>> GEORGIA MILITARY COLLEGE
The family of the late Rev. Horace Ray Sr. will receive a medal in a ceremony at Georgia Military College (GMC) on Saturday, August 19. The presentation is part of an ongoing effort by a national organization to recognize a group of military men who served in the 1940’s.
Ray, who died at age 74 in 2001, was an active member of the Milledgeville community, according to Denese Shinholster, one of nine children.
He was a pastor at St. Mary Baptist Church for more than 20 years, a member of the GMC Board of Trustees for five years, on the City of Milledgeville’s Zoning Appeals Board, and a poll manager for Baldwin County’s Board of Elections for many years.
Ray was also a United States Marine for a short time. He was among 20,000 Black Marines who trained at Camp Montford Point, near Jacksonville, N.C., from 1942-49.
Shinholster said her father enlisted in the Marines in the 1940’s and received an Honorable Discharge in early 1946. He returned home then due to the illness and death of his mother.
Tony Price of Warner Robins is familiar with the story of Ray and hundreds of other Blacks who served in the Marines and trained at Camp Montford Point. He is a chapter president of the National Montford Point Marine Association, a nationwide group formed specifically to keep the story of this group of soldiers alive.
“The Montford Point Marines were the first Black Americans to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps after President Franklin Roosevelt issued an executive order establishing the Fair Employment Practices Commission in June 1941,” Price said.
“On February 19, 1945, Black Marines of the 8th Ammunition Company and the 36th Depot Company landed on the island of Iwo Jima. The largest number of Black Marines to serve in combat during World War II took part in the seizure of Okinawa, with approximately 2,000 seeing action.”
Congress in 2012 recognized all those who served out of Camp Montford Point during the 1940s.
“The Congressional Gold Medal was presented collectively to the Montford Point Marines in a ceremony held in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in 2012,” Price said. “The Gold Medal, authorized by Public Law 112-59 and struck by the United States Mint, was awarded to the Montford Point Marines in recognition of their personal sacrifice and service during the period 1942-49.”
That Act of Congress detailed the events surrounding the president’s executive order and the role of both the Marines and the Montford Point Marine Association, reading in part “… On August 26, 1942, Howard P. Perry of Charlotte, N.C., was the first Black private to set foot on Montford Point.”
Price, a 22-year veteran of the Marine Corps himself, says the association has two primary purposes.
“The National Montford Point Marine Association has 29 active chapters across the county that work hard to share the story of these men in an effort to preserve the legacy of their service to this nation,” Price said. “We also endeavor to identify each and every one of the remaining Montford Pointers or their surviving family members in order for them to receive the recognition that they have earned in the form of this Congressional Gold Medal.”
Shinholster said her father was always proactive, and that approach led him to join the military.
“His confidence in God and the attitude that he had to serve his pride, and his desire to be one of the first is what led him to enlist in the Marine Corps during the time when the draft was instituted during World War II,” she said.
“This was a time when Negroes were previously not allowed to enlist in that branch of service. He had to serve his country so, he took on the challenge pretty much like he did everything else in life, with a dedication to hard work and sacrifice.”
Though Ray did not see any combat action while in the Corps, his daughter said he dedicated his life to helping others facing adversity, particularly young males.
“He took up a lot of time not only with his own kids, but all the young men who lived in Hamp’s Brown Bottom, River Hill, and ‘The Cut’,” Shinholster said. “He was a mentor to a lot of children long before mentoring was a thing to do.
Though there were nine children, the home of Ray and his wife, Lorene, always had others there.
“In our house, there was always someone else,” Shinholster said. “My parents were just that way. If there was someone else in the neighborhood who needed to eat or needed something, there was always something for someone else to have. We never knew what it was like to not be looking after someone else in the neighborhood.”
Shinholster said her father always taught his children about respect, doing what was right, and being an example.
“He would say, “There is nobody in the world that is any better than you. But you are no better than anyone else.” I will never forget that,” she said.
The Saturday ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. in the historic Legislative Chamber of Georgia Military College.