First Black Marines: An Oral History

Trevor R. Getz is Professor of African and World History at San Francisco State University. His first graphic history, Abina and the Important Men, was the winner of the 2014 James Harvey Robinson Prize, and he is the recipient of the American Historical Association's 2020 Eugene Asher Distinguished Teaching Award. Robert Willis is a public historian. A student of cinema and history, he is driven by a desire to construct effective ways to communicate to the masses and to enrich the lives of people who look like him. Master Gunnery Sergeant Joseph H. Geeter III, USMC retired, enrolled in the Marine Corps in 1976 and spent twenty-five years on active duty. He served as the 16th President of the National Montford Point Marine Association, Inc. Liz Clarke is a professional illustrator based in Cape Town, South Africa. She has contributed to a variety of graphic history publications, including several titles in the Graphic History Series published by Oxford University Press.

Detailed, well-written, and highly accurate, The First Black Marines offers a model for how we should teach oral history in the twenty-first century.

• List of MapsPrefaceAbout the Authors and the Illustrator Part I: The Graphic History1: When I Grow Up2: Where Hell Starts3: Black Marines in Jim Crow America4: Let the Mosquitoes Eat5: All of Them Are Legendary6: A 17-Year-Old Kid with a .45 Pistol7: Aftermaths and Legacies Part II: Starting a Research ProjectIntroductionDefining QuestionsBuilding a Critical Bibliography Part III: Historical ContextJim Crow AmericaAfrican Americans and the US Military During the Second World WarMontford Point Camp and the First Black MarinesMontford Pointers in the Pacific Theater of OperationsThe Tensions of MasculinityLooking Both Forward and Backward Part IV: Oral History: Applying a Research MethodologyOral History as MethodOral History and MemoryOral History as a Community ActOur Approaches and Experiences Part V: InterpretationWhat Is the Job of the Historian in Interpretation?Critical AnalysisNarrative Structures and Shared ExperiencesAnalytical Moments: Hearing Individual MessagesInterpreting through Comics: Choices and Debates Part VI: Primary SourcesExecutive Order 8802 (1941)Letter of Instruction No. 421 (1943)The Pittsburgh Courier, "The Courier's Double 'V' for a Double Victory Campaign Gets Country-wide Support" (1942)H. R. 2447, An Act to Grant the Congressional Gold Medal to the Montford Point Marines (2011) Part VII: Questions to ConsiderConstructing a Usable NarrativeExamining Multiple InterpretationsCritically Investigating the Research MethodologyEngaging with the Original Video FootageReflecting Glossary