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.
Andre Cailloux, born 1825 in Louisiana, was one of the first black officers in the Union Army to be killed in combat during the Civil War, during an unsuccessful attack on Port Hudson, Louisiana, a Confederate fort.
After he gained his freedom, he became a successful cigar maker and was a well-respected member of the 10,000 "free men of color" in New Orleans.
When the Civil War broke out, Cailloux was commission as a lieutenant in the Confederate regiment the Native Guard, which consisted entirely of free men of color, but the regiment was just for show and the Confederates never supplied them with uniforms or weapons. They disbanded the Guard in February 1862, just two months before New Orleans fell to Union Admiral David Farragut in April.
Union General Benjamin Butler, now headquartered in New Orleans, ordered an all-black Union Army, 1st Louisiana Native Guard in September. Cailloux was comissioned as captain of Company E and his was considered the best in the Guard.
In December 1862, Nathaniel Banks replaced Butler and in May 1863, moved most of his army to surround Port Hudson, a Confederate fort, strategically located on a bend in the Mississippi River. Banks launched a poorly coordinated attack. Cailloux was ordered to lead his company of 100 men into a suicide assault against the Confederate sharpshooters. Cailloux led his troops on several charges, but on the last charge a ball hit his arm and left it hanging by his side. He continued to charge until an artillery shell killed him.
Confederates granted a truce the next day so Union troops could recover their dead, but the rebel sharpshooters kept them from collecting the black casualties. Cailloux's body lay for 47 days until Port Hudson surrendered to Banks July 9, 1863.
His body was retunred to New Orleans and he was honored by thousands of attendees.
In June 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt signed executive order 8802, which prohibited racial discrimination by any government agency. In January 1944, the Navy accelerated 2-month officer training for 16 African-American men at the then-named Camp Robert Smalls in Illinois.
All 16 members but only 12 were commissioned in March 1944 as ensigns:
John Walter Reagan (b.1920-d.1994)
Jesse Walter Arbor (b.1914-d.2000)
Samuel David Jones
Darion Damon Ivy lll (b.1914 - d. 2014)
Graham Edward Martin (b.1917- d.?)
Phillip George Barnes
Reginald Goodwin
James Edward Hair (b.1915-d.1992)
Samuel Edward Barnes
George Clinton Cooper
William Sylvester White
Dennis Denmark Nelson
Charles Byrd Lear (b.1920-d.2006) was appointed as a Warrant Officer.
