Montford Point Marines: The Men Who Broke the Corps’ Color Barrier

They arrived in the pine forests of coastal North Carolina wearing the uniform of the United States Marine Corps—but they were not treated like other Marines.

Beginning in 1942, approximately 20,000 African American men trained at Montford Point, a segregated military camp near Camp Lejeune. They endured primitive facilities, institutional discrimination and the daily humiliations of Jim Crow. Nevertheless, they earned the title “Marine,” served overseas during World War II and helped force one of America’s most tradition-bound institutions to change.

The Montford Point Marines did more than integrate the Corps. Through discipline, determination and service under fire, they proved that courage has no color.

Opening the Corps

For most of its history, the Marine Corps had refused to accept African Americans into its enlisted ranks. That policy began to change during World War II.

On June 25, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802, prohibiting racial discrimination in the national defense industry and federal agencies. Under growing pressure to open military service to Black Americans, the Navy Department directed the Marine Corps to begin accepting African American recruits.

The Corps began enlisting Black Marines on June 1, 1942. However, integration was not part of the plan. Instead of attending recruit training alongside white Marines at Parris Island or San Diego, African American recruits were sent to a separate facility outside Camp Lejeune.

That facility was Montford Point.

The first recruits arrived in August 1942. They entered a camp that was still being constructed in the humid North Carolina woods. Buildings, roads and training areas were incomplete. Mosquitoes, mud and oppressive summer heat made an already difficult experience even harder.

Beyond the physical conditions was the unmistakable message of segregation: These men were being permitted to become Marines, but they were not yet being accepted as equals.

Becoming Marines Under Jim Crow

Montford Point Marines faced the same exhausting drills, inspections, marches and weapons training expected of every recruit. They also carried an additional burden.

They trained within a segregated military while living in a region governed by Jim Crow laws. Transportation, restaurants and public facilities outside the camp were divided by race. Even while wearing the Marine Corps uniform, Black Marines could be subjected to discrimination from civilians and fellow servicemembers.

Early platoons were commanded and trained primarily by white officers and drill instructors. That began to change as experienced Montford Point Marines rose through the ranks and assumed responsibility for training new recruits.

Among the most influential was Gilbert “Hashmark” Johnson. He had previously served in both the Army and Navy, earning the service stripes that inspired his nickname. Johnson became one of the Marine Corps’ first Black drill instructors and helped establish the demanding standards expected at Montford Point.

Johnson understood that every failure would be used by opponents of integration as evidence against all Black Marines. He therefore demanded discipline, competence and pride from his recruits.

Another pioneer was Edgar R. Huff, who became one of the first Black Marine drill instructors. Huff continued serving after World War II and eventually became the first African American Marine to attain the rank of sergeant major.

Frederick C. Branch, who trained at Montford Point, became the first African American commissioned officer in Marine Corps history in 1945.

These men were not asking for lowered standards. They wanted the opportunity to meet—and exceed—the standards of the Corps.

From Montford Point to the Pacific

Many Montford Point Marines were initially assigned to defense battalions, ammunition companies and depot units. Military leaders often treated these as secondary assignments, reflecting the prejudices of the era.

Combat quickly demonstrated how essential their work really was.

Black Marines served throughout the Pacific, including operations connected with Saipan, Tinian, Guam, Peleliu, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. They unloaded ships, operated heavy equipment, transported ammunition and supplies, defended positions and kept frontline units fighting.

Moving ammunition through a combat zone was especially dangerous. Enemy artillery, aircraft and small-arms fire did not distinguish between infantrymen and the Marines supplying them. Ammunition companies worked around explosives while handling enormous quantities of shells, bombs and fuel—often under fire.

During the fighting on Saipan, Black Marines delivered ammunition to frontline units and assisted with the defense of threatened positions. At Peleliu, Montford Point Marines performed their duties amid one of the Pacific War’s most brutal battles. Their conduct drew praise from senior Marine commanders who could no longer deny what the men had demonstrated in combat.

They had arrived overseas as members of segregated units. They returned as combat veterans who had earned the respect of Marines who served beside them.

A Corps Forced to Change

The performance of Black servicemembers during World War II weakened the arguments used to defend segregation. Men who had fought for freedom overseas returned to a country that still denied many of them equal treatment.

On July 26, 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981, calling for equality of treatment and opportunity throughout the armed forces.

The Marine Corps was initially slow to embrace full integration, but the change could no longer be stopped. Segregated recruit training at Montford Point ended in 1949. African American recruits were subsequently sent to the Corps’ traditional recruit depots and trained alongside white Marines.

The Korean War accelerated integration as manpower demands placed Black and white Marines together in combat units. Once again, performance under fire proved more powerful than prejudice.

By the time Marines fought at the Chosin Reservoir and across Korea, the segregated Corps represented by Montford Point was disappearing.

The Marines who had trained there helped make that transformation possible.

Remembering the Point

Nearly 20,000 African American Marines passed through Montford Point between 1942 and 1949. For decades, their contribution received limited recognition outside their own community.

Former Montford Point Marines and their families worked to preserve the story. The Montford Point Marine Association, established in 1965, became a driving force in documenting their service and ensuring that future generations understood what they had accomplished.

In 1974, Montford Point was renamed Camp Gilbert H. Johnson in honor of the pioneering drill instructor. Today, Camp Johnson remains part of the larger Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune community and serves as an important center for Marine Corps training.

National recognition finally came in 2011, when Congress authorized the Congressional Gold Medal for the Montford Point Marines. The collective medal was presented in 2012, seventy years after the first Black recruits arrived in North Carolina.

For many original Montford Point Marines, the recognition came late. Some did not live to see it. Families accepted bronze replicas on behalf of fathers, grandfathers and uncles whose service had rarely appeared in textbooks.

The ceremony confirmed what those Marines had always known: They had earned their place in the history of the Corps.

More Than a Story of Integration

The story of Montford Point is sometimes reduced to a milestone—the place where the first African American Marines trained. That description is accurate, but incomplete.

Montford Point was a proving ground.

The men sent there had to prove themselves to drill instructors, commanders, fellow Marines and a country that doubted their ability before they had ever fired a rifle. They were expected to defend American freedom while being denied full equality at home.

They answered that injustice by becoming Marines.

Their legacy can be seen in every African American recruit who has crossed a Marine Corps parade deck, every Black officer who has accepted a commission and every Marine who has been judged by performance rather than race.

They did not merely enter the Marine Corps. They changed it.

A Personal Note From the Author

As a Marine, I served at Camp Geiger and the School of Infantry-East, part of the Camp Lejeune complex and only a short distance from the former Montford Point.

Like many Marines who passed through the area, I did not fully appreciate at the time how much history had been made nearby. The Montford Point Marines trained in the same coastal heat, humidity, sand and pine forests familiar to generations of Marines—but they carried burdens that most of us never had to face.

Learning their story gives that ground a deeper meaning. These men fought for the right to wear the Eagle, Globe and Anchor, then helped build a Corps in which future Marines could be judged by their character and performance.

Every Marine who has served at Camp Lejeune walks in the shadow of their courage. Their struggle is part of our history, and their legacy belongs to the entire Marine Corps.