John Earl Rudder, born October 4, 1924 in Paducah, Kentucky, became the first African American to be commissioned into the regular United States Marine Corps. Frederick C. Branch became an officer in the Marine Corps Reserve in 1946.
He enlisted into the Marines and served during WWII. After the war, he graduated from the Naval Reserve Officer's Training Corps. He received his commission as 2nd Lieutenant in the USMC, May 28, 1948. He entered the Marine Corps' Basic School at the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia in August, but resigned in 1949.
The FBI put him under long-term surveillance, suspecting him as being a communist. Rudder moved to Washington DC and became activists, protesting war and discrimination.
I had a lot of trouble finding any images or videos of Rudder, so I couldn't find any more information after 1967. He passed away in 2006 in Paducah, Kentucky.
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