Honoring Hickory woman who was a member of The Six Triple Eight

HICKORY, N.C. – The city of Hickory is celebrating Black history by highlighting the work of one of the first and only all-Black unit in the women’s Army Corps during World War II. The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion 900 was made up of women from 40 states, including North Carolina. Their mission was to sort 17 million pieces of mail overseas in Europe during World War 2. The mail had been piling up for months undelivered, leaving families disconnected from their loved ones and resulting in low morale among soldiers. The team was given 6 months to finish the mission but they finished the job in three months.

“If you had a relative in World War 2, you didn’t have a phone, you couldn’t text them, you couldn’t call them, you stayed in touch with them through USPS mail. And these ladies kept families together. That’s how they found out what was going on at home. That’s how their loved ones knew what was going on overseas,” explains Cynthia Johnson Scott. Scott is the daughter of Elizabeth Barker Johnson. Johnson was one of the members of The Six Triple Eight. She lived in Hickory until she died in 2020. The city of Hickory will host a screening of The Six Triple Eight Netflix movie on Tuesday, February 18th at 4:30P at Ridgeview Recreation Center.