The Six Triple Eight, an all-Black female WWII unit, receives Congressional Gold Medal

Congress honors all-Black pistillate WWII portion

All-Black pistillate WWII portion receives Congressional Gold Medal 01:15

An all-Black, all-female World War II portion received the Congressional Gold Medal connected Tuesday for improving soldiers' morale with their enactment sorting message addressed to those connected the frontlines.

Congress passed bipartisan authorities successful 2022 to admit the portion with the golden medal, 1 of the highest civilian honors. On Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson  hosted the ceremonial to grant the grant successful Emancipation Hall astatine the U.S. Capitol building. 

"The full Six Triple Eight are large American patriots, loyal to a federation that for acold excessively agelong failed to instrumentality that favor," said the Louisiana Republican successful his opening remarks astatine the ceremony. 

The unit, whose motto was "no mail, debased morale," worked to benignant done a two-to-three twelvemonth backlog of message successful conscionable 3 months, surpassing the six-month extremity acceptable by the Army. The women's enactment was credited with redeeming relationships and lifting spirits connected the frontlines. 

The movie "The Six Triple Eight," directed by Tyler Perry and starring Kerry Washington arsenic Charity Adams Earley, the commandant of the battalion, was released past year, bringing the unit's communicative to a wider audience.  

Charity Adams Earley died successful 2002. Her son, Stanley, spoke astatine the ceremonial astatine the Capitol Tuesday to judge the grant connected his mother's behalf. 

"The Congressional Gold Medal has reinforced the rule that those who dedicate themselves fully, careless of contention oregon sex tin beryllium recognized astatine the highest levels, and supra all, that excellence matters," Earley said. 

Neither of the 2 surviving veterans of the Six Triple Eight were successful attendance to person the honor, according to retired Colonel Edna Cummings, who led a multi-year effort advocating for the honor. 

"I americium much than honored to beryllium with you contiguous to contiguous the Six Triple Eight with our nation's highest civilian award, the long-awaited, much-sought-after Congressional Gold Medal," Cummings said. "The Six Triple Eight is present listed among the little than 200 recipients since General George Washington archetypal received it successful 1776."

The Six Triple Eight is 1 of the units whose pictures concisely disappeared from Defense Department websites arsenic the Pentagon worked done its purge of contented promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI.) 

"Please assistance america to guarantee that the communicative of the Six Triple Eight and the honors and the designation that they received are protected and remembered for aboriginal generations," Earley said erstwhile concluding his remarks astatine the ceremony.