Diksha Sundriyal
Directed by Tyler Perry, Netflix’s ‘The Six Triple Eight’ is a historical drama film that shows us a different side of war. Instead of taking us into the heat of the battle, it shows us the work it takes to keep the mail service going, without which the morale of the soldiers would crumble, and their families would never know what became of them. The film focuses on the 6888th battalion and the tireless dedication with which it cleared the backlog of around seventeen million pieces of mail that didn’t find their intended for several months. One of the people serving in this all-women battalion with people of color was PFC Elizabeth Bernice Barker Johnson (Bernice Baker in the film).
Bernice Baker’s Life Changed When She Decided to Join the Army
Bernice Baker was born to Jesse and Marzella Barker on May 2, 1920. She had never thought about joining the military, but when she saw the poster featuring Uncle Sam saying “I Want You,” she decided to give it a go. By then, the US had entered the Second World War following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and Bernice wanted to do something for her country. On March 11, 1943, she enlisted in the army. Following her training at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, she was sent to Camp Campbell in Kentucky on her first assignment, where she mostly drove trucks. After a rigorous process, she was chosen to go overseas as a part of the 6888 battalion in 1944.
While she was not involved in processing the heaps of mail, she was assigned as a postal clerk and truck driver. First, she and her battalion served in England, clearing up the millions of mail within months, long before their deadline. Then, they were all shipped off to France, where Bernice continued her role. Remembering her time in England and France, Bernice most fondly talked about the good treatment she and her fellow soldiers received, unlike the racism and segregation they had to face in their own country. She also remembered having talked with the Queen as part of the battalion. Bernice would have liked to spend more time in England, but when the war was over, she decided to go back home. Her father had passed away while she was overseas, and she didn’t want the same to happen with her mother, who had also taken ill.
Bernice Barker Lived an Illustrious Life
Bernice Barker passed away on August 23, 2020, after a brief illness in Hickory, North Carolina, and is laid to rest at Catawba Memorial Park. She had celebrated her hundredth birthday four months ago. She was married to James Henry Johnson, whom she met in 1957 while she worked as a teacher at Patrick Central School in Spencer, Virginia. They had a son and a daughter named David and Cynthia, two grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. After coming home from war, Bernice went to Winston-Salem Teacher’s College, becoming the first woman to enroll there on a GI Bill.
Bernice graduated in 1949, but it wasn’t until 2019 that she got to attend her graduation ceremony, 70 years after she had graduated from the university. She wasn’t able to attend her graduation ceremony in 1949 because she had already found a teaching job, and her supervisor didn’t allow her to leave without finding a substitute, which she couldn’t. Years later, when the college authorities discovered this, they brought her to the 2019 graduation ceremony, where she donned the red cap and gown with the rest of the 2019 batch. After she got her degree, Bernice spent more than three decades teaching in different places, including Spencer County, Iredell Statesville City, Surry County, and Elkin City School System. When she retired, she took to volunteering in the Catawba County School System for the next 15 years.
In 2018, Bernice got the recognition that she and the rest of the 6888 had been robbed of all these years. In November 2018, a memorial was unveiled at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, which has the names of all the 855 women of the 6888, including Bernice. On November 11, 2019, she, along with other surviving members of the 6888, received the Audie Murphy Award. In 2020, she received the Veterans Lineage coin and was honored with the Order of the Long Leaf Pine during the North Carolina African American Veterans Lineage Day ceremony at the North Carolina Museum of History. Over the years, she also appeared on several panels, like the ones conducted by the American Veterans Center, and gave interviews to several news and media outlets to talk about her experience with the 6888 and make people aware of the hard work and sacrifices made by the women in her battalion.
Read More: Lena Derriecott: How Did the Six Triple Eight Soldier Die?
