Welcome to the Montford Point Marines New York Metropolitan Chapter 3
The goal of the MPMA-NY Chapter is to preserve the memories, values and foundations of those who have past before us.
In doing so we have hosted programs, provided education, sponsored youth programs such as the Harlem Youth Marines, and many other community based programs.
The chapter has a long-standing commitment, of reaching out to interact and educate all that are interested in the continuing legacy of Marine Corps traditions past and present.
The sanctioned integration of the Marine Corps in 1942 marked the beginning of a legacy. In August of 1942 H&S Battery of the 51st Composite Defense Bn was activated, at Montford Point.
From these humble beginnings over 20,000 African Americans served with honor and distinction and passed through the hollowed grounds of Montford Point North Carolina.
African American Marines served in segregated units from 1942 through 1949 when the executive order and policy of full integration was adopted.
From Montford Point to Iwo Jima, Korea, Grenanda, Viet Nam, Panama, Kosovo, Desert Storm, Mogadishu, and Iraq, African Americans and other Marines of color have proudly served this country with honor.
If you are interested in joining or finding out more about how African Americans contributed to the Marine Corps legacy or more about the NY MONTFORD POINT MARINES, and the programs we offer contact us via any of the methods below or check out our links for additional useful information;
TEL: (212) 267-3318 FAX: (212) 442-4170 ADDRESS: 346 BROADWAY SUITE 806 NEW YORK, NY 10013 Email mpma42@verizon.net
The Veterans History Project relies on volunteers to collect and preserve stories of wartime service.
Our primary focus is on first-hand accounts of U.S. Veterans from the following 20th Century wars:
World War I (1914-1920)
World War II (1939-1946)
Korean War (1950-1955)
Vietnam War (1961-1975)
Persian Gulf War (1990-1995)
Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts (2001-present)
In addition, those U.S. citizen civilians who were actively involved in supporting war efforts (such as war industry workers, USO workers, flight instructors, medical volunteers, etc.) are also invited to share their valuable stories.
We take pride in preserving the records of those who have served and protected our nation. America's diplomatic and military records—from the Revolutionary to the Persian Gulf War—paint a vivid picture of heroism, inspiration and sacrifice.
The National Archives offers insight into the lives of people, their families and our history. Because the records at the National Archives come from every branch of the Federal government, almost all Americans can find themselves, their ancestors, or their community in the archives. Knowing how a person interacted with the government is key to a successful search.
Pre-Civil War Records: African American historical research can be undertaken in both military and civilian records; however, the documentation is scattered through a variety of correspondence of government and private citizens and government reports. One's success in researching African-American ancestry in the years prior to the Civil War will depend largely on what one's status was, slave or free. Slave records are difficult to locate and found rarely at NARA.
In Census records, from 1790-1840, only names of the head of household were provided, along with the number of slaves. In 1850 and 1860, the Federal government took a supplemental slave census, giving the slave owner's name, and the number of slaves by gender, age, and a designation of black or mulatto. The names of all free blacks were included in the 1850 and 1860 census. Beginning in 1870, the census listed the names of all African Americans. (See Census Records).
Military Records Since the time of the American Revolution, African Americans have volunteered to serve their country in time of war. Federal records document this from then to modern times. Records of the American Revolution and the War of 1812 are filled with the services of African Americans. In addition, the Papers of the Continental Congress cite numerous sources around the discussion of slavery and slaves serving in the military. The Civil War was also no exception—official sanction was the difficulty. The compiled military service records of the men who served with the United States Colored Troops (USCT) during the Civil War number approximately 185,000, including the officers who were not African American. This major collection of records rests in the stacks of the National Archives and Record Administration (NARA). They are little used, and their content is largely undiscovered.
Post-Civil War:
In the post-Civil War years, genealogy research for African Americans follows the same path as for others, i.e. in use of census, military, and land records. But in addition, the National Archives has records from three post-Civil War Federal agencies which are invaluable for the study of black family life and genealogy. The records were created by these agencies:
the Commissioners of Claims (Southern Claims Commission)
the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company
the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (Freedmen's Bureau)
These records are an extremely rich source of documentation for the African American family historian seeking to "bridge the gap" for the transitional period from slavery to freedom, and may provide considerable personal data about the African American family and community. For example, these records may contain information about family relations, marriages, births, deaths, occupations, places of residence, names of slave owners, information concerning black military service, plantation conditions, manumissions, property ownership, migration, and a host of other family-related matters. Read more about researching in these records.
Links to Resources
For more information about African-American research and accessing the records at NARA, see:
Resources on African American Genealogical Research available in the Archives Library Information Center (ALIC), in the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C.
School Desegregation and Civil Rights Stories: University of Oklahoma
The ideology of "separate but equal" was enshrined in the American society in 1892 with the Supreme Court's Plessy v. Ferguson ruling. In practice "separate but equal" produced situations that were separate and mostly unequal.
Three years after the ruling, the Court heard a case involving a Georgia school board's decision to turn a colored high into a grade school, leaving African Americans without a high school. The justices unanimously upheld the Georgia school board, leaving a less than equal situation for the African American community and confirming state's rights. Cases like this continue to spur legal activism with dozens of legal battles conducted at the local level by the NAACP and other civil rights groups. Thurgood Marshall and Charles Houston led the NAACP's effort and undertook legal investigations and litigations to overthrow segregation in publicly run schools.
George W. McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents for Higher Education is one of the cases undertaken by Marshall. In 1948 George McLaurin, a retired professor, won the right to pursue a doctorate in education at the University of Oklahoma. However, the University enrolled him on a segregated basis, requiring him not to mingle or sit with the white students. McLaurin sued the university again and in 1950, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that that school violated the 14th Amendment and that McLaurin's segregation "handicapped him his pursuit of effective graduate instruction." The Court further stated that the restrictions impaired and inhibited his ability to study, to engage in discussion and exchange of views with other students and to learn his profession. The school violated McLaurin's right to equal educational opportunity.
The McLaurin case became an important precedent in the NAACP's fight to end school segregation.
Classroom Seating Arrangement to Accommodate African American Law Student, McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents, United States Circuit Court for the Western District, Oklahoma City Division, RG 21, National Archives Southwest Region. View larger image
Other School Desegregation and Civil Rights Stories:
Ketchikan, Alaska. Irene Jones, a twelve year old girl of mixed Alaskan Indian and white heritage in Alaska, 1929.
Orange County, California. The Mendez Case, Mexican American children in 1949. The NAACP files an amicus brief.
Claymont, Delaware. On site viewing of "A Separate Place", the story of the education of African Americans in Delaware following the Civil War and through Belton v. Gebhart.
South Carolina (Briggs v. Elliott). Explore the case of the courageous Reverend J.A. Delaine and the NAACP's efforts to end segregation in South Carolina public schools.
Girard College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1965. A fourteen year struggle to end segregation is accomplished by William T. Coleman, a main architect of the legal strategy leading to the Brown v. Board decision.
Divide the class into nine groups. Give each group one document to analyze and the appropriate document analysis worksheet.
Allow student groups 15-20 minutes to read and analyze their documents. Ask them to complete the document analysis worksheet and then identify the events and issues of the civil rights movement referred to in their documents. Explain that an event could be a meeting, the passage of a bill, an election, or a sit-in demonstration and that issues might include "equality," "race relations," "political strategy," and "violence."
Distribute one copy of the student worksheet to each student.
Ask a volunteer from each group to describe the content of the group's document for the class and identify the events and issues mentioned or implied within.
Instruct students to complete their worksheets based on the information presented by their classmates.
Lead a discussion using the following questions as a guide:
What are the similarities and differences between the events and issues identified in documents 1-4 and documents 5-9? According to Jackie Robinson, were things improving?
Do you think the events caused or resulted from the issues that concerned Robinson?
Five hundred years from now, if these nine documents were the only surviving pieces of evidence describing the civil rights struggle in the United States in the 20th century, what information about that struggle would survive? How accurate would that information be?
Follow Up
Encourage students to create a time line covering the years 1957-72 that identifies the events mentioned in the documents and other equally significant events.
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