A Temporary Responsibility
"No Negro, Mulatto, or Indian is to be recruited [in the Marine Corps]."
~ James McHenry, Secretary of War, 1796
~ James McHenry, Secretary of War, 1796
"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That each and every free able-bodied white male citizen of the respective States, resident therein, who is or shall be of age of eighteen years, and under the age of forty-five years (except as is herein after excepted) shall severally and respectively be enrolled in the militia."
~ The Militia Act of 1792, Second Congress, Session I. Chapter XXVIII, Passed May 2, 1792
~ The Militia Act of 1792, Second Congress, Session I. Chapter XXVIII, Passed May 2, 1792
In 1792, Congress passed the Militia Act denying Negroes the right and responsibility to serve.
The Militia Act of 1792 (Library of Congress)
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This act remained law until the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 allowed Negroes to serve in the army and navy, but not the Marines. For 167 years, this policy remained in effect.
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"Throughout World War I, the Marine Corps refused, as it had since the Revolution, to enlist Blacks... As America prepared to enter the Second World War, the Marine Corps remained a white enclave."
~ Dr. Melton A. McLaurin, Historian, 2009
~ Dr. Melton A. McLaurin, Historian, 2009