"Over My Dead Body, Sir" — The Black Women Who Defied a General The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion was the only all-Black Women's Army Corps unit deployed overseas during World War II. In February 1945, 855 Black women (with some members of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent) arrived in Birmingham, England, to face warehouses stacked floor-to-ceiling with undelivered mail — some letters and packages three years old. The U.S. Army estimated clearing the backlog would take six months. Wor