New Bern man in documentary about black Marines at Montford Point
Francine Sawyer
Sun Journal
September 13, 2007 - 5:52PM

A retired Marine in New Bern is in a documentary film about the Montford Point base in Jacksonville during the era of segregation.

He is Johnnie Thompkins Jr., who lives in the Pembroke community.

The documentary on the life and times of Marines at Montford Point will be shown Sept. 25.

Until 1942, the Marine Corps refused to recruit blacks, American Indians and other minorities. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s creation of the Fair Employment Practices Commission in 1941 forced the Corps to begin recruiting blacks in 1942.

The first black recruits received basic training at the segregated Montford Point Base next to Camp Lejeune and continued to train there until 1949.

Thompkins remembers when a train was taking German prisoners and black Marines across country to go overseas.

“The Red Cross was on hand part way across the country to assist,” Thompkins said. “The commander told the Red Cross to assist the German prisons first. The Red Cross said no, we are taking care of our own men first.”

Thompkins, a Winston-Salem native, was trained at Montford Point in the 1940s.

“We had boys from the North who were not used to segregation. They had a time of it,” Thompkins said.

He retired in 1969 as a master sergeant.

Thompkins said he is featured in the documentary along with many other black Marines. He said the documentary runs for 60 minutes. “The film shows photographs of us back in the 1940s,” Thompkins said.

The film was produced by the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and the University of South Carolina. Actor Louis Gossett Jr. narrates the documentary.

The documentary, called “Montford Point Marines, Loyalty and Service in the Face of Prejudice and Discrimination,” will be aired at 10:30 p.m. Sept. 25 on North Carolina PBS.

Thompkins said anyone with questions can call him at his home at 638-2877.

Ellie