Orethapedia

The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion—the first battalion of African American women ever to serve in the U.S. military overseas is getting their story told in a big way.

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Netflix will release the film on December 20.

In 1941, U.S. Representative Edith Nourse Rogers of Massachusetts introduced a bill that would give women a larger role in the armed forces. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed a version of that bill into law, establishing the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) “for the purpose of making available to the national defense the knowledge, skill and special training of women of the nation.” The pioneering Black educator Mary McLeod Bethune, working alongside her close friend first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, argued for a more prominent role for Black women in the military. “We must not fail America,” Bethune urged her fellow African Americans, “and as Americans, we must not let America fail us.” In 1943, the WAAC dropped the word “Auxiliary” and allowed women to become members of the regular Army.