Learning the history of an all-Black women Corp, ‘Six Triple Eight’

"History is important, and it's not only important to see what we have done but to learn from it."

NEW HANOVER COUNTY (WWAY)–We continue to celebrate Black History Month. Thursday night, a community meeting in New Hanover County gave people a chance to learn about a special military unit in World War two.

The year was 1945, and 855 women were in the all-Black women’s army corp ‘Six Triple Eight,’ shipped out to Birmingham, England, to deal with a backlog of mail. It was three years’ worth of mail piled as high as an army hangar.
World War two was underway, with nearly seven million Americans fighting, and roughly 17 million letters and packages had been undelivered. That was until Major Charity Adams and her corp of women stepped in.

Thursday night, retired U.S. Colonel Edna Cummings gave a presentation about the group.
Linda Thompson, Chief Diversity and Equity Officer for New Hanover County says — not many people know about the story of the all-Black women’s corp, and she wanted to change that.

“History is important, and it’s not only important to see what we have done but to learn from it. I think tonight a lot of people came out because they want to share that history. They want to learn what happens. And if there’s any problems, they want to learn from it so we won’t repeat it,” Thompson shared.

Colonel Cummings has been an advocate for honoring the Six Triple Eight legacy by raising funds and co-producing an award-winning documentary about the unit. Thompson adds because of Colonel Cummings’ efforts – family members of Corp members, who are now deceased, are getting medals and special honors the women didn’t get before.