COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- A new movie is honoring a pioneering group of African American women and the work they did during World War II.
The film, The Six Triple Eight, highlights the work of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, and Sandra Waters-Holley is the daughter of one of the women in the battalion.
"I told someone today, sometimes you don't know your worth until years later,” Waters-Holley said. “I said, it's like a pity. We think we discard pity stone down on the street. But when somebody else finds that penny, may be valuable. So I'm so proud of my mom."
Waters-Holley is the daughter of Claire Waters, a member of the battalion, a group of mostly Black women who joined the World War II effort in 1945. Their job was to sort through millions of backlogged mail and packages.
Waters moved from Georgia to Ohio while her husband was serving, and she would soon follow him into service.
The battalion is the focus of the new movie by Tyler Perry. Waters-Holley recalls stories her mother told her about serving in the battalion.
"She told me about the hours and the conditions, and she said how the women were from all over the United States, the African American women, and how the women worked so hard, and their hands must have been bloody, from peeling mail 24/7,” Waters-Holley said. “These women were heroic. They were valiant, valiant soldiers. They never had a parade for them like they did for their white counterparts."
Over a three-month period, the women cleared a backlog of 17 million pieces of mail after being given six months to do so. The battalion had three eight-hour shifts that operated every day of the week.
Waters-Holley said her mother carried her hard work and dedication into her parenting.
"She was always persevering,” she said. “That was one of the greatest things I learned from my parents is to persevere through every trial, through every hardship, persevere and sometimes she would always say, ‘Well, Sandy, if you go through the tunnel, the lord is going to have a light there for you. It is not going to be at the end, but it's going to show you how to get to the other side."
Though Waters-Holley has yet to see the movie, we had the opportunity to show her the trailer for the first time and she watched it in awe, saying how proud she was of her mother and her sacrifice for her country.
“It's quite well done and I just wish I'd had an opportunity to meet Mr. Perry, just to say thank you, just to say thank you for honoring my mother,” Waters-Holley said.
The movie premieres Friday on Netflix.
