Ebony Obsidian says we shouldn’t feel bad if we don’t know that her latest project, Tyler Perry’s The Six Triple Eight—now streaming on Netflix—is based on one of the most incredible real-life occurrences in American history.
“Tyler shared the script with me, and I thought it was fiction. I asked if this was a story he’d written,” the actress told EBONY. “He said, ‘No, this is history, and we’re telling it. Do you wanna be a part of it?’”
Obsidian plays Lena Derriecott Bell King, a member of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the only all-female, all-Black military unit to serve overseas during World War II. “To embody the experience of what I never got to read as a little girl and see—oh my goodness—that we served in this way? We meant so much to so many people who never knew our names,” she gushed. “That is something that I think was so prolific in my experience of this film.”
The Six Triple Eight co-star Kerry Washington agreed. “I was shocked that World War II is the most storied war of film, television, and novels and that this particular story had never been told,” she said. “There were 855 women of color who went overseas to serve. And that I had never heard a whisper of it was insane because I consider myself a student of the history of life.”
Washington, who plays Lt. Col. Charity E. Adams-Earley, said not knowing is not our fault. “We don’t always do justice by telling the right stories as a culture and society. This feels like such a corrective moment because we get to tell their story,” she declared. “We get to lift them up and make sure that when people see this film, they know who the Six Triple Eight are. We see every single name of every woman in that battalion. And that gives me a lot of pride.”
Activist and author Nicole Avant serves as a producer on the film. “Producing The Six Triple Eight with Tyler has been one of the highlights of my life. I was raised in a household that celebrated and honored victorious Black Americans,” she shared. “My parents made sure that I never took for granted the shoulders I stand on and reminded me that my life should be a continuous ‘thank you’ to everyone who paved the way for me.”
