The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories

Personal narratives collection [of the U.S. Marine Corps]

Repository: U.S. Marine Corps Archives and Special Collections

Collection Description (CRHP): This collection consists of more than 20,000 recordings (mainly audio) as well as transcripts on the U.S. Marine Corps from World War II to the present. It includes a recorded interview of Pvt Elmer Bowen, a white man who discusses his service as a drill instructor for the first African American Marine unit at Montford Point.

Access Copy Note: The recording of Bowen is in audio cassette format and is not transcribed.

Digital Status: Partial

Extent: circa 200 linear feet (transcripts; circa 20,000 recordings)

Language: English

Related Archival Items: The USMC Special Collections and Archives also includes:

--A separate oral history collection

--John R. Griffin personal narrative: a written narrative of the author's experiences as an African American Marine in World War II

--Montford Point Marine Black History Month (VHS tape). It consists of a 30 minute panel discussion with World War II era veterans who were Montford Point Marines, but the video is undated and incomplete. The discussion centers mainly on wartime experiences and less about what it meant to be a black Marine in WWII.

--A yearbook of the Montford Point Marines (ca. 1943)

--Commemorative book of the Montfort Point Marines (1942-1949)

Interviewees: Elmer Bowen

Rights (CRHP): Contact the repository which holds the collection for information on rights

Subjects:

African American soldiers
Korean War, 1950-1953
United States. Marine Corps
Vietnam War, 1961-1975
World War, 1939-1945
World War, 1939-1945--Participation, African American

Genres:

Interviews
Sound recordings
Transcripts
Videorecordings