'The Six Triple Eight' True Story & Major Differences From Real-Life Events

Based on the article Fighting a Two-Front War by Kevin Hymel, Netflix’s The Six Triple Eight tells the story of the first all-Black female Women Army Auxiliary Corps (WAC) that served in World War II overseas. Though the film is based on true events, it seems like writer and director Tyler Perry has taken a lot of creative liberties and changed certain events in order to dramatize the narrative and make the storyline more gripping.

McLeod’s True Contribution Towards Her Community

At the beginning of the film, Mary McLeod Bethune, the civil rights activist, sat in a meeting with President Roosevelt, his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, General Halt, and a few other personnel from the army. We saw that she vouched for the African American battalion and advised the army personnel to bring them to the forefront so that they could contribute to the war. Firstly, it is to be noted that General Halt’s character was fictional, and it could be said that he symbolically represented all those White supremacists who were against the Black women serving in the war, and moreover, didn’t think that they were competent enough to carry out the duties. 

The irony was that the US army was fighting the war against a dictator who propagated the concept of racial supremacy, but what they were doing in their own land was no different. Obviously, they didn’t go to the same extent Hitler did, but the kind of discrimination they promulgated against the Black community was equally disgraceful, if not more. So Bethune, in 1935, founded the National Council of Negro Women, which was composed of representatives from multiple organizations that worked together to improve the living conditions of Black women. It is true that the National Council of Negro Women got permission for Black women to be drafted into the Women’s Army Corps. 

As shown in The Six Triple Eight, Bethune was very close to the Roosevelts, and she played a key role during their electoral campaign. Bethune was also appointed as the national advisor during Roosevelt’s tenure, and she played a vital role in the formation of the Federal Council on Colored Affairs. I don’t know if the meeting went exactly the same way as it was portrayed in the film, but it is true that when Bethune sat next to Eleanor Roosevelt, many people rolled their eyes in dismay and utter dissatisfaction.

The Role Of Adams Has A Mix Of Real And Fictional Events

As far as the portrayal of Charity Adams is concerned, the makers have treated her as one of the lead protagonists in the film, which is why they have glorified her contributions in certain places. That said, I totally agree with glorifying such a noble woman who was a pioneer in her field, but what I don’t agree with is tweaking the real-life facts and not showing the entire truth. What I am referring to is the Fort Oglethorpe movie theater incident where we saw Charity taking a stand for her soldiers and fighting the White supremacists for her honor and pride.

The real-life incident took place in Douglas Army Airfield, where Lena Derriecott worked as a nurse. She was in the theater when a certain military policeman ordered Lieutenant Clark, chief of the WAC, to leave the front seats and go and sit on the stand that had been assigned to them. Lieutenant Clark got agitated, and she called her senior officer about what exactly had happened. The superior didn’t say a word, and Clark realized what his silence meant. Clark came back and asked her soldiers to leave the theater immediately, and after that, she told her superior that if the Black women were discriminated against like that any further, then she would vacate her post and ask her soldiers to do the same. The segregation rules were removed after that day, though even Clark knew that it was difficult to eradicate racism from the system.

The entire argument that Charity had with General Halt in England actually happened in real life, though the film refrains from taking the name of the real-life general and instead uses a pseudonym. The general demeaned her at the King Edward’s Boys School, and he said that he would send an efficient and more capable person (which obviously meant a White officer) to review her work and keep a check on her activities. Charity was a fierce woman, and she knew how to fight for her rights. She had actually told that general that if he wanted to do that, then he would have to do so over her dead body. Also, another event that has been altered is the meeting of Lena and Charity Adams. The film shows us that Lena was in Charity Adams’ battalion from the very beginning, but in real life, she met the latter after she was posted overseas.

Lena and Abram’s Love Story Is Partly Fictional

The entire subplot involving the love story of Lena and Abram was where I felt that the filmmakers faltered, and they should not have deviated from the historical facts and presented their own fictional narrative. I believe that the filmmakers wanted to present the film as a love story, but I don’t think that it is fair to distort the real facts when it is so well documented, and every detail about it is present in the public domain. Abram did exist in real life, and he came from an affluent Jewish family. His father owned a general store in Germantown. Lena also lived in the same town as her mother and aunt, grew fond of the Jewish boy, and saw her entire life with him. Abram enlisted in the army, but on his first mission, he met his fateful end. After that, Lena joined the summer nursing program, contrary to what was shown in the film. 

Lena stayed in Iowa during her program, and after that, she shifted to Douglas Army Airfield, where she still worked as a nurse. Lena met her future husband, Hugh Thadius Bell, here, and she got married to him before being enlisted in the 6888th. So basically, the entire storyline where we saw Lena not being able to move on in life was fictional. I don’t think that she found a letter, or she went to serve in the Battalion in that kind of mind space. Also, as stated earlier, she met Charity Adams once she got drafted into the 6888th Battalion and moved to Europe. So, it could be said that Lena might have felt inspired to join the army because of Abram’s demise, but other than that, whatever is shown in the film didn’t happen in real life. Charity Adams was also appointed as the commanding officer of the 6888th in 1945, and together they were stationed in Birmingham. After that, the division was shifted to Rouen in France and then later to Paris. But in the end,  the 6888th Battalion did sort out 17 million pieces of mail, and they made sure that the troops on the battlefront were motivated to go ahead and keep up the good fight, and the families of the soldiers got their closure. So, all in all, it could be said that the makers presented the crux of the real-life events, but they changed the timelines and took a lot of creative liberties that suited the narrative.  

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