IDKMYDE: Mjr Charity Adams

Today’s episode of IDKMYDE humorously highlights the incredible story of Major Charity Adams and the Six Triple Eight, an all-Black, all-female battalion in World War II, who overcame racism, sexism, and impossible odds to clear a 17-million-piece mail backlog in record time—showing the power of resilience, efficiency, and Black excellence.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
On today's episode. If I didn't know, maybe you didn't either.
I got a question, do you ever feel overwhelmed at work?
Like your email inbox got five hundred unread messages and
you just want somebody to stop the earth so you
can get off. Well, let me tell you about Major Charity.
Adams and the six Triple eight. These women looked at

(00:20):
a pile of seventeen million pieces of mail and said,
light work. I didn't know. I didn't know. No, I
didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know.
But but but before we get into that, let's talk

(00:41):
about major charity. Atoms born in nineteen eighteen in Cottrell,
North Carolina. That's right. She's a Carolinian and she was
raised in Columbia, South Carolina. Her dad was a minister,
her mom was a teacher, and together they basically raised
a human LinkedIn profile. I mean, she a valedictorian math
degree from Wilberforce University, teaching career, and then, because clearly

(01:04):
she didn't have enough on her plate, she joined the
Women's Army Auxiliary Corps during World War Two, and then
she just casually became the first black woman commissioned as
an officer. Now fast forward to nineteen forty four, the
army gives her a mission lead the sixth Triple Eight,
the only all black, all female battalion deployed overseas. Their

(01:28):
job soort seventeen million pieces of backlog mail for soldiers
stationed all across Europe. Now, these women were dealing with
warehouses full of letters stacked Florida ceiling. I'm talking about
rotten packages, a smell you could probably never forget, probably
smell worse than circus dirt. And then I mentioned racism

(01:49):
and sexism, because of course it was the nineteen forties.
They weren't just fighting the male they were fighting people
who didn't think they deserved to be there in the
first place. But Charity Adams wasn't having it. She was like, look,
we're gonna sort this mail, and we're gonna do it
better than anyone expects. They set up three shifts working
around the clock, sorting sixty five thousand pieces of mail

(02:11):
a day. Meanwhile, I'm over here struggling the archive one
thousand posts on my Instagram. And here's the kicker. They
were given six months to sort through seventeen million pieces
of meal. They did it. In three three months. They
basically invented efficiency. Their motto was no mail, low morale

(02:32):
cause they knew the stakes. These letters were more than
just paper. They were lifelines. Soldiers got letters from their moms, girlfriends,
maybe a side chick or two. Hell, I ain't judging,
warn't stressful, but in all seriousness, what they did was
absolutely incredible. And here's why it matters today. Major Adams
and the six Triple Eight proved that black women could

(02:54):
take on impossible task and knock them out the park,
even when the world doubted them. That story is a
our resilience, excellence and not letting anybody tell you what
you're capable of. So the next time you're drowning in
emails or a coworker sends you one of those per
my last email passive aggressive messages, just channel you're in
a six Triple eight. Think hell, if they could sort

(03:17):
seventeen million letters, I can damn sure Handlekaren from Accountant
And as a matter of fact, Tyler Perry did a
movie about the six Triple eight. Carrie Washington was the lead.
You can find it on Netflix. Shouts to the six
Triple eight, a group that I didn't know maybe you
didn't either. Listen up, man, if you love this series,

(03:38):
you can now listen to us every single week starting
in March for all types of things that I didn't know.
Maybe you didn't either. Did you know snails have two
thousand teeth at least and they're all on their tongue.
Or did you know that J'alil White rkle was supposed
to be Rudy in The Cosby Show, but then Keisha
Knight Pulliam pulled up and sprinkle some black girl on

(04:00):
it weekly starting in March. I didn't know. Maybe you
didn't either. Make sure you're following the show on the
I Heart app so that you can hear more. Okay, Bye,