thedrifter
02-12-09, 08:32 AM
Enduring legacy of Montford Point
The Jacksonville Daily News
February 12, 2009 - 12:42 AM
Former Jacksonville City Councilman Turner Blount waxed modestly when he recently told a reporter from The Daily News that the Marines of Montford Point “sort of paved the way.”
Blount was referring to the first black Marines who entered the Corps back during the 1940s - and he was one of them. Not to split hairs with the long-time Jacksonville resident and military retiree, but the African-Americans who first enlisted in the Corps didn’t just pave the way - they blazed a way through a wilderness.
It took plenty of sweat, muscle, courage and hard work. They continued forward in the face of swarms of mosquitoes, with frost nipping at their fingers and toes, on sometimes empty stomachs, with aching muscles and the sounds of racial epithets ringing in their ears.
As the black men who first volunteered to go through Marine basic training completed that experience, they were treated, for the most part, like second-rate citizens.
Kept from crossing the railroad tracks in Jacksonville, given cast-off equipment and forced to work harder and longer just to “prove themselves,” most of the Montford Point Marines also found themselves pushed into roles of glorified servants after graduation. They didn’t tolerate that kind of treatment for long.
They fought, with the help of a few enlightened commanders, to be allowed to represent their country on the battlefield - not as back-up troops, but as the real deal. Once allowed to put their training to work, these black service members became what they always wanted to be: Marines. Nothing more, nothing less. They earned the globe and anchor the hard way and along with it the right to defend their country - even as their country treated them as having little value.
Now the men who fought so hard on the training field for the right to fight on the battle field are not simply heroes to black Marines everywhere - they are heroes to every American who owes his or her own freedom to the hard work, perseverance, quiet dignity and lasting strength of character of the Montford Point Marines.
Long may that legacy endure and Semper Fi, Marines.
Ellie
The Jacksonville Daily News
February 12, 2009 - 12:42 AM
Former Jacksonville City Councilman Turner Blount waxed modestly when he recently told a reporter from The Daily News that the Marines of Montford Point “sort of paved the way.”
Blount was referring to the first black Marines who entered the Corps back during the 1940s - and he was one of them. Not to split hairs with the long-time Jacksonville resident and military retiree, but the African-Americans who first enlisted in the Corps didn’t just pave the way - they blazed a way through a wilderness.
It took plenty of sweat, muscle, courage and hard work. They continued forward in the face of swarms of mosquitoes, with frost nipping at their fingers and toes, on sometimes empty stomachs, with aching muscles and the sounds of racial epithets ringing in their ears.
As the black men who first volunteered to go through Marine basic training completed that experience, they were treated, for the most part, like second-rate citizens.
Kept from crossing the railroad tracks in Jacksonville, given cast-off equipment and forced to work harder and longer just to “prove themselves,” most of the Montford Point Marines also found themselves pushed into roles of glorified servants after graduation. They didn’t tolerate that kind of treatment for long.
They fought, with the help of a few enlightened commanders, to be allowed to represent their country on the battlefield - not as back-up troops, but as the real deal. Once allowed to put their training to work, these black service members became what they always wanted to be: Marines. Nothing more, nothing less. They earned the globe and anchor the hard way and along with it the right to defend their country - even as their country treated them as having little value.
Now the men who fought so hard on the training field for the right to fight on the battle field are not simply heroes to black Marines everywhere - they are heroes to every American who owes his or her own freedom to the hard work, perseverance, quiet dignity and lasting strength of character of the Montford Point Marines.
Long may that legacy endure and Semper Fi, Marines.
Ellie