the tough-as-nails Army commander of the 6888th battalion. Composed of 855 women, the battalion helped the military disentangle a postal disaster and deliver millions of pieces of mail to soldiers and loved ones in Europe desperate for the morale boost four years into the war.
Despite incredible skepticism and resistance from the white male Army leadership, the women cleared a backlog of 7 million pieces of mail in Germany in three months, half the time originally allotted, then worked through millions more in France.
“Twice as good with half as much,” Washington said in a Zoom call with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “They exceeded all expectations.”