Butler Martin may have made his mark as a barrier-breaking World War II Marine who trained under challenging conditions in the segregated South, but his granddaughter fondly recalls his softer side.
“He used to do my hair when I was young and always gave me hair care tips,” said Christine Russell Morgan, one of Martin’s 16 grandchildren.
Martin died Sept. 27 at age 101.
His was a remarkably long life, but it was equally remarkable for what he accomplished as a young man in service to a country where many people treated him as an inferior.
According to the National World War II Museum, only about 66,000 of the 16.4 million Americans who served in World War II are still alive. Among them are a few hundred veterans who, like Martin, trained at Camp Montford Point in Jacksonville, North Carolina, the first Marine training base for Black recruits.
Russell Sayles, administrative officer for the Great Lakes National Cemetery, where Martin was laid to rest Oct. 15, said as of the end of 2023, there were about 300 Montford Point Marines surviving. He wasn’t sure how many are still alive as of Martin’s death, but he knows it’s not many.
“There are very few remaining, especially after 2024, which has not been a good year,” he said.
Martin served from 1942-46, making him one of the first to train at Camp Montford Point, which was in operation from Aug. 26, 1942, until it was decommissioned on Sept. 9, 1949, according to the National Montford Point Marine Association. The site remains in use today as Camp Gilbert H. Johnson, a satellite camp of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune.
Prior to Camp Montford Point’s opening, African Americans had been barred from serving in the Marine Corps since it was founded in 1775.
Conditions there were difficult, like any Marine training ground, Sayles said, although it was doubly difficult due to the racism prevalent in the segregated South.
“It was pretty significant when (Camp Montford Point) was first formed,” he said. “(The Black recruits) would have to be escorted off-base by a White Marine” for fear they’d be accosted by racists.
Sayles said the commitment displayed by those first Black Marines, along with the support of Marine Corps leadership, helped lead the push for integration, first in the military, and then the rest of the nation.
“People talk a lot about the Tuskegee Airmen,” a group of primarily Black World War II pilots famed for their accomplishments, Sayles said. “To me, the Montford Point Marines had the same kind of effect.”
After training, Martin was deployed to the Pearl Harbor naval base; Guadalcanal in the South Pacific; Saipan; Iwo Jima; and Guam, according to information posted online by the Friends of the National World War II Memorial organization. He was responsible for supplying ammunition.
In 2011, President Barack Obama signed into law legislation to award the Congressional Gold Medal to Martin and all other Montford Point Marines.
Martin also was honored May 24 by the city of Southfield during its annual Memorial Day ceremony in the City Council chambers. He was presented with a plaque for “dedicated service to his country” and was featured in a news article about the day in The Detroit News.
The Friends of the National World War II Memorial said Martin was born in South Carolina and raised in Hamtramck. Following his time in the Marines, Martin worked as a Detroit bus driver for a decade, then went to cosmetology school and opened up his own shop, which he ran for nearly 40 years. He retired in 1990.
Besides his knowledge of hair care, Christine Russell Morgan said she’ll remember him for his love and generosity.
“He was an amazing grandfather,” she said. “He took care of anyone in his path. I am going to miss him dearly.”
She said she asked him shortly before he died whether there were any places he wished he could have visited. His answer: Africa.
“I told him I’d make sure to go,” she said.
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