Desegregation in the United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps (USMC) is a desegregated force, made up of troops of all races working and fighting alongside each other.
Martin served on the marine platoon of the Reprisal for a year and a half, seeing action during his service, but was lost at sea alongside the rest of his unit when the brig sank in October 1777.
You can make use of Blacks and Mulattoes while you recruit, but you cannot enlist them.During the various conflicts fought by the United States from the early to mid-19th century, there are no records of African-Americans serving the USMC.
[4] During the American Civil War, roughly 180,000 African-Americans enlisted in the Union Army, primarily serving in logistical roles such as teamsters, laborers, construction workers and chefs.
[8] The United States Navy used black sailors as cooks, stewards, construction workers and unskilled labor, but did not train them to fight.
Unlike the US Army which had separate regiments that a soldier could remain in for his entire military career, Marines were individually transferred to various ship's detachments and naval bases.
In 1938, the Committee on Participation of Negroes in the National Defense Program was formed by the Pittsburgh Courier, a newspaper with a large black readership.
In June 1940, the NAACP's magazine, The Crisis, published a declaration that the fighting around the world was certainly bad, "but the hysterical cries of the preachers of democracy for Europe leave us cold.
"[9] In 1941, civil rights activists Bayard Rustin, A. Philip Randolph, and A. J. Muste pushed Roosevelt to order fair employment for blacks in the federal government.
On June 25, 1941, Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802; the elimination of racial discrimination from federal departments, agencies, the military, and from private defense contractors.
To make this battalion self-supporting, Holcomb determined that it would contain a rifle company, special weapons platoons, and a light tank platoon—all manned by black Marines.
Although the initial group of black USMC recruits was admitted beginning June 1, 1942, they were not immediately trained because separate, segregated facilities had not been completed.
[16] These and subsequent recruits were organized into the 51st Composite Defense Battalion,[17] a static artillery unit intended to hold land against attack.
Recruits were taught specialist skills by white USMC instructors brought into Montford Point, or they were sent to nearby Army classes.
The Field Depot Marines are recorded as again having humped ammunition, to the front lines on the stretchers they brought the wounded back on and picked up rifles to become infantrymen.
[27] After World War II, the USMC reduced in size; the number of African-American Marines dropped to 2,000 men, which was one-tenth of wartime levels.
Lee earned the Navy Cross under fire in Korea in September 1950, serving in the 1st Battalion 7th Marines; at the time this was a primarily Euro-American unit.
In January 1949, the Fahy Committee (nicknamed after its chairman) met to hear concerns by armed forces' leaders about the new executive order, and both the Army and the Marine Corps leadership defended their practices of segregation.
[1] By 1960, full integration of the races had been completed by the USMC, but racial tensions flared up through the next decade, a period of civil rights activism in the larger society.
[1] In May 2011, The Black Rep of Saint Louis, Missouri gave the world premier of The Montford Point Marine, a new play by Samm-Art Williams about a veteran of the unit and his life after his groundbreaking training and service in Korea.
