JoeChalupa
10-25-2011, 03:41 PM
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2011/10/ap-corps-to-teach-history-of-first-black-marines-102411/
OCEANSIDE, Calif. — Oscar Culp does not like to remember. His mind has erased the harshest details. But the pain still stings for the 87-year-old World War II veteran, who endured boot camp in a snake-infested North Carolina swampland as one of the first blacks admitted to the Marine Corps.
He wipes a tear. Black Marines were barred from being stationed with whites at nearby Camp Lejeune. But what hurt worse, he says, was returning from the battlefield to a homeland that ordered him to sit at the back of the bus and drink out of separate fountains from the white Americans he had just put his life on the line to protect.
“Excuse me,” he says, pulling out a handkerchief. “Sometimes we get a little emotional about it.”
The story of the first black Marines is a part of history few Americans — and even few Marines — have learned. Unlike the Army’s Buffalo Soldiers or the Army Air Corps’ Tuskegee Airmen, the Montford Point Marines have never been featured in popular songs or Hollywood films, or recognized nationally.
The Corps’ new commandant intends to change that.
Nearly 70 years after the Marine Corps became the last military branch to accept blacks under orders from President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941, Congress will vote Tuesday on whether to grant the Montford Point Marines the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
The Corps up until now has not actively broadcast the painful chapter in the 235-year-old history of an institution that still is largely white, especially in the higher ranks where less than 5 percent of officers are black.
But Commandant Gen. James Amos — whose own 2010 appointment made him the first Marine aviator named to the Corps’ top job — has made diversifying the staunchly traditional branch a top priority. Amos has ordered commanders to be more aggressive in recommending qualified black Marines for officer positions. The Corps this summer named the first black general, Maj. Gen. Ronald Bailey, to lead its storied 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton, Calif.
The Marine Corps also plans to teach all Marines next year about Montford Point, the base near the coastal town of Jacksonville, N.C., that the Corps set up for blacks to keep them separate from white Marines. It operated from 1942 to 1949.
“Every Marine — from private to general — will know the history of those men who crossed the threshold to fight not only the enemy they were soon to know overseas, but the enemy of racism and segregation in their own country,” Amos said.
Amos has spent the year lobbying Congress to grant Montford Point Marines the civilian medal, which was given to the Tuskegee Airmen in 2006. “It’s long overdue,” Amos recently told the last remaining Montford Point Marines.
Most of the 19,000 Montford Point Marines have died, their fellow Marines say.
“For the most part, we lost our history purposely,” said Culp, who has only a few black-and-white photographs from those days. “They didn’t want the world to know our history.”
Unlike the Tuskegee pilots — featured in the upcoming Hollywood film “Red Tails” to be released in January — the Montford Point Marines were not officers in the war. The Corps gave those promotions to whites, said University of North Carolina historian Melton McLaurin, whose book “The Marines of Montford Point” is being considered by Amos for his must-read list for Marines.
Semper Fi!! - About time.
OCEANSIDE, Calif. — Oscar Culp does not like to remember. His mind has erased the harshest details. But the pain still stings for the 87-year-old World War II veteran, who endured boot camp in a snake-infested North Carolina swampland as one of the first blacks admitted to the Marine Corps.
He wipes a tear. Black Marines were barred from being stationed with whites at nearby Camp Lejeune. But what hurt worse, he says, was returning from the battlefield to a homeland that ordered him to sit at the back of the bus and drink out of separate fountains from the white Americans he had just put his life on the line to protect.
“Excuse me,” he says, pulling out a handkerchief. “Sometimes we get a little emotional about it.”
The story of the first black Marines is a part of history few Americans — and even few Marines — have learned. Unlike the Army’s Buffalo Soldiers or the Army Air Corps’ Tuskegee Airmen, the Montford Point Marines have never been featured in popular songs or Hollywood films, or recognized nationally.
The Corps’ new commandant intends to change that.
Nearly 70 years after the Marine Corps became the last military branch to accept blacks under orders from President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941, Congress will vote Tuesday on whether to grant the Montford Point Marines the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
The Corps up until now has not actively broadcast the painful chapter in the 235-year-old history of an institution that still is largely white, especially in the higher ranks where less than 5 percent of officers are black.
But Commandant Gen. James Amos — whose own 2010 appointment made him the first Marine aviator named to the Corps’ top job — has made diversifying the staunchly traditional branch a top priority. Amos has ordered commanders to be more aggressive in recommending qualified black Marines for officer positions. The Corps this summer named the first black general, Maj. Gen. Ronald Bailey, to lead its storied 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton, Calif.
The Marine Corps also plans to teach all Marines next year about Montford Point, the base near the coastal town of Jacksonville, N.C., that the Corps set up for blacks to keep them separate from white Marines. It operated from 1942 to 1949.
“Every Marine — from private to general — will know the history of those men who crossed the threshold to fight not only the enemy they were soon to know overseas, but the enemy of racism and segregation in their own country,” Amos said.
Amos has spent the year lobbying Congress to grant Montford Point Marines the civilian medal, which was given to the Tuskegee Airmen in 2006. “It’s long overdue,” Amos recently told the last remaining Montford Point Marines.
Most of the 19,000 Montford Point Marines have died, their fellow Marines say.
“For the most part, we lost our history purposely,” said Culp, who has only a few black-and-white photographs from those days. “They didn’t want the world to know our history.”
Unlike the Tuskegee pilots — featured in the upcoming Hollywood film “Red Tails” to be released in January — the Montford Point Marines were not officers in the war. The Corps gave those promotions to whites, said University of North Carolina historian Melton McLaurin, whose book “The Marines of Montford Point” is being considered by Amos for his must-read list for Marines.
Semper Fi!! - About time.