Montford Point Marines made history in Onslow County, N.C.

Montford Point Marines were a unique breed of “Leathernecks,” an all-black military brotherhood, that was trained from 1942-49 at a segregated, satellite facility aligned with Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune near Jacksonville in Onslow County, N.C.

Nearly 20,000 African-American Marines from Montford Point are remembered today, as military warriors and as pioneers in breaking down racial barriers within the U.S. Department of Defense.

 

Much has been written about the historical relevance of Montford Point. Here’s a bit of it:

Anna Hiatt, a freelance journalist in New York City, sets the stage: “The year was 1941. The United States was preparing” for the possibility of involvement in “World War II, and it needed recruits. 

But President Franklin D. Roosevelt faced a problem. Hiring discrimination based on race was still the norm in the defense industry. But civil rights leaders were organizing for change.”

 

“A. Philip Randolph, who had organized and led the first African-American labor union, was planning a march on Washington, D.C., to pressure Roosevelt to open up the defense industry to blacks. But the president resisted,” Hiatt said.

 

“As the date for the march grew closer – and under pressure from his wife Eleanor – President Roosevelt conceded.”

On June 25, 1941, just a week prior to the scheduled protest rally, Roosevelt signed an Executive Order prohibiting racial discrimination in the defense industry or in government.

“At last, all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces were open to African-Americans,” Hiatt wrote.

This presidential order was particularly “troublesome” to the Marine Corps, however, which had “remained a white enclave” by refusing to enlist blacks up to this point, according to an article appearing on the MarineParents.com website.

The U.S. Congress had authorized more than $14 million in 1941 for construction of a new Marine base on the New River in Onslow County, to serve as a major East Coast combat training site. 

The camp would be named after former Marine Corps Commandant Maj. Gen. John Archer Lejeune (pronounced “Luh-JERN”) of Louisiana, a World War I hero.

 

“Recruitment of black men for the Marine Corps started on June 1, 1942, about a year after Roosevelt’s order had been signed,” Hiatt said. “They quickly filled the 900-man quota.”

About $75,000 was allocated to develop a separate 1,600-acre parcel of land on the New River just a few miles away from Camp Lejeune. Known as Montford Point, the facility would function as a satellite camp, where the black Marines would be housed and trained, away from the main base.

It’s important to clarify that Roosevelt’s order “made no mention of ending the military’s standing policies of segregation,” Hiatt said.

The Jacksonville Daily News reported that the first black Marine who arrived at Montford Point on Aug. 26, 1942, observed: “When you got to the gate, there was nothing there.”

The MarineParents.com article said Montford Point “was a swampy, wildlife-ridden forest area. Animals and insects varied from absurd amounts of mosquitos and deer flies to bears, snakes, panthers and alligators. The flat plain was interlaced with brackish creeks, along with rapidly growing shrubs and poison ivy.”

“The first recruits were assigned tent-like structures before concrete block barracks were built. Slowly, other administrative and service buildings were added around the drill field and parade ground, including a chapel, mess halls and a theater.”

 

Howard P. Perry of Charlotte, N.C., was the first African-American Marine to arrive for training at Montford Point.

The Marine Corps chose Col. Samuel Alexander Woods Jr. of Darlington, S.C., a graduate of The Citadel (Military College of South Carolina) in Charleston, S.C., as the first Montford Point commander.

 

Col. Woods “cultivated a paternalistic relationship with his men,” and they dubbed him the “Great White Father.”