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NEWS/(S$e dwrlotte
Thursday, April 8, 2004
Bush nuns grawdi despite opposilion
Continued from page 1A
an “individual who is seek
ing to derail democracy and
freedom for the Iraqi peo
ple,” McClellan said.
Bush said the economy is
getting stronger and that he
is optimistic about the
future. He cited March
unemployment figures
showing the hest job growth
in four years.
Bush said Central
Piedmont is incorporating
the suggestions of local busi
ness leaders into the curricu
lum so that the jobs students
study for and seek actually
exist.
Bush is using North
Carolina, a state where a
new economy is replacing
the old, to propose doubhng
the number of Americans
who receive job-training help
from the federal government
but without additional fund
ing.
“I fully understand that
there are people who hurt
here,” the president said.
“Industries like the textiles,
and furniture manufactur
ers are struggling ...that is
an issue we’ve got to deal
with.”
Congressional Black
Caucus Chair Elijah
Cummings (D-Md.) said
new jobs aren’t reaching
enough workers.
Unemployment among
African Americans rose to
10.2 percent in March, while
the Hispanic jobless rate
remained at 7.4 percent.
“The unemployment pic
ture gets increasingly worse
when we consider that (last
week) the total number of
Americans who have lost
their unemployment bene
fits since December reached
1.1 million people,” he said.
“These willing workers are
struggling to support their
families and are actively
seeking work.”
N.C. Democratic Party
Chair Barbara Allen said
Bush and the Republican-
led Congress have ignored
proposals to fund job train
ing programs, especially in
the hard-hit manufacturing
sector.
“That’s what we North
Carohnians call an empty
promise,” she said. “North
Carohnians know the differ
ence between rhetoric and
real action.”
Bush’s visit to Charlotte to
announce the initiative, part
of a wider election-year bid
to help workers adapt to the
changing economy, also
marks his last planned per
sonal appearance in the
record-shattering fund-rais
ing drive that brought in
more than $182.7 rnithon in
11 months.
Monday’s event collected
$1.55 million from 900
donors, the Bush-Cheney
campaign said.
Bush told his contributors
that Democratic presidential
candidate John Kerry wants
to raise taxes on all
Americans, but “fortunately
we’re not going to give him
that chance.” Bush said his
goal is to make his tax cuts
permanent and to open up
overseas Iharkets to North
Carolina products.
On Thesday, Kerry trav
eled to the electoral battle
ground state of Ohio to pro
mote a plan he says would
create 10 miUion new jobs.
He also has proposed rolling
back tax cuts on those mak
ing more than $200,000 a
year.
Kerry spokesman Chad
Clanton called Bush’s pro
posals for job training “a
phony baloney plan that
does nothing more than shift
money between programs
and doesn’t offer a dime to
unemployed workers.”
The initiative Bush
annormced contains no new
federal spending with a bud
get deficit expected to
approach $500 billion this
year. Instead, it relies on
$250 miUion Bush proposed
spending earlier this year
and forcing state and local
governments to spend less
on “administrative expens
es.”
Washington now provides
state and local governments
more than $4 billion through
the Workforce Investment
Act, and 16 million people
Marine recruits
train on the
obstacle course
at Camp
Montford Point.
Black recruits
trained in segre
gated facilities
and weren’t
allowed on base
at nearby Camp
Lejeune, where
whites were
based.
NATIONAL ARCHIVES PHOTO
Marines saw Corps’ values
Continued from page 1A
Montford Point Marines
Museum at Camp Johnson
named in honor of Sgt.
Gilbert “Hashmark”
Johnson, Montford Point’s
first black drill instructor.
Ironically, two women —
Mary McLeod Bethune,
foimder of historicaHy-black
Bethune-Cookman College
and an advisor to President
Franklin Roosevelt, and
First Lady Eleanor
Roosevelt - prevailed upon
Franklin Roosevelt to open
the Corps to all Americans.
Executive Order 8802 estab
lished the Fair Employment
Practice Commission, which
forced the door open - to a
point.
“We were USMC-R,
Selective Service,”
McPhatter said. “We were on
trial. We were not supposed
to stay in the Marines after
the war. We were going to be
off-trial.”
“The lack of diversity in the
Marines was very pro
nounced,” said retired 1st
Sgt. Finney Greggs, director
of the Montford Point
Marines Museum. “Once the
gates were opened and the
opportunity presented itself,
(blacks) left other services to
join,”
Training was brutal for the
20,000 African Americans
who trained there during the
war, with the world’s tough
est physical program an
everyday fact of life.
“Parris Island couldn’t
compete with Montford
Point,” McPhatter said. “I
feel my knees are gone now
because of doing the duck
walk (with the knees pointed
inward) and my rifle over my
head.”
Isolation and southern
racial hostihty of the time
compounded the stress of
boot camp. Black Marines
couldn’t train with whites ,
who were based at nearby
Camp Lejeune. But that sep
aration brought recruits and
their instructors closer as
warriors in a cause that
extended beyond battle
fields.
“It was rough, but we loved
each other” McPhatter said.
“There were days when we
wanted to kill our drill
instructor, but they became
our family.”
Montford Point graduates
served in the 51st and 52nd
Defense Battalions, in sup
port roles for white troops at
the front. But they also
fought in some of the war’s
bloodiest campaigns. They
served in the Pacific theatre,
where Marines subdued
Japanese forces for control of
Saipan and Iwo Jima among
others.
“Many of them were cooks
or stewards, but many of
them wound up in combat,”
Greggs said. “As the enemy
advanced at that point in
time, it became very clear
that these guys were needed
to win the war.”'
McPhatter, who saw action
on Iwo Jima as a sergeant in
the 8th Ammunition
Company, said the
Japanese’s kill or be killed
attitude tested the
Americans.
“The last firelight on Iwo
was my company turning
back the last Japanese
kamikaze,” he said. “We
were still living in holes and
we cut them down as they
came down from the north.
We just laid them out.”
receive various services
through it. But only 206,000
people completed formal
training through the act’s
programs last year, accord
ing to the White House.
Bush seeks to double that
figure to 412,000 in one year.
The White House says
Bush’s Jobs for the 21st
Century Initiative,
announced in his State of the
Union address, would move
100,000 more people into job
training.
The $250 million proposal
is already part of Bush’s bud
get proposal for next fiscal
year’s budget, which
Congress is considering. The
soonest the money would
become available would be
October of this year.
The money would expand
the Labor Department’s ini
tiatives to bolster ties
between community col
leges, public work force
agencies and employers. The
result, the administration
says, is that community col
leges produce graduates
with skills in demand by
area employers.
An additional 100,000 peo
ple could receive job training
if the government cut $300
million in red tape and
administrative costs, the
administration officials said,
speaking on condition of
anonymity.
Herbert L White of The, Post
contributed to this report.
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AMAZING
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Reynolds Foundation
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television broadcast
on the 2003 recipients
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Reynolds Awards.
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THE NANCY SUSAN REYNOLDS AWARDS
Montford Point Marines -
Greggs estimates about 600
of them are alive — went on
to prominence in the mili
tary and other endeavors
since Pvt. Howard Perry of
Charlotte broke the color
barrier. The Corps’ first
African American officer was
a Montford Point grad, Lt.
Fred Branch of Charlotte.
Others, like Jacksonville
City Cormdl member Turner
G. Bloimt, are community
leaders. McPhatter, the last
Montford Point grad to retire
from active duty in 1983, is a
minister in St., Louis, Mo.
and San Diego, where he’s
hved for 44 years.
“You can go across the
spectrum in the United ,
States and they’re in promi
nent positions,” Greggs said.
Although all-black units
like the Buffalo Soldiers and
Thskegee Airmen are better-
known, the Montford Point
Marines are beginning to
receive the recognition they
earned. North Carolina and
the Marine Corps honored
them at the CIAA basketball
tournament in February and
the Montford Point museum
is seeking public donations
to acquire artifacts from
their service.
“They were Americans and
they wanted to serve this
grand country,” said
Robinson, a retired gunnery
sergeant. “In essence, what
they did was show the
United States and the
Marines that African
Americans could compre
hend and do their job.”
On the Net:
Montford Point Marines
Association
www.montfordpointfnarines.com
Telephone: (910) 450-7585.
Dr. Kaplan
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