The National Montford Point Marine Association, Inc., is a nonprofit Veterans Service Organization initially established in 1965. Our mission is to perpetuate the legacy of the first African Americans who entered the United States Marine Corps from the period of 1942 to 1949 and trained at the segregated training facility, Montford Point Camp, New River, North Carolina. This “experiment” with African-American Marines took place at the same time as the Tuskegee Airmen “experiment” but isn’t as well known. The association is working to make sure that this story of courage is not forgotten. Today we get an opportunity to speak with one of the original Montford Point Marines, Ambassador Theodore Roosevelt Britton joins us.
I asked Ambassador Britton about life growing up in the thirties and forties and he added the twenties explaining that he was born in 1925. Britton spoke about being born in South Augusta, Georgia. He shares that he was a precocious child and the local insurance man gave him a nickel for every word he could spell. His family joined the great migration and moved to New York in 1936. The family lived in Harlem for a little while before moving to a primarily white area where he was encouraged as a student and treated somewhat as special.
When he joined the military I asked how he chose the Marines. Britton gives us a history lesson on the Marines including the fact that for 167 years no Black person was allowed to serve, even though there were Black marines in the revolutionary war. I asked him what it was like to be on a segregated base and he explained that Montford Point Camp the marines were actually integrated. The officers were all white. He spoke about their head officer Colonel Samuel A. Woods. He spoke about defense spending that was growing after the 1937 recession and labor leader A. Phillip Randolph making sure that the labor force included members of the African-American community.
Britton speaks about the cultural divide between the young men from the south and those from the north. A wealth of history was shared from Britton’s career in the Marines and his service to our county.
President Gerald R. Ford nominated him to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to Barbados and Grenada and as the U. S. Special Representative to Antigua, Dominica, St. Christopher-Nevis, Anguilla, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines on November 17, 1974. He resigned in May, 1977
The Montford Point Marine Association will host their annual convention in Atlanta July 23rd - 27th of this year. The public is invited to attend. For more information go to their website www.montfordpointmarines.org.
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