Seated, from left, are Rory Jackson, Sidney Jackson, Janice Harris Jackson and Kathryn Helms Harris, joined by members of the National Montford Point Marine Association and the U.S. Marine Corps, as well as a U.S. Marine service dog, at the Aug. 1 award ceremony.
ORANGE, NJ — Members of the National Montford Point Marine Association assembled in Orange on Aug. 1 for a solemn ceremony awarding a posthumous Congressional Gold Medal to Newark native Matthew Edward Harris. Harris served in the segregated ranks of the U.S. Marine Corps from 1943 to 1946 in Okinawa in the Pacific Theater.
The Montford Point Marine Association is a nonprofit military veterans’ organization that honors the legacy of the first black Americans to serve in the United States Marine Corps. The organization takes its name from Camp Montford Point, located in Jacksonville, N.C., where the first black U.S. marines were trained from 1942 to 1949. The National Montford Point Marine Association was chartered in Philadelphia in 1965.
Members of the Kenneth Rollock New Jersey Chapter No. 45 of the association attended the Aug. 1 program, celebrating Harris’ service and the continued effort to award the valorous actions of black marines, who had previously gone unrecognized.
Harris’ widow, Kathryn Helms Harris, 99, received the medal on her husband’s behalf, joined by daughter Janice Harris Jackson, son-in-law Sidney Jackson and grandson Rory Jackson.
A documentary film was shown at the ceremony, including remarks by Rollock, for whom the chapter is named. Rollock’s remarks addressed his experiences fighting in World War II and serving in the military while it was segregated; he and his fellow marines were considered among the toughest of the military ranks, but were separated from white troops and mistreated and subjected to discrimination.
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