Jim Gentile, the project liaison for the Colp Plaza Veterans Memorial Committee, gives a speech to guests, May 27, at the Colp Area Veterans Celebration, Dedication and Remembrance Ceremony, in Colp, Illinois. The speech honored fallen service members and four African American Marines from Colp, who were among the first black Americans to join Marine Corps during World War II. Nearly 20,000 African-Americans joined the Marine Corps in 1942, after President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a “presidential directive giving African Americans an opportunity to be recruited in the Marine Corps,” accord
Jim Gentile, the project liaison for the Colp Plaza Veterans Memorial Committee, gives a speech to guests, May 27, at the Colp Area Veterans Celebration, Dedication and Remembrance Ceremony, in Colp, Illinois. The speech honored fallen service members and four African American Marines from Colp, who were among the first black Americans to join Marine Corps during World War II. Nearly 20,000 African-Americans joined the Marine Corps in 1942, after President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a “presidential directive giving African Americans an opportunity to be recruited in the Marine Corps,” according to the Montford Point Marines Association website. They didn’t receive recruit training at San Diego or Parris Island, however, but Camp Montford Point, , a segregated training site for African American Marine recruits. For the next seven years, the camp remained opened until it became desegregated. The four Marines are Sol Griffin, Jr.; James L. Kirby, Early Taylor, Jr. and Archibald Mosley. These Marines, among many other Montford Point Marines across the country, were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award that can be given to a civilian by Congress, in 2012. ( Marine Corps photo by Gunnery Sgt. Bryan A. Peterson)
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Photo credit: © PJF Military Collection / Alamy / Afripics
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Keywords: .., african-american, association, camp, carolina, colp, corps, ii, illinois, lejeune, marine, marines, montford, north, point, war, world
