The Six Triple Eight: Forgotten battalion of black women celebrated in film

They were given a task others had failed – and they were given it because they were not expected to succeed.

The intriguing story of 855 black women who came to Birmingham from America to solve a two-year postal backlog during World War Two – handling 17 million letters that would have otherwise gone unseen – has been made into a film.

“Ladies, we have been ordered to provide hope and communication and care packages to our exhausted soldiers on the front line, and to let their families back home know if they are safe,” says Major Charity Adams as she addresses her female soldiers in The Six Triple Eight.

“Or … or if they have died in battle.”

Major Adams, who led the 6888th Central Postal Directory Batallion, is played by actress Kerry Washington.

“Everybody thought it was impossible, what they were up against,” she told the BBC.

“And I think that’s why the film resonates with people.

“Not just, you know, these particular black women and this time and place, but anybody who’d ever felt under estimated, or doubted, or pushed aside or marginalised.”