" As writer/director of the documentary "The Marines of Montford Point, Fighting for Freedom," I would like to say that I am pleased to see this piece about the nation's first black Marines continues to be shown on public television stations throughout the nation.

Archibald Mosely, one of those first black Marines who trained at Montford Point, a segregated facility at Camp Lejeune, NC, came to Wilmington, NC, to be interviewed for the film. He was accompanied by his wife and his daughter, a lawyer, if I remember correctly. It was a pleasure to meet the three of them.

Mr. Mosley is one of the "stars" of the film. A participant in the invasion of Iwo Jima who later went into Nagasaki soon after the Japanese surrender, he was a wonderful interviewee, full of meaningful stories of his service in the Marine Corps and the discrimination he and his fellow African Marines faced, both from within the Corps and from civilians.

Mr. Mosley is a man who has served his country well, both as a Marine and as a civilian. He always kept his faith in his country's ideals while working to see those ideals translated into reality. Of the 60 mem interviewed for this project, he was the only one to thank his wife on camera for her role in helping him readjust to civilian life after the horrors of a brutal war in the Pacific. Meeting and interviewing him was one of the highlights of my professional career.


Melton McLaurin
Emeritus Professor of History
UNC Wimington "