Marine Corps Base Quantico -- Camille Swain was so smitten with what she heard from the living history in front of her that the Stafford County middle school teacher wants to share it with her students.
Swain said she couldn’t get enough of the two original Montford Point Marines who shared their moving stories at the National Museum of the Marine Corps on Feb. 5 as part of “Right to Fight: A Workshop about African-Americans in the United States Marine Corps.”
Carroll Braxton and Robert Chichester served in World War II and in the Korean War, respectively, after having been among the first African-Americans to enter the Marine Corps following President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s executive order in June 1941 that opened the door for their admission. Denied the opportunity to train with white Marines at either Marine Corps Recruiting Depots at Parris Island, South Carolina, or San Diego, roughly 20,000 African-American Marines were instead relegated to Montford Point, North Carolina, starting in 1942, where they endured systemic discrimination and Spartan living conditions just to have the right to fight.
Despite the adversity, many of the Montford Point Marines went on to serve with distinction in the South Pacific Theater during World War II and later in Korea. Montford Point closed in 1949 following President Harry S. Truman’s executive order the year before that integrated America’s armed services.
Swain, who teaches sixth grade at Rodney Thompson Middle School, said she was immediately taken by their deep love of country that never waned.
“I enjoyed it,” said Swain, who plans to have the veterans come to her class to recount their stories to her students. “Even though they didn’t have their full freedom, they were still proud of the country they lived in.”
Braxton and Chichester recounted some of the discrimination they withstood to get the opportunity to fight overseas for rights they didn’t enjoy at home, but each man said there was never a doubt to do otherwise.
“This is my country,” Chichester said. “This is me, this is what I stand for.”
That was just the kind of educational experience Jim Bish had in mind for the when he began putting the program together. Bish is a 28-year teaching veteran now in his second year as the NMMC’s Teacher in Residence.
The class, which was held twice for teachers largely from neighboring Stafford and Prince William counties, included a mesmerizing reenactment of a Montford Point Marine by Gunnery Sgt. Madyun Shahid, finance auditor, Marine Corps Administrative Analysis Team.
Shahid, who has been delivering the reenactments nationally for six years, welcomed the class an important step in keeping alive the history of the Montford Point Marines.
“It’s something different when you see history come alive,” he said. “You can see it and you can touch it.”
— Writer: jhollis@quanticosentryonline.com