The Marines of Montford Point: America's First Black Marines by Melton A. McLaurin
Introduction
The book is about an outstanding American story where the first African American to serve as marines at camp Montford Point had a story of honor, patriotism, and their characters were known to be those of a great generation. The story shows how African Americans had to fight and endure a lot in order to be accepted in the military. It is about how African Americans who were both free and slaves joined the military hoping to be accepted and have their freedom.
The book is about how the African American people were segregated and how they had to go through hardships. Some had to drop out of school since they could not afford a good education. They had to be laborers in order to survive and could not afford to get decent jobs because of their races and were not educated. Their living or housing conditions were poor because of their race. According to McLaurin (2009), even when they went to be recruited in the Montford Point, the corps there who were white isolated them too. Eventually, due to their persistence and showing that they can be as good as the white corps, the segregation law was banned.
Before the blacks were recruited, all Montford officers and instructors were white men who were chosen for their service. McLaurin (2007) states that the white corps were committed to an isolation policy but the first commander at Montford Point requested that the black recruits be given the same recruitment just as the white did. There was a ban on African Americans not to join the military and the navy. Due to the horrifying conditions at the sea, the navy was desperate for workers to work in the sea and that is when they started to accept a few numbers of free sailors. After recruits completed boot camp which included persistent activity, they were assigned to a unit that remained at Montford Point until they were shipped for tasks overseas.
According to McLaurin (2007), the recruits who had trained at Montford Point came had different educational backgrounds. Some had a college education and some of them did not get the chance to continue with their education past elementary school. There were professionals who joined the recruitment including teachers, skilled traders, and laborers. Some of the reasons the men joined the corps include, the marine’s fame as a fighting service, adventure, employment, and some joined intentionally to ensure the end of the corps tradition of racial exclusion. Segregation of black recruits was the official approach of the corps during the entire recruitment at Montford and it was the law of the United States. Isolation was not only at the training camp but reflected in the entire white population. Housing and employment discrimination existed too among the African Americans leading the segregated communities to economic hardships.
The purpose of the book was achieved because when the African Americans took to the streets to protest about their right to equality, segregation in the United States was banned. The writing is effective because when the African Americans went to battlefields and proved themselves to be as good as the white corps, it led to their rights being looked into. The strengths of the book are that the chapters are written in a way that is very easy to follow and understand. Each chapter has examples of people who give their real testimonials and this makes it more interesting. Despite these testimonials, the format used for them makes the reader make their own conclusion and connections because it does not include much of the historical deliberations. The author of the book had a postgraduate doctoral degree in American history and McLaurin (2009) in his arguments and conclusions makes the reader want to discover more and this makes it a very interesting book. I would recommend the book to other people because it enlightens on the history of America and mostly in regards to segregation and how it came to an end.
Conclusion
Racial segregation has a very big impact on people. The lack of employment, lack of education, being rejected to places and housing problems are all negative impacts on people who are segregated due to their race. The right to freedom and equality is important in the community and in the nation as a whole because people work together with no boundaries. When discrimination is finished, people get equal rights leading to a peaceful nation.
References
McLaurin, M.A. (2007). The Marines of Montford Point: America's First Black Marines. Chapel
Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. muse.jhu.edu/book/20547.
McLaurin M.A (2009). Marshall on McLaurin, 'The Marines of Montford Point: America's First Black Marines': Integrating the Few and the Proud: The Struggles of the First African American Marines Retrieved from https://networks.h-net.org/marshall-mclaurin-marines-montford-point-americas-first-black-marines
