Monday, March 18, 2024

Monument Honoring First Black Marines Dedicated at Camp Lejeune (Watch)

In this Sept. 21, 2015 photo provided by the City of Jacksonville, the monument for the Montford Point Marines, the nation's first black Marines, is seen in Jacksonville, N.C. Forty-five Montford Point Marines are scheduled to attend the dedication Friday, July 29, 2016, at Lejeune Memorial Gardens. (Lisa Miller, City of Jacksonville via AP)
In this Sept. 21, 2015 photo provided by the City of Jacksonville, the monument for the Montford Point Marines, the nation’s first black Marines, is seen in Jacksonville, N.C.

*A new structure honoring the first African-Americans who joined the still-segregated Marine Corps during World War II was dedicated Friday at Camp Lejeune in Raleigh, North Carolina.

More than 1,000 people gathered Friday morning to attend the dedication of a 900-pound, 15-feet tall bronze statue, marking completion of the first phase of the $1.8 million monument in honor of the Montford Point Marines.

When President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802 on June 25, 1941, which prohibited racial discrimination in the national defense industry, the Marine Corps was slow to respond. Black Marine recruits were forced to train at the satellite camp, Montford Point.

“Today, this inspiring memorial takes its rightful place among the other silent testimonials to the courage, dedication and sacrifice of our men and women who have worn the cloth of this nation,” Brig. Gen. Thomas Weidley, commander of Marine Corps Installations-East said. “The story of the Montford Point Marines in the 1940s is a uniquely American one, forged by ominous threats from abroad, and shaped by societal struggles and entrenched racial bigotry at home.

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Forty-five Montford Point Marines were scheduled to attend the dedication Friday, July 29, 2016, at Lejeune Memorial Gardens.

“Standing in the cross-currents of those tumultuous times was a generation of 20,000 African-Americans who shared a simple, singular desire to humbly serve and defend this nation no matter what the consequence, no matter what the cost.”

The memorial stands at the entrance to what was once known as Montford Point, but in 1974, was renamed Camp Johnson in honor of Sgt. Maj. Gilbert “Hashmark” Johnson, a Montford Point drill instructor.

Retired 1st Sgt. Barnett Person is a 1946 graduate of Montford Point who served for over 28 years, including service in Vietnam, and was proud to be at the dedication.

“This feels very, very good. It is a day I never thought I would see,” Person told the Marine Corps Times.
Segregation in the military ended when President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981 on July 26, 1948.

Watch a video report of the dedication below:

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