First Black Marines

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'If what I saw today (Negroes in U.S. Marine uniforms) is an indication of how the war is going - America is in deep trouble.' These words, spoken by a member of an exclusive upper-Midwestern country club and heard by a black employee, essentially summed up the sentiments of many Americans in 1942. For it was the first time in military history that the Marine Corps had decided to open its doors to Negroes. To this day, some fifty years later, too few people are aware of the contribution and sacrifice of black Marines to the World War II effort. This was the motivating force, which occasioned the writing of this treatise - principally to refute the notion that 'America was in deep trouble.' The reader will find between these pages documentation of the highest order; sources of information from various perspectives, all converging on a common theme.