Wall of 20,000 Stars

“Defining Moments” for "People's Agenda"

By Eric Stradford, U.S. Marine Corps, Retired

AMWS, April 11, 2016, Atlanta – Conveners for the National Black Political Convention, planned for June 9-12, are forging common vision for building a wall. 

Outreach across a diverse spectrum of political “drathers” seek to shape the “peoples agenda” for a more perfect union.

At a time when so many Americans are outraged about walls, borders and barriers, members of the Montford Point Marine Association are” fixed on building a Wall of 20,000 Stars.  They’re calling on political and religious conventions to consider their “fight for the right to fight” as an asset in countering generational threats on Black lives.

More than 20,000 Montford Point Marines loyally served America in the face of prejudice and discrimination, participating in many of the most important battles of the Pacific, Korea and Vietnam. They made history, and paved the way for generations to come.

On 23 November 2011, President Obama signed into law, legislation to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the Montford Point Marines.  The Congressional Gold Medal was Awarded to 740 Original Montford Point Marines. The medal serves as a fitting symbol honoring the legacy of Black Marines and the effect of Executive Order #8802 which allowed Blacks to be recruited in the United States Marine Corps. 

The Montford Point Marine Memorial, funded through a $1.8 million project, marks a milestone for modeling social innovation at a defining moment in American history.  The Voting Rights Act, to which the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a serious blow last year, and the continuous income lag African-Americans face headline an agenda calling for changes to law enforcement as well as a seemingly diminishing value of Black American lives.

United States Marines have made their mark on history by breaking down barriers – from social injustice at home to the injustice of enemies abroad.  Walls, be they metaphoric or literal, memorialize defining moments of a past too often left festering somewhere beneath sheets of conflict and compromise.  The poet Robert Frost penned a paradox of such literal and metaphorical walls, in his anthology, “Mending Wall.”

Before I built a wall I’d ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out,

And to whom I was like to give offence.

The Montford Point Marines are seeking to partner with political, faith and business leaders in modeling social innovation.  They add value to vision as recipients of the Congressional Gold Medal.

If you would like to provide leadership in a Montford Point demonstration on social innovation, please contact:

Eric Stradford, GySgt, USMC Retired

678-523-4479