The Marines That Beat Hitler & Jim Crow Get Their Due
At a once-segregated base in heart of the Confederacy, four of America’s first Black Marines were finally recognized with one of our highest civilian honors.
Shawn Rocco/Raleigh News & Observer/MCT via Getty Images
CAMP JOHNSON, North Carolina—As Americans debated the Confederate names inscribed on monuments and U.S. military installations in the wake of neo-Nazi violence a few hours north in Charlottesville, four U.S. Marines who helped break the Corps’ color barrier here 75 years ago were being posthumously honored.
Among the Chinese Pistache trees, 20,000 gold stars—each symbolizing a brother-in-arms—and the sound of MV-22 Osprey helicopters cutting through the overcast skies above Onslow County, active-duty service members, veterans, and family members came together in late August to honor these “Montford Pointers,” as they are called, with the highest civilian award bestowed by Congress—the Congressional Gold Medal.
“Twenty-thousand African Americans became Marines at Montford Point,” retired Marine Chief Warrant Officer 5 Houston T. Shinal told The Daily Beast. “And we’ve probably only given out around 600 [medals] since 2011.”
