Jim Crow America and the Marines of Montford Point
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JIM CROW AMERICA AND THE MARINES OF MONTFORD POINT IN THE WORLD WAR II ERA A Thesis by CAMERON DEMETRIUS MCCOY Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS December 2011 Major Subject: History Jim Crow America and the Marines of Montford Point in the World War II Era Copyright 2011 Cameron Demetrius McCoy JIM CROW AMERICA AND THE MARINES OF MONTFORD POINT IN THE WORLD WAR II ERA A Thesis by CAMERON DEMETRIUS MCCOY Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Approved by: Chair of Committee, Joseph G. Dawson, III Committee Members, James C. Bradford Albert S. Broussard James S. Burk Head of Department, David J. Vaught December 2011 Major Subject: History iii ABSTRACT Jim Crow America and the Marines of Montford Point in the World War II Era. (December 2011) Cameron Demetrius McCoy, B.A., Brigham Young University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Joseph Green Dawson, III The Marines of Montford Point are largely absent from the World War II narrative, and relatively unknown to individuals in the military services and to the public at large. After 144 years of official policy against allowing blacks to serve their country as U.S. Marines, on June 1, 1942, the nation’s first black Marines broke the color barrier, gaining entry into a military organization that today carries with it tremendous symbolic and mythic significance in America. Moreover, serving in harm’s way to defend a prejudiced nation, black Marines demonstrated bravery and endurance in the face of institutionalized racism. This thesis examines the southern Jim Crow experiences of selected northern African American Marines, focusing on the ways in which these men responded to the discrimination they encountered in the South. It also explores the reasons why these men joined the most racist branch of the military and what knowledge they had of Executive Order 8802 and the Navy Department’s May 20, 1942, press release, announcing the Marine Corps’s plans for recruiting blacks. iv Furthermore, it examines the various ways in which all African American Marines coped with Jim Crow laws, and explores the realities that black and white American society created about black Marines and their wartime service. It also discusses how northern and southern black Marines engaged and interacted within a strict segregationist military organization, particularly in how the Marine Corps manipulated the Selective Service in order to protect what senior officers considered to be its elitist image. The comparison to the U.S. Army’s framework of task organization and combat employment of black soldiers reveals that the Army made greater strides toward racial justice and equality by allowing blacks to serve as commissioned officers, albeit in segregated units; whereas the Marine Corps instituted no comparable reform. After the war began, the Marines could have commissioned African Americans by following the models of all-black units such as the 93rd Infantry Division and the Tuskegee Airmen. In sum, initial racial opinions shifted differently in each military service during the war; and for black Marines, it officially marked a new tradition of military service. v DEDICATION To the few and the proud who, accepting incredible risk, broke the color barrier. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my committee chair, Dr. Joseph G. Dawson III and my committee members, Dr. James C. Bradford, Dr. Albert S. Broussard, and Dr. James S. Burk, for their guidance and support throughout the course of this research. In addition to the guidance and counsel of my committee chair and committee members, I would also like to thank Dr. Sylvia D. Hoffert for her patience and encouragement during this process. Thanks also go to my friends and colleagues as well as the department faculty and staff for making my time at Texas A&M University a great experience. I also want to extend my appreciation and gratitude to Finney Greggs, director of the Montford Point Marines Museum at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and his wife, Louise; the Pat Tillman Foundation and the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, which both provided financial support in completing this study. Finally, special thanks to my first critical reader, Jennifer, for reading through hundreds of pages of text without complaint and tremendous patience. Semper Fidelis. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. iii DEDICATION .......................................................................................................... v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................... vi TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................... vii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: WHERE ARE THE U.S. MARINE CORPS’S AFRICAN AMERICAN WORLD WAR II HEROES AND ICONS? 1 II BLACK YANKEES AND SOUTHERN JIM CROW ........................ 26 III FILLING THE CORPS’S RANKS AND COPING WITH JIM CROW IN AMERICA ......................................................................... 51 IV TASK ORGANIZATION AND COMBAT EMPLOYMENT OF BLACK MARINES AND THE U.S. ARMY MODEL ....................... 89 V CONCLUSIONS: A NEW TRADITION OF MILITARY SERVICE BEGINS ............................................................................................... 122 REFERENCES .......................................................................................................... 141 APPENDIX A ........................................................................................................... 160 APPENDIX B ........................................................................................................... 162 APPENDIX C ........................................................................................................... 163 VITA ........................................................................................................................ 165 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: WHERE ARE THE U.S. MARINE CORPS’S AFRICAN AMERICAN WORLD WAR II HEROES AND ICONS? After President Abraham Lincoln had confirmed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, and authorized the recruitment of African American soldiers into the federal forces, abolitionist Frederick Douglass gave a speech at Philadelphia’s National Hall in which he posed a vital question: “Should the Negro Enlist in the Union Army?” By posing this question, Douglass demonstrated that African Americans realized the importance of military service as it related to equality, social advancement, and the rights of citizenship. Moreover, African Americans understood the opportunities that came with military service, as did white Americans; they too were aware of the future implications of social equality if blacks donned the Union blue.1 Seven decades later, Douglass’s question had lost none of its significance as the United States Marine Corps continued, as it had for 144 years, to oppose admitting blacks into its ranks. As African Americans hoped to enter the U.S. Marine Corps, to serve as equals, not in segregated units, and to press their claims for full citizenship, these contested issues reached new salience during World War II and the postwar era, This thesis follows the style of the Journal of Military History. 1 John W. Blassingame, ed., The Frederick Douglass Papers: Series One: Speeches, Debates, and Interviews 3: 1855–1863 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985), 596; see also Neil A. Wynn, The African American Experience during World War II (Lanham, MD: Rowan & Littlefield, 2010), 1. “African Americans,” “Blacks,” “Colored,” “Negroes” and variants will be used interchangeably throughout this thesis. 2 setting the stage, in the words of historian Richard M. Dalfiume, for the civil rights movement.2 African American men who entered the Marines from 1942 to 1949 became known as Montford Point Marines. For these men, simply serving in the Marine Corps’s uniform in the 1940s was a drastic departure from previous U.S. military practices. This thesis examines the process, policies, and practices concerning the status of African American men and emphasizes the significance of what it meant to be a black U.S. Marine during World War II. One central problem for African Americans who enlisted in the Marine Corps during World War II, and trained in the South, was how to abide by southern social expectations and laws that differed fundamentally from the unofficial rules of integration governing interracial relations in the North.3 These fundamental social differences, as well as notions of equality and rights to citizenship, separated northern and southern black Marine recruits, despite the fact that white southerners viewed them all the same. This thesis will explore why these men joined the most racist 2 Richard M. Dalfiume, Desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces: Fighting on Two Fronts, 1939–1953 (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1969), 1–5, 132–147. 3 During the 1940s the “rules of integration” were the established state and local Jim Crow laws in the United States, enacted between 1876 and 1965. These laws mandated racial segregation in all public facilities, with an ostensible “separate but equal” status for blacks, and constituted the most elaborate and formal expression of sovereign white opinion upon