They went to war in World War II, only to return home to face discrimination from the country they were willing to die to protect. They are not as well known as their illustrious counterparts, the Tuskegee Airmen, who integrated the Army Air Corps the same year they became the first African Americans to wear the uniform of the U.S. Marine Corps.
But on June 27, their government proved that their contribution was just as valuable as members of the Montford Point Marines were honored with the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor our nation can bestow on a civilian.
Nearly 400 of the surviving 20,000 Montford Point Marines, were on hand for an awards ceremony at the Visitors Center at the U.S. Capitol and a parade in their honor. The group was named for their training facility, the U.S. Marine Corps’ first Black training camp, Camp Montford Point, just outside of Jacksonville, N.C. Each of the surviving Montford Point Marines received a bronze cast of the medal.
“It took 70 years to get here,” said George Bennett, 86, of Evansville, Ind., standing proudly in his uniform, with an oxygen pack helping him to breathe and his daughter, Cynthia Jackson, by his side.
Congress approved the medal for the Montford Point Marines late last year to recognize “their personal sacrifice and service to their country,” according to a statement. Since the initial award was given to George Washington in 1776, the medal has been presented 150 times, the statement said.
The ceremony was attended by several members of Congress, family members of the recipients and current members of the USMC. The Montford Point Marines moved through the day’s festivities much slower than in the days when they integrated the Marine Corps, some on canes and some in wheelchairs. But the joy they felt was no less than it had been on the day the U.S. declared victory over its enemies in World War II.
“To God be the glory,” Jackson said. “The honor has been a long time coming.”
The U.S. Marine Corps was given a direct order in 1942 by then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt to integrate by recruiting African American men, officials said. They traveled from around the nation to Montford Point, the first interaction some of the men had with the hate and bigotry that thrived in the Jim Crow South, some of the marines said.
Though they were told they would be integrating the Marines, they were trained at a camp established to keep them separate from White Marines.
“The recruiters didn’t tell us that,” said Jimmy M. Hargrove, who reached the position of E-9 during his 30-year career. He joined the corps in 1948, three years after the end of World War II. “They just said ‘you want to go into the Marine Corps?’ and we said ‘yes,’” he said. “The training was brutal. It was rough. All our drill instructors were Black and looked like giants, but we were well trained. Prejudice came second to being a Marine.”
Hargrove and others said they realized shortly after arriving at the all-Black Montford that things would not be as they had thought. “The training facilities that the Black Marines were put through at that particular time were inadequate,” said J.T. Inge, 83, who came to the ceremonies from his home in San Diego, Calif. “It was something they just threw together—something out in the swamps—where we were exposed to bears, snakes, skunks and whatever you want to find.”
Inge, who signed on after the war, credited sheer determination with getting him through the 12-week training period that left marks on his psyche, as well as body. They also turned to their faith, singing gospel songs to get through the tough times.
“That’s one of the things that will keep a person going, telling them ‘You can’t make it,’” Inge said. “When they tell you that you can’t make it, if you have determination, you won’t just lay down and quit.”
Though, as Black men, most of the Marines were accustomed to the physical work, they found the “mental anguish from people who felt you were not capable to do the things that Whites did or have the mentality that the Whites had” was difficult to handle.
The Montford camp trained Sgt. Maj. Edgar R. Huff, the corps’ first Black sergeant major and Sgt. Maj. Gilbert Johnson, one of the first Black drill instructors for the USMC, points of pride for other African Americans who were trained there.
Montford closed in 1949, but for the men who became Marines on its grounds, the lessons they were taught have remained with them. Seventy years after they broke the Marine color line, the men still light up when recalling their struggles in the South Pacific, Europe and back home.
