Governor Stein Proclaims Six Triple Eight Day

Six Triple Eight Day

2025

By The Governor Of The State Of North Carolina

A Proclamation

Whereas, during World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created what ultimately become known as the Women’s Army Corps (WAC), and at the urging of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary McLeod Bethune, Founder of the National Council of Negro Women, African-American Women were later admitted to duty; and

Whereas, recruitment of African-American Women into the WAC was limited to 10 percent to mirror the proportion of African-Americans in the greater population of the United States, and

Whereas, a desire to serve in the European Theater of Operations just as their White counterparts led to the creation in 1944 of a Black WAC unit – the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion – popularly known as the Six Triple Eight. Notably, dozens of the women who served on the Six Triple Eight were from North Carolina, include Staff Sergeant Mildred Dunn Veasey, a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated; and

Whereas, with upward of 7 million civilians and military personnel in the European Theater, a backlog of millions of pieces of mail formed and was stored in warehouses in Birmingham, England; and

Whereas, the Six Triple Eight was charged with reducing the backlog and boosting troop morale – “No Mail, Low Morale” by working to sort and route the mail; and

Whereas, the Six Triple Eight cleared the six-month backlog in just three months’ time and was next assigned to clear a separate three-year backlog in Routine, France; and

Whereas, the 855 African-American women who served in the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion were honored in Washington, D.C., at the United States Capitol with the Congressional Gold Medal for their pioneering and devoted military service to our country and to servicemen and servicewomen;

Now, Therefore, I, Josh Stein, Governor of the State of North Carolina, do hereby proclaim September 13, 2025, as “Six Triple Eight Day” in North Carolina and commend its observance to all citizens.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the Great Seal of the State of North Carolina at the Capitol in Raleigh this twenty-fifth day of August in the year of our Lord two thousand and twenty-fifth and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-ninth.