Alva Moore Stevenson, Past President of the Southwest Oral History Association (2011-2013), is part of the efforts to recognize the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) all-Black 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion. Alva has supported the initiative to honor the 6888th, or “Six Triple Eight,” with the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal as the “first and only all-Black WAC unit deployed overseas during WWII” [1]. Her mother, Lydia Esther Thornton, served in the Six Triple Eight, inspiring Alva to share the story of her mother and other WWII women veterans. Alva wishes that her mother was alive to receive this honor, but she petitions to award the Six Triple Eight with the Gold Medal in her memory.
The campaign to secure the needed Congressional co-sponsors for the Gold Medal continues. As of December 23, 2021, Alva reports that they need fourteen more co-sponsors for the bill to go to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives for a vote. She was interviewed by Scripps Media last week about her mother and her service in the battalion. KMGH-TV, a virtual and VHF digital channel 7 (an ABC-affiliated television station licensed to Denver, Colorado), and Scripps Media stations nationwide broadcasted the story featuring Alva and Army Col. Ret. Edna Cummings’s advocacy to recognize the Six Triple Eight. The story is accessible via this link: https://bit.ly/SixTripleEightD7
Learn more about the documentary, TheSixTripleEight (2019), via this link: https://lincolnpennyfilms.com/index.php/the-six-triple-eight/
Read H.R.1012 – ‘Six Triple Eight’ Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2021 at https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1012/text
Works Cited:
Amanda Brandeis, “Campaign underway to honor all-Black women’s unit from WWII for achievements and pioneering service,” The Denver Channel (Denver 7), December 21, 2021, https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/national/campaign-underway-to-honor-all-black-womens-unit-from-wwii-for-achievements-and-pioneering-service.
Southwest Oral History Association 