Marines prepare for action. Breaking a tradition of 167 years, the U.S. Marine Corps started enlisting Negroes on June 1, 1942. The first class of 1,200 Negro volunteers began their training three months later as members of the 51st Composite Defense Battalion at Montford Point, a section of the 200-square mile Marine Base, Camp Lejeune, at New River, North Carolina. Among the outstanding Negroes in the original group of Negro Marines is Private First Class Walker Manley, formerly organist of the Christian Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, and a demonstrator for the Hammond Organ Company, who is now post organist at Camp Lejeune. In addition to being organist for the Montford Point chapel, he is also organist for several of the chapels where white enlistees worship. Sourced from the Library of Congress.