Final Christmas, my household invited my mom’s step-sister, Ingrid Nathan — the primary Black individual to combine Seminole County colleges in Florida in 1964 — to rejoice the season in our residence in Georgia. They hadn’t seen one another in a decade, so there have been loads of hugs, laughter and reminiscences.
My mother and I had simply watched The Six Triple Eight on Netflix and was gushing about it to all our friends. “It’s in regards to the Black girls who served in WWII and sorted all of the mail,” she acknowledged as she identified her favourite scenes, to which her step-sister casually talked about, “I believe my mom was part of that.”
It was a boisterous afternoon, with my nephews unwrapping presents and other people having fun with the vacation feast, so the movie turned a nice distraction within the background. However Ingrid promised she would watch it once more when she acquired again residence.
Hours later, the telephone rang. It was Ingrid crying with pleasure. “I simply noticed my mom’s title,” she exclaimed. To honor the ladies who had served in the one Black, all-female battalion to serve throughout World Warfare II, Tyler Perry, who wrote, directed, and government produced the NAACP Picture Award-winning movie, had listed all of the names of the ladies who had served within the battalion within the closing credit. And there it was: Edna Cross Burton.
This week, these courageous, brave girls acquired recognition they tremendously deserve. On April 29, the 855-member unit was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the best award that Congress can bestow upon a civilian.
Ingrid, together with 300 descendants of this unit of the Girls’s Military Corps, participated within the awards ceremony. She traveled to Washington, D.C., and gathered within the Capitol’s Emancipation Corridor for the event. The unit’s two surviving members, Fanny McClendon, 101, and Anna Mae Robertson, watched from residence.
“We’re honored to host you and to rejoice these distinctive girls,” stated Speaker of the Home Mike Johnson, who offered the award to the descendants of Lt. Col. Charity Adams, who was the chief of the 6888th Battalion, and performed by EBONY cowl star Kerry Washington within the film. “She made a distinction. She was Black historical past, she was civil rights,” Ingrid shared in a Spectrum Information profile.
An off-the-cuff vacation dialog, sparked by a robust movie, blossomed right into a reconnection with household historical past and had a profound impression on our lives. Perry and Washington’s dedication to bringing these girls’s long-overdue tribute to display has made positive that Edna Cross Burton and the legacy of all the ladies of the 6888th Central Postal Listing Battalion won’t ever be forgotten.