Black History Month Day 5: The Legacy of Frank Johnson
In 1945 Frank Jones Johnson, tall of stature, slender yet muscular of build, and 19 years old, was returning home to Macon, Georgia, from a tour of duty in the United States Marine Corps. Johnson returned to his father’s farm in West Bibb County, Georgia. The community was named Unionville by the residents. The name fitted because the society as a whole came together in unity to help their neighbors.
Johnson was a hero of sorts, but no one seemed to know it because very little if any, fanfare fell upon his accomplishment by the town fathers of Macon, Bibb County, Georgia.
Before 1942, no Black man in America had ever served in the US Marines. The popular belief among white Americans at the time was that Black men lacked the courage and physical toughness necessary to perform the duties that Marines are called upon to do for their country in times of war and peace.
The winds of war in full force in Europe and the Pacific, the Marines needed a few good men to save the homeland from an invasion by the Japanese and Germans. They turned to their darker men for the first time and opened a camp for Black recruits at Montford Point, North Carolina, adjacent to Camp LeJeune, North Carolina, where white Marines received training.
Conditions at Montford Point were deplorable. The island infested with mosquitos presented a challenge. Black recruits did not receive mosquitos nets. The boots were substandard, and living accommodations bordering on deplorable. They were able to get glimpses of Camp LeJeune. These Black men knew that their white counterparts had much better equipment and living arrangements.
They knew not to expect any better, after all, their unit embedded in the south where every institution presented a duality of life from water fountains to lunch counters, to waiting areas at medical facilities. The south followed the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court case to the black letter of the law with respect to the separate part of this equation. It was lawful to maintain separate facilities for Black and white citizens. So what would make their experience in the Marine Corps any different?
Between 1942 and 1949, 20,000 Black men successfully navigated themselves through the harsh training conditions at…
