‘Six Triple Eight’ Netflix movie tells the true story of Ohio woman

One of the top trending movies on Netflix this holiday season is ‘The Six Triple Eight’, which tells the true story of an Ohio woman who made history during World War II.

In the movie Kerry Washington plays U.S. Army Maj. Charity Adams Earley, a trailblazing officer of the Women’s Army Corps.

The 6888th Central Postal Battalion was assigned to sort through a three-year backlog of undelivered mail that amounted to 17 million pieces to and from soldiers and their families.

Adams Earley, who was born in 1918 and grew up in South Carolina, came to Ohio to attend Wilberforce College to study math, Latin and physics. She returned to South Carolina to be a schoolteacher but in the summers she took graduate classes at Ohio State University, according to her biography published by the National Women’s History Museum.

In 1942, she joined the Women’s Army Corps and became a member of the first officer candidate school. In 1944 Adams Earley was picked to be the commanding officer of the first Black WAC unit sent overseas.

The Netflix movie, directed by Tyler Perry, tells the story of Adams Earley and her battalion’s grit and resourcefulness during the mail sorting assignment.

She left the service in 1948, having achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel. Adams Earley returned to Ohio State University to finish her graduate degree and later work for the Veterans Administration in Cleveland.

She moved to Switzerland where her husband, Stanley Earley II, was studying to become a doctor. The couple returned to the states in 1952, settled in Dayton and had two children.

Adams Earley became active in Dayton civic affairs, serving on the boards of Sinclair Community College, American Red Cross Dayton chapter, Dayton Metro Housing Authority, Dayton Opera Company and Dayton Power & Light Co.

The Charity Adams Earley Girls Academy in Dayton is named after her.

Adams Earley died in 2002 at age 83 in Dayton.

Laura Bischoff is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.