Raleigh Post Office Renamed After 6888th War Veteran
The post office on Brentwood Road has been renamed to honor Raleigh native and veteran Millie Dunn Veasey. Veasey was part of the historic 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, an all-Black and all-female unit that was unique in its overseas operations during World War II.
Known as the Six Triple Eight, this battalion made significant contributions during the war, efficiently sorting 17 million pieces of mail for American troops in under 90 days. Before their arrival in Europe, there was a staggering backlog of mail that had accumulated over three years. Many believe that the dedication of these women greatly uplifted the spirits of countless soldiers and their families.
"Millie Dunn Veasey is an American hero – a veteran and civil rights leader who served in the only overseas all-black women’s battalion, ensuring that soldiers on the front lines received letters from loved ones at home," Congresswoman Deborah Ross said. "She led a remarkable life – one that we should celebrate.
On February 3, 1945, Dunn was in the first group of women from the 6888th to sail to Great Britain. The voyage took 11 days, during which they survived close encounters with Nazi U-boats. They arrived in Glasgow, Scotland, on February 14, 1945. The 6888th was then stationed in Birmingham, England, where they discovered warehouses full of undelivered mail. The unit worked in three shifts around the clock seven days a week to clear the backlog. They adopted the motto, “No Mail, Low Morale”—mail was the only connection the men fighting on the front lines had with friends and family back home. Before the 6888th, mail delivery was intermittent at best. The morale of the soldiers was waning because they had no connections outside the military.
The women developed a new system of organizing and tracking mail. The system required tracking individual servicemembers by maintaining about seven million information cards. The cards included serial numbers to distinguish different individuals with the same name. They also tried to deliver mail with insufficient information through this system. The hardest part for the unit was returning mail when it was addressed to a servicemember who died. Yet, thanks to their system, they were able to process approximately 195,000 pieces of mail per day. The U.S. Army thought it would take the 6888th six months to clear the mail backlog in Birmingham. The 6888th finished the job in three months.
In December 1945, Dunn and many in the 6888th sailed back to the United States and began to be discharged at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Once she returned to Raleigh, she enrolled in St. Augustine’s College with the assistance of the G.I. Bill. She graduated from St. Augustine’s with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. In 1949, she married Warren L. Veasey. They were married until his death in 1961.
Millie Dunn Veasey played a significant role in the civil rights movement, actively engaging in sit-ins across Raleigh to push for the integration of lunch counters. In 1963, she was instrumental in organizing a bus trip to Washington, D.C., where she took part in the historic March on Washington on August 28th.
As an organizer, she had a prime spot near the Lincoln Memorial during Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech. From 1965 to 1968, Veasey made history as the first woman to serve as president of the Raleigh Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1966, she leveraged her position to arrange for Dr. King to deliver a speech in the Raleigh area.