BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : A TIME LINE IMAGES OF A WRONG THAT NEEDED PUTTING RIGHT : THE FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN AMERICAN MARINES : GOES INTO THE " HALL OF BLACK GENIUS "

They were among America's first Black Marines coming from both North and South to train in North Carolina when the country was sharply divided along racial lines. Because of your color and only your color, you had to go to segregated places, you go to the movies you had to go up stairs or sit in some corner or some place. If you wanted to buy food you had to go around to a little window and might get around to taking care of you if you stayed there long enough after they have served all the whites. Between 1942 to 1049 approximately 20,000 African American men joined the Marine Crops. They got there boot camp training at Montford Point, Jacksonville, North Carolina, It was a segregated camp of wooden cardboard huts.  They brave the variety of threats from the swagger sticks of the tough Drill Sergeants to the hazards of snakes, mosquitoes and and even bears.

In many cases they were required to face much tougher challenges than their white counterparts who entered the Marine Cropos at the same time. The Montford Point Marines did not make many mistakes, They served during a critical point in history, they fought in some of the bloodiest struggles in the Pacific Sampan and Iwo Jima and Okinawa, Japan, some died but many others continued to serve in Korea and Vietnam. These men were finally rewarded 70 years later with the Congressional Gold Medal, The Nation Highest Civilian Honor.