Blacks in World War II-- Part 3

With conditions such as these at Port Chicago, the inevitable happened July 17, 1944, a Liberty ship was virtually atomized and more than 300 sailors killed.  When the black sailors refused to return to work weeks later, the Navy put 50 of them on trial for mutiny.  The case would eventually involve many later connected to the Civil Rights Movement, including future Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall.

The author put his emphasis on people.  To tell the Montford Point story, he focuses on Edgar Huff, from Alabama who was in the first training class.  He excelled and his white officers made him a DI to train other blacks.  As Drill Instructor, he drove his men harder than a white sergeant would have to make sure they were more than proficient in all aspects of fighting, which paid off when they finally got into combat.

All the while, he had to overcome the constant racism constantly.  Once on leave to go home to see his mother, he was apprehended in Atlanta by a shore patrol for "impersonating a Marine."  White policemen stole his pay, forcing him to walk the rest of the way home.

Later, in Jacksonville, NC, six white Marines tried to rip his newly-earned sergeant's stripes off and he with his bare hands left all lying bloody on the ground.  For recreation, Huff and other black Marines had to ride to Wilmington to the nearest USO Club designated for blacks on Castle Street.

Ironically, Huff, who later became the Corps' first black sergeant-major, spent almost all of the war at home as he was just too good of a GI to spare.  He did not see combat until the Korean War and later Vietnam where he would earn a Bronze Star and Purple Heart saving American lives in the Tet Offensive.

Just One More Example of the Greatest Generation, One Who Also Had to Overcome Even More Obstacles.  --GreGen