WWII Montford Pointers occupy a quiet corner of history

Overdue salute for a black Marine

By David Perlmutt
dperlmutt@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Saturday, Aug. 27, 2011

Seeking recognition

"Nearly 70 years after they integrated the Marines on Aug. 26, 1942, the Montford Pointers occupy a quiet corner of history. Their recognition has never come close to the Tuskegee Airmen, the famed black World War II pilots."

Raymond Worsley was 18 in 1943, a student at Johnson C. Smith University, when the military came knocking.

The recruiter told Worsley he was bound for the Army. But Worsley had other plans: "No sir, I want to be a Marine."

That's what he became. But he had to overcome more than just the rigors of boot camp. Worsley's black, and until 1942, the Marine Corps had been all white.

He was sent to segregated Camp Montford Point near Camp Lejeune to train with thousands of other blacks who broke the military's last color barrier.

This weekend, the retired Charlotte Presbyterian minister and dozens of surviving Montford Pointers are getting their due, starting with breakfast Friday morning in Washington, D.C., with Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos as part of a weekend of events.

"I always wanted to be a Marine, even as a boy" in Rocky Mount," said Worsley, 86. "I'd seen them in the movies and I loved their music.

"Those were among my proudest days."



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