By Alexis Taylor
AFRO Managing Editor
Roughly 300 descendants of the women who served in the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion came together on April 29 to get a glimpse of history in the making.
Sitting inside of Emancipation Hall on Capitol Hill, the men, women and children witnessed their mothers, grandmothers, aunts and sisters receive the Congressional Gold Medal for their sacrifice in World War II (WWII).
“It’s a day long overdue but it’s here at last,” said Tara Garcia, granddaughter of Crescencia “Joyce” J. Garcia of Maunabo, Puerto Rico.
The Congressional Gold Medal is the highest honor that can be awarded by the U.S. Congress. Recognition for the 855 Black and Brown women who did the impossible in the European Theater of WWII comes eight decades after their service.
Only two women who served in the all- Black, all women’s unit are alive today. Fannie McClendon lives in Arizona and turned 104 in September of last year. Anna Mae Robertson lives in Milwaukee and is 101 years old.
According to information released by the Library of Congress (LOC), the 6888th was formed in 1944 after the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) was developed in 1942. Black women received the right to join the WACs in 1943 after a hard fought battle by Mary McLeod Bethune and her allies.
“Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune and First lady Eleanor Roosevelt opened a path for service and encouraged women to serve our nation. As a result, hundreds of thousands of women answered their call,” said Col. Ret. Edna Cummings, the woman who spearheaded efforts for the unit members to receive the medal. “With 85 percent of the Six Triple Eight having college degrees or working as former school teachers, the Six Triple Eight were among the nation’s most educated workforce, armed with education and patriotism.”
Tasked with clearing a postal backlog of mail that was leading to low morale, the women of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion cleared roughly 17 million letters and packages that were stacked to the warehouse ceilings when they arrived. Working in shifts, the women “processed an average of more than 65,000 pieces of mail” every eight hours, according to the LOC.
Stanley Earley III is son of Lt. Col. Charity E. Adams-Earley. She led the unit as the highest ranking Black woman serving overseas during WWII.
Earley noted how the work of the 6888th was “all done by hand” with “no computers, no optical scanners, no sorting machines.”
“These soldiers exemplified determination in the face of adversity and demonstrated the ability to go beyond what was thought to be possible,” he said. “They overcame obstacles to achieve success, and made a substantial difference to the Army.”
In a time with no internet or social media to connect with loved ones, the work done by the women of the 6888th to restore lines of communication between the soldiers on the frontlines and their family and friends back home gave strength to fight another day.
What was expected to take six months took three. After clearing the backlog in Birmingham, England they were asked to replicate their feat in Rouen, France. Again, the women “delivered” in more ways than one.
“Many said that they did their jobs and came home…I wouldn’t accept that as the end of the story,” said Cummings. “We now commend these soldiers who did four things: They exceeded performance standards; succeeded where others failed; restored reliable mail service and connected loved ones to the front line…it was more than the mail.”
About seven years ago Cummings started petitioning Congress to bestow the medal upon the unit. Her initiative gained more traction after she found a list in archives of the AFRO-American Newspapers. The roster included names and addresses of the more than 800 women in the unit, which Cummings then used to petition individual lawmakers based on the states the women called home.
Congressman Hakeem Jeffries (D), who represents New York’s 8th Congressional District, gave remarks to those in attendance. He also took a moment to honor Private First Class (PFC) Mary Bankston, a member of the 6888th from New York who died in a car crash overseas in 1945 with two other women in the unit.
“These fiercely passionate, patriotic and persistent members of the Women’s Army Corps deployed, knowing that they would confront the dual challenges of racism and sexism at the hands of their own military and beyond,” he said. “We salute the ingenuity with which they sprang into battle.”
Descendants present for the ceremony included AFRO Publisher Dr. Frances Murphy Draper, whose aunt, Vashti Murphy-Matthews, served in the 6888th unit. Murphy-Matthews was one of the five daughters of Carl Murphy, who served as AFRO publisher from 1922-1967 after the death of his father, AFRO Founder John H. Murphy. Draper gave a moving invocation for those gathered.
Murphy-Matthews, like many of the 6888th women, did not boast about her time in the U.S. Army or the courage it took to work in a war zone. Though many kept their story in the shadows, some women were open about their time in the military.
The oldest daughter of PFC. Annie Beatrice Knight Jordan, Dr. Carmen Jordan-Cox, recalls her mother’s stories vividly.
“She was one of the rare individuals who actually talked about her experiences,” said Jordan-Cox. “She told us she did morse code. We didn’t know what that meant until recently, when we discovered she was a codebreaker. She entered the military in 1943. She trained at Ft. Des Moines in Iowa, then went to Ft. Clark in Texas and then to Ft. Gruber in Oklahoma. Immediately before departing for Europe, she went to Ft. Oglethorpe in Georgia for overseas training.”
Jordan-Cox said that even before joining the 6888th unit, her mother had made a place for herself using her God-given talents.
She said they would send a chauffeur to her barracks every night and take her to what we know now as a ‘SCIF’ (sensitive compartmented information facility) – a secure chamber,” said Jordan-Cox. “She would decode enemy messages, and then they would burn them and return her back to her barracks. She did that before the 6888th was formed. She volunteered to join the 6888 in Europe and we know she was involved with the mail in Europe.”
Standing next to an oversized mock-up of the 6888th’s Congressional Gold Medal, Angela King spoke to grandmother’s service in the unit. Hailing from Amherst, Mass. PFC. Laura Amelia Bias was born in 1923. King said her grandmother would have been 102 years old if she were still alive to see the unit receive the medal.
“I think she would have been quite humbled and maybe even overwhelmed. My grandmother, like so many other members of the 6888, rarely spoke of their service,” said King. “They just considered it a job – their country called on them, they stepped up and served and didn’t necessarily ask for all of the accolades. My grandmother never spoke of it.”
King said her grandmother instilled “a sense of quiet duty and honor” in her. In recent years, she has been able to learn more about her grandmother’s story.
“Edna Cummings was key in making that happen. Through her, I found out about my grandmother’s service,” said King. “I got to see her enlistment papers. I wouldn’t have seen these things otherwise, had it not been for someone stepping up and saying ‘we need to honor these women and what they did.’”
In 2022, members of Congress voted to honor the women with the Congressional Gold Medal. In 2023, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed a bill into law proclaiming March 9 as “6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion Day” in his state. In 2024, renowned director and producer Tyler Perry released his film, “The Six Triple Eight,” on Netflix.
Jordan-Cox said when it comes to the women of the 6888th, “there are so many stories” that need to be passed down.
“The next generation needs to know these things,” she said. “The things that we’re able to do are based on what our ancestors were able to do.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Fort Gruber as Fort Wilbur. The AFRO deeply regrets this error.
