The Marines of Montford Point: America's First Black Marines

With an executive order from President Franklin Roosevelt in 1941, the United States Marine Corps — the last all-white branch of the U.S. military — was forced to begin recruiting and enlisting African Americans. The first black recruits received basic training at the segregated Camp Montford Point, adjacent to Camp Lejeune, near Jacksonville, North Carolina. Between 1942 and 1949 (when the base was closed as a result of President Truman’s 1948 order fully desegregating all military forces)...