Portrait of an original Montford Point Marine.

The Marines were last to integrate. Here are the stories of the first Black recruits.

80 years after the Montford Point Camp was established to train enlisted African Americans, relatives and other Marines fight to document their contributions before it’s too late.

Retired Master Sgt. Carroll William Braxton, who was among the first Black recruits in the U.S.  Marine Corps, sits for a portrait at the former Montford Point Marines Training Camp in North Carolina. Approximately 20,000 African American men trained at the camp between 1942-1949.

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