A 95-year-old Veteran Remembers Fighting WWII In The Pacific — And Racism At Home

Speaker 1: 00:00 In honor of veteran's day. We'll now hear from a 95 year old former service member. He fought world war II in the Pacific theater and fought racism back at home from Los Angeles. Robert Corova did this profile of Luther Hendricks for the American Homefront project on December 7th, 1941, Japan like its infamous actress partners first, then declared war afterwards. Speaker 2: 00:24 Luther Hendricks was just a teenager. When the attack on Pearl Harbor happened, he says he was determined to fight, to save his country from the enemy. Uh, president Roosevelt declared war. I went down the next day, uh, to join up. I was told that they didn't take colors in the Marines, but as the war effort ramped up, the armed services began following an order from president Franklin D Roosevelt, to open all branches of the U S armed forces to African-Americans. Hundreds of black enlistees were accepted into the Marine Corps though. They were segregated from white troops. We weren't allowed to go and train with the white Marines, which was just across the caplet June. We weren't allowed to go over there unless we had a flight also to go with white enlistees were trained at camp Lazoon in North Carolina, black men went through grueling training at nearby Monfred point. Speaker 2: 01:17 Their servicemen like Hendrix endured substandard conditions and racism where you would always talk. Boy people, you people never man. Oh, a person, you know, but Hendricks says he and his fellow Marines were not deterred of workers. The only crusher I know, but I was proud of it. The segregation part was hard, but I paid it no mind because back in them days, everybody was gung ho to defeat the enemy and come back and get to your regular life between 1942 and 1949, 20,000 black Marines trained at Monfred point. The Montfort point Marines as they're known would go on to be celebrated in military history. Like the fame, Tuskegee airmen. They too were trailblazers after training Hendricks saw a long tour in the Pacific, Oh, was in Guam and Okinawa. But Hendricks says while he was happy to return home after the war, there was still work to be done. When he got back, we fought segregation fighting over there and we fought segregation. When we got back home over here, Hendrix says he would have liked to continue his military career. When he returned from war that was met with closed doors. Yet again, Hendrix would go on to work as an electrician's assistant and has lived in Vallejo, California ever since coming back from war more than six decades later, Hendrix and his fellow Montfort point Marines were awarded the congressional gold medal. Here's California, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi. Speaking of the ceremony in 2012, Speaker 1: 02:46 The time of these Marines and the age of any quality breaking the color barrier in the Marine Corps, took nothing less than perseverance patriotism and courage of extraordinary proportions. That a great day, Speaker 2: 03:00 I just stayed there for about that for his part, Hendricks says he was never expecting to be awarded. One of the nation's highest honors, especially since he and his fellow black Marines were treated unequally by the service. We've come a long ways. And I have people in service now, like when I went back to wash the kebab and said, thank you for paving away because I wouldn't be where I am without you. And that makes you feel good. You feel like it was all worth it. But as a country, we still got a ways to go. We see changes coming now, but it's slow. These days. Hendrick says he enjoys traveling as much as possible seeing States across the U S before the pandemic anyway, and he's proud of his grandkids, great grandkids and great, great grandkids. This veterans day Hendricks says he'd like Americans to remember the determination of the Montfort point Marines and others during world war two, they deserve to be honored. He says, I'm Robert Grover. Speaker 1: 03:58 This story was produced by the American Homefront project and public media collaboration that reports on American military life and veterans funding comes from the corporation for public broadcasting.