Preserving the legacy of the Montford Point Marines

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. (WITN) - Chief Warrant Officer Five Huston Shinal stands tall on the legacy thousands of Marines built before him.

“When you expose a young African American marine to that you can see the look on their face a sense of pride,” said Shinal.

Shinal is the National Monument Director for the Montford Point Marine Association, a group whose mission it is to preserve the legacy of the first 20,000 African American Marines who enlisted in the Marine Corps.

“I was in the Marine Corps 15 years by the time I realized that there was actually a separate boot camp for black Marines,” said Shinal.

Today, the training base is known as Camp Johnson. It was created when President Franklin Roosevelt signed an executive order prohibiting discrimination in military hires.

It was separate, and anything but equal. They were not given the same opportunities to serve, and they were still segregated in the surrounding communities.

“The burden is: In order to be the best, you have to be better,” said Col. Grover Lewis. “The foundation that they set allowed me and others like me to serve in The United States Marine Corps proudly.”

It took nearly 60 years, but Lewis was eventually named the first African American Commanding Officer on Camp Johnson.

“The honor that they were aspiring to have in order to wear that uniform and to fight for a country that really didn’t want them to fight for them,” said Lewis.

The units paved the way for countless Marines who came after them. Today, the Department of Defense estimates one in ten Marines are African Americans.

“We need to educate young individuals,” said Shinal. “We need to find a way to get them to realize in this chapter of history.”

The Marine Corps wasn’t fully desegregated until 1960. Montford Point was deactivated in 1949 and renamed Camp Johnson after Gilbert Johnson, one of the first African Americans to enlist in the Marine Corps.

This story is part of WITN’s celebration of Black History Month. Sponsored by Blue Cross NC.

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