Significance of the Montford Point Camps Nos. 2 and 2A Historic District

    In response to the rapid mobilization demanded by World War II, the Marine Corps erected camps for advanced or secondary training in addition to recruit training.  Considered temporary installations, camps typically featured less substantial, temporary structures, such as canvas tents, fiberboard huts, steel Quonsets, or one- or two-story wood-frame buildings.  At the Montford Point Camps Nos. 2 and 2A, one of a series of camps erected at Montford Point to house and train new African-American recruits and post-boot camp trainees following a policy of strict segregation, the Marine Corps utilized semipermanent, clay tile block construction.  The camps followed the composition of the battalion training unit, similar to the regimental units at Hadnot Point, which in its most elemental form consisted of barracks and an associated mess hall.  At Montford Point Camps Nos. 2 and 2A, the barracks consisted of individual platoon buildings.  Marines undergoing training at Camp No. 2 as part of the Messman’s Branch occupied platoon barracks along Company Street West; ammunition and depot company trainees were housed in the barracks located along Company Street East.  White officers and special enlisted personnel were accommodated in the adjacent Camp No. 2A.  The camps also possessed battalion administrative and support facilities, including a headquarters, a post exchange, warehouses, an officers’ mess, an enlisted mess, and segregated washroom facilities.  Physically separate from the main Hadnot Point area, Montford Point was chosen by Marine officials for the training and housing of African-American recruits in order to maintain more easily the strict segregation of white and African-American Marines required at that time and to limit potential for racial disturbances. 

    Documenting these significant historical themes related to the “Training Unit” within the historic context “The Black Marine Training Experience, Montford Point,” the Montford Point Camps Nos. 2 and 2A Historic District is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.  Built between 1942 and 1943 in order to house and train the Marine Corps’ first African-American enlistees for the Fifty-first and Fifty-second Composite Defense Battalions, as well as 63 combat-support companies, the Montford Point Camps Nos. 2 and 2A relate directly to the Marine Corps’ primary mission during World War II, providing Marines with the skills and instruction necessary for conducting war.  The Camps are also directly associated with the recruitment and training of the first African-Americans to enter the Marine Corps.  In addition, the Camps reflect the hierarchical organizational structure of the battalion-group training unit composed of barracks, mess halls, warehouses, and associated administration and support structures.  Established in response to the Marines’ policy of providing identical but separate facilities for white and black recruits, the Montford Point Camps Nos. 2 and 2A Historic District is also eligible for the National Register as a distinctive built environment reflecting and reinforcing military organization and hierarchy.