A separate war: Pioneering black Marines endured, prevailed
Posted May 16, 2019 10:08 pm.
GREENSBORO, N.C. — It took an executive order to break down barriers for black men to join the U.S. Marine Corps, and even then they still faced obstacles.
But the pioneering men who broke the Marines’ colour barrier in the 1940s now recall how they persevered and prevailed.
President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1941 executive order banned discrimination in government and defence industry employment because of “race, creed, colour, or national origin.”
That gave men like John Thompson a chance to defend a country that denied them the rights they wanted to fight for. Thompson was trained at a segregated camp called Montford Point, adjacent to Camp Lejeune.
The 94-year-old Thompson says the Marine Corps was an elite group — and despite the hindrances, he wanted to belong to an elite group.
Tom Foreman Jr., The Associated Press
