Kerry Washington, Tyler Perry's 'Six Triple Eight' movie tells true story of Black women in WWII

Overlooked no more.

The true story of the 855 Black women in the Women's Army Corps during World War II – the only all-Black Women's Army Corps unit overseas during the war – is getting the due it deserves in "The Six Triple Eight."

Kerry Washington and filmmaker Tyler Perry rejoin forces for the film (streaming Friday on Netflix) to shine a light on the unsung American heroes.

Maj. Charity Adams (played by Washington) and the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion were tasked with the gargantuan "morale" mission of sorting through a three-year backlog of undelivered mail, routing 17 million pieces to and from soldiers and their families.

Though Adams was a stoic leader of her soldiers, "the women of the 6888th really loved her. They admired her," says Washington, 47, who worked with Perry on 2010's "For Colored Girls."

"She was stern and strict and had very high expectations," the actress says, but "did it with a level of love and compassion. ... Though she expected a lot of them, it's because she wanted a lot for them."

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When writer/director Perry, 55, received a "sizzle reel" pitch from producer Nicole Avant (daughter of late "Black Godfather" of music Clarence Avant and wife Jacqueline), he was stunned to have never heard of the women's heroics.

"You're kidding me, right? There's no way that there were 855 Black women in Europe during World War II. And she's like, 'No, it's a true story.' So I started just getting my hands on as much information" as possible, Perry says, including an article by Kevin M. Hymel, who became the film's historian.

Despite rampant misogynoir, the women cleared the mail accumulation within a record three months while stationed in England and did it again in France.

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The film focuses on the tiring, centuries-long state of resilience Black women have been forced to operate within: turning the other cheek, standing strong against generational hatred, being twice as good to receive half as much (and with fewer resources to make it happen).

"Progress is slow, and it's being pushed up a hill," Perry says. "These women didn't have the same kind of racism we have. We have laws that can help us fight. These women didn't even have the right to vote."

The Netflix movie also marks both Perry and Washington's first time leading a war film (she had a supporting role in Spike Lee's "Miracle at St. Anna"). Adams "wrote a really fantastic memoir that I read a few times, devoured," Washington says.

"I talked to people who knew her and who loved her and worked with her and watched archival footage and listened to old interviews and got photographs. I mean, I just tried to absorb as much as I could about her."

Working together again involved a slight learning curve (Washington "had to get her bearings around how quickly I shoot," says Perry), but it produced "powerful" moments on the set.

"I really wanted to – forgive the pun – get in the trenches with him and help make it happen and help him fulfill his vision for it," Washington says.

During Washington's poignant monologue in the second half of the film, Perry says, "We had our military coordinators in the back watching the monitor. And I heard one of them: She was wailing. She couldn't control herself … marveling at what just happened."

The film's prominent entry point is Lena Derriecott King (Ebony Obsidian), one of the last surviving members of the battalion, who died in January at age 100. Perry "didn't know what to expect" when they met before filming.

"This woman walks in with her hair done, her makeup done, and she sits across from me (and says), 'Hello, I'm Lena Derriecott,' " Perry recalls, adding that she was "still going out dancing, still driving up until maybe eight or nine months before she died."

"Her memory, her recall, was so fascinating that I went to the historian and asked him if what she had shared with me was factual. He said, 'Absolutely, she's on point with everything she said,' " says Perry.

As King, Obsidian rounds out a cast of young Black actresses (Sarah Jeffery, Pepi Sonuga, Milauna Jackson, Moriah Brown and Shanice Shantay) who benefitted from Washington's mentorship both on and off screen.

During a set shutdown for a lightning storm, "we were all just kind of sitting around with nothing to do. And that doesn't happen on Tyler Perry sets ever," Washington remembers. So the actress and choreographer Debbie Allen were inspired to gather the cast to "ask anything" and "just make the most of this time."

"I also got to ask Debbie my questions. But it was really fun to create that space with the girls and to connect and bond and go to a next layer of intimacy," says Washington.

The movie also marks Perry's first time directing longtime friend Oprah Winfrey, who stars as civil rights leader and FDR adviser Mary McLeod Bethune alongside Sam Waterston's President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Susan Sarandon's Eleanor Roosevelt.

Winfrey is "not a Madea kind of girl," so Perry waited for the perfect opportunity for his fellow media mogul. "She jumped at the chance," he says. "She was just like any other superstar, professional actor that showed up in that level of 'I want to do my best for the project.' "

Winfrey, Washington and Perry hit the 2024 election campaign trail with Vice President Kamala Harris at the Democratic National Convention and in Georgia, respectively. That the movie's release follows Harris' defeat to President-elect Donald Trump is not lost on them.

Washington recalled King watching the film before her death.

"She laughed and she saluted the screen, and she said, 'Thank you for letting the world know that Black women contributed,' " the actress says. "Black women have been contributing to our democracy and the protection of our democracy for so long. You can see in the film that they are standing up for this country at a time when the country wasn't always standing up for them."

This moment in time "reaffirms the importance of Black women and Black women in our society," Perry says. "It's about "the power of the collective strength and how much we can change the world."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Six Triple Eight' true story: Tyler Perry, Kerry Washington talk film